tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/children-in-detention-14889/articlesChildren in detention – The Conversation2023-03-29T19:03:59Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2017832023-03-29T19:03:59Z2023-03-29T19:03:59ZWe provided health care for children in immigration detention. This is what we found<p>Australia’s immigration policies allow for indefinite locked detention, including for children and families. Detention is mandatory for people arriving without a valid visa – all those who arrived by boat between 2009 and 2013 were held in Immigration Detention Centres in Australia, or in Australian-contracted detention in Nauru or Papua New Guinea (PNG).</p>
<p>Australian detention numbers peaked in mid-2013, with 2,000 children detained at this time. By mid-2014, the average duration of detention exceeded 400 days. </p>
<p>While the last children were released from locked detention at the end of 2018, Australian law and policy still mandate detention for children arriving without visas. While the government refers to “held” or “locked” “detention”, to be plain, these children were imprisoned for seeking asylum.</p>
<p>We have just published a study describing the health of asylum-seeker children who experienced detention attending our Refugee Health Clinic over the <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0282798">past ten years</a>. </p>
<p>Our team has been seeing refugee children for more than 20 years. We have extensive experience in refugee health, forensic medicine and child development, but nothing prepared us for the complexity of looking after these children.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/uk-moves-to-copy-australias-cruel-asylum-seeker-policy-and-it-will-have-the-same-heavy-human-toll-201390">UK moves to copy Australia's cruel asylum-seeker policy – and it will have the same heavy human toll</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Trauma, mental illness, lack of protection</h2>
<p>Our cohort of 277 patients comprised 239 children who had been detained, including 31 infants born in detention, and another 38 children born after release to families who experienced detention. </p>
<p>There were 79 children from families who had been detained on Nauru/PNG, 47 children had been detained offshore. Most children had spent time in at least three different Australian detention facilities.</p>
<p>The duration of locked detention ranged from a few months to more than five years. Children sent to Nauru/PNG were detained for longer (typically three to five years) than those held in Australia (typically around one year), and many of this group remain in community detention.</p>
<p>The experience of these children was traumatic. They arrived with trauma – 62% had experienced major trauma before or during their journey to Australia, 8% had experienced the death of an immediate family member. They then experienced trauma in detention. They were exposed to self-harm, suicide attempts and violence – in unrelated adults and within their own families. </p>
<p>One in five children were separated from a parent in detention, often for weeks or months, and young children were left alone in detention while their parents were hospitalised. More than half the cohort had parents with mental illness, this reached 86% in the Nauru/PNG cohort, and 21% of these children had parents requiring psychiatric admission.</p>
<p>The trauma and deprivation of immigration detention had profound impact on children’s health. Two-thirds had a mental health problem (most commonly anxiety, depression and/or post-traumatic stress disorder) and 75% presented with developmental concerns. Child protection issues were common – 19% required child protection notification and 8% were referred for sexual assault concerns in detention.</p>
<p>Protective systems were limited or absent. Almost half the children had interrupted education in detention. Schooling was unavailable or extremely limited for most children on Christmas Island for long periods. In Melbourne, within 20km of our hospital, school-aged children were not enrolled in school, often for months.</p>
<h2>No health screening or follow-ups</h2>
<p>While basic medical services were provided in detention, health screening was effectively absent – both in detention, and in the community in Victoria. </p>
<p>Only 1% of children had a recommended health screen before being seen in our service and only 29% of children had received routine childhood immunisation. We saw children with severe mental health, developmental and medical diagnoses that had not been recognised in detention.</p>
<p>In the early stages, there were some children seen once, who were transferred to another detention centre before their review appointment and never seen again. Families attended clinic with multiple guards, and were often late, completely missing their appointment time, despite the detention centre being notified well in advance. </p>
<p>Parents were frequently incapacitated by their own mental illness. We saw parents with severe depression, catatonic and psychotic features, and witnessed profoundly disordered attachment. Often it was difficult for them to even tell us what had happened to them and their children and what symptoms they were experiencing. In some cases, we admitted children directly to hospital, for immediate safety or medical concerns. </p>
<p>Documentation was unavailable, and we spent hours chasing paperwork, painstakingly piecing together health records for families, and notifying the detention health providers and the Department of Home Affairs of the issues.</p>
<h2>Precarious migration status is traumatising too</h2>
<p>We had not anticipated detention could, or would, last for years, or that we would still be seeing these children in 2023. </p>
