Jamie Walker; 1/9/09
Harrowing new accounts of children suffering in mandatory detention have triggered calls for a royal commission into Australia’s immigration enforcement system. A new book, Human Rights Overboard, promises to reopen old wounds - even though Kevin Rudd has guaranteed that children will never again be held in immigration detention. Using the first-hand accounts of former child detainees and their parents, the book details the impact of mandatory detention on boatpeople and other unlawful entrants before the policy was watered down. A boy, 3, was so unhappy that he “executed” his toy truck with a length of string. “He said to his mother, ‘I have killed my truck because it is tired of being sad’,” according to one witness’s account.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24271810-2702,00.html
Unwarranted cruelty
Chris Goddard, Susie Latham & Linda Brisk man; 1/9/08
There have been highs and lows, heroes and villains, in Australia’s treatment of refugees. In recent years, the heroes have been hard to find. This is why, in Human Rights Overboard, published this week, we are calling for a royal commission into every aspect of immigration policy. During the 1970s, thousands of Vietnamese arrived in Australia by boat. The country responded with humanity. In 1992, the Keating Labor government set in train a process that was to lead to Australia displaying a darker side. A system of mandatory detention was established, with asylum-seekers locked up without trial. With the introduction by the Howard government of temporary protection visas, the Tampa incident and the excision of Australian territory from our migration zone, refugees were treated increasingly inhumanely. They were demonised by policies and practices that were largely - and shamefully - supported by both sides of parliament.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24272004-7583,00.html
Tags: Australia, Children, Refugees and Migrants