13th May, 2004
The National Council of Churches in Australia has backed calls for children to be released from Australian immigration detention centres within a month after a new report found they have suffered “numerous and repeated” breaches of their rights.

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Inquiry found the mandatory detention system breached the UN Convention on Rights of the Child and that the Government’s failure to act on mental health recommendations to remove children from the centres amounted to “cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment”.

Human Rights Commissioner Dr Sev Ozdowski called for all children to be released with their families and for steps to be taken to ensure that “no other child who arrives in Australia ever suffers under this system again”.

In a statement, the NCCA backed the inquiry’s recommendation that all children be released within a month, saying the report exposed disturbing cases of repeated child suicide and self mutilation attempts and others of children watching as their parents jumped from roofs onto razor wire or slashing and hanging themselves.

“These are refugee children who have often experienced horrific torture and subsequent trauma,” said James Thomson of the NCCA’s Refugee Program.

“Many have been made to witness the rape, torture and killings of their parents, brothers or sisters. They are extremely vulnerable and to detain them is simply cruel.”

The Federal Government has rejected the report’s findings and recommendations, saying it took its obligations to children in immigration detention “very seriously”.

                                                                                                                        - DAVID ADAMS