<p>After release from detention, most children experienced improvements in family function, wellbeing and mental health. However, short-term bridging visas precluded parents working for years, and in many families, financial stress has impacted housing and food security. </p>
<p>The impact of detention, years of precarious migration status and trauma is ongoing, and many individuals in families in the Nauru cohort remain extremely unwell. These children have now been here nearly ten years – meaning some have entered and almost completed schooling. </p>
<p>The transition to permanent residency will be life-changing for the families detained in Australia, but deeply distressing for those sent offshore, who do not have access to this pathway.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/are-doctors-ethically-obliged-to-keep-at-risk-children-out-of-detention-49047">Are doctors ethically obliged to keep at-risk children out of detention?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What has to happen</h2>
<p>Our research provides clinical evidence for the harm to children from Australian immigration detention, migration law, and related policies. </p>
<p>Governments must avoid detaining children and families – in Australia, and in other countries. It is unsafe and harms children. </p>
<p>We urge a compassionate approach to resolving the immigration status of these children and families, including those sent offshore to Nauru or PNG, that also recognises the impact of time.</p>
<p>These children have grown up in Australia, their identity is now Australian, and we should support them as children and young people in Australia.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/3-types-of-denial-that-allow-australians-to-feel-ok-about-how-we-treat-refugees-186294">3 types of denial that allow Australians to feel OK about how we treat refugees</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201783/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shidan Tosif is a paediatrician and researcher at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, University of Melbourne and Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Georgia Paxton has provided independent advice to the Department of Home Affairs from 2013.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hamish Graham is a paediatrician-researcher at the University of Melbourne, MCRI, and Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne.</span></em></p>Our new study describes the health effects of detention on children, and the clinical results are alarming.Shidan Tosif, Honorary Clinical Associate Professor, The University of MelbourneGeorgia Paxton, Associate Professor of Paediatrics , Murdoch Children's Research InstituteHamish Graham, Associate professor International Child Health; Paediatrician, Murdoch Children's Research InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1887762022-11-24T07:10:25Z2022-11-24T07:10:25ZAutism and ADHD: the youth justice system is harming neurodivergent children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495086/original/file-20221114-11-7g5ay5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5982%2C2559&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sad-preteen-boy-sitting-alone-chair-1714946425">SewCream/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Neurodivergent children are disproportionately represented in the youth justice system in England. This includes those with conditions including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and speech, language and communication needs.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/sites/crimeandjustice.org.uk/files/PSJ%20226%20July%202016.pdf">Research across a range of countries suggests</a> that 15% of young people in custody are autistic, as opposed to between 0.6% and 1.2% in the general population. This research found that between 60% and 90% of young people in custody met the diagnostic criteria for communication disorders. </p>
<p>What’s more, many children in the youth justice system <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281287992_Neurodisability_in_the_youth_justice_system_recognising_and_responding_to_the_criminalisation_of_neurodevelopmental_impairment">will not have been assessed</a> and diagnosed, or may not meet the criteria for a clinical diagnosis. </p>
<h2>A stressful environment</h2>
<p>As part of my research, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666353822000327">I carried out interviews</a> with 19 neurodivergent children who were or had recently been in a young offenders institution in England. The stressful, loud, aggressive, chaotic and harmful environment of custody triggered neurodivergent children. It leads to behaviour which could result in them being labelled as problematic by staff. My research suggests that the youth justice system, and specifically custody, is deeply harmful for neurodivergent children.</p>
<p>A recent <a href="https://www.autism.org.uk/">National Autistic Society</a> report on the <a href="https://nas.chorus.thirdlight.com/link/n4bhhjjwhbxk-as0nu1/@/preview/1?o">experiences of autistic teenagers</a> in the youth justice system in England has concluded that system-wide change is needed to address how autistic young people enter and are treated in the criminal justice system. </p>
<p>The report found that at police stations, 46% of families said they were not provided with the <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.5042/tldr.2010.0403/full/html">appropriate adult</a> they were entitled to to advise and advocate for them as needed. They thought the communication style during police interview was <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1525740114520962">challenging</a>, often because clear language was not used and extra time was not given to process information.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1578047132241604608"}"></div></p>
<p>Families also reported that in court, they often did not receive adjustments like being given extra time to process information. <a href="https://www.choiceforum.org/docs/noonereport.pdf">Research suggests</a> that <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6417/1ad9757e64c10c065205d1e885e24fb443a7.pdf">autistic young people</a> may have reduced understanding of court processes, why they are in court, or the implications of legal decisions.</p>
<p>Some children may be given community sentences, which involves being supervised in the community by a member of the youth justice team for a period of time. They are <a href="https://youthendowmentfund.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CBT-Technical-Report-.pdf">often required</a> to take part in therapy focused on cognitive behavioural techniques (CBT) to address “offending behaviour”. </p>
<h2>Inappropriate methods</h2>
<p>This approach may well <a href="https://www.aic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-05/tandi435.pdf">be inappropriate</a> for many neurodivergent children. CBT requires these children to understand what their thoughts and feelings were before they became involved in a behaviour, and to be able to discuss these feelings with a youth justice worker. It relies on a level of language competence to pinpoint how thoughts and feelings may have contributed to an act. This may not be possible for a neurodivergent child. </p>
<p>For some children, their interaction with the youth justice system leads to imprisonment. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666353822000327">My research</a> and <a href="https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmicfrs/publications/neurodiversity-in-the-criminal-justice-system/">research by others</a> suggests that busy and noisy buildings, cell sharing and changes to daily routine will be <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666353822000327#bib19">particularly distressing</a> and harmful for neurodiverse child prisoners. </p>
<p>Neurodivergent young people <a href="http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/old_files/Documents/No%20One%20Knows%20report-2.pdf">may also</a> be <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319956315_Improving_the_management_of_prisoners_with_autistic_spectrum_disorders_ASD">more likely to</a> be restrained, isolated, and segregated, such as being left alone in their cells. I found that this has a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666353822000327">negative impact</a> on some <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/SC-11-2020-0040">children’s mental health</a>, leading to incidents of self-harm.</p>
<p>The isolation, exclusion, and stigmatisation of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352464219304018">neurodivergent children</a> permeates the youth justice system. A 2019 <a href="https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3899429?ln=en#record-files-collapse-header">general comment</a> from the UN committee on the rights of the child stated that neurodivergent children “should not be in the child justice system at all”.</p>
<h2>Understanding triggers</h2>
<p>Front line staff, including police, prison officers, social workers and youth justice workers lack knowledge about how to identify and work effectively with neurodivergent children. Staff need to be trained on how to communicate appropriately with neurodivergent children. This includes understanding how a child’s environment could be stressful and trigger challenging behaviours, and how to ensure that they are worked with and valued as an individual.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666353822000327">in my research</a>, I found that children with ADHD were often punished in custody for “disruptive behaviour”. The disruptive behaviour they displayed, though, was in many cases typical behaviour for people with ADHD when in a stressful environment such as custody. They <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/SC-11-2020-0040/full/html">repeatedly pressed</a> the buzzer on their cell door, had verbal altercations with other children or staff, or refused to return to their cell when instructed to do so.</p>
<p>There is also currently insufficient screening of children for <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666353822000327#bib19">neurodivergent conditions</a>. Having routine screening as part of their entry into the youth justice system would ensure that children are identified early on and changes can be made to ensure their needs are met. As it stands, the youth justice system is woefully failing neurodivergent children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188776/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne-Marie Day does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Better screening when young people enter the youth justice system would help identify those who are neurodivergent.Anne-Marie Day, Criminology Lecturer, Keele UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1888782022-09-06T12:38:03Z2022-09-06T12:38:03ZPolice response to 5-year-old boy who left school was problematic from the start<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481899/original/file-20220830-27281-59qv8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=21%2C0%2C7263%2C4838&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Police suggested the 5-year-old boy was a 'beast' who needed to be put in a 'crate.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/emergency-lights-on-a-us-police-car-royalty-free-image/1327894263?adppopup=true">SDI Productions via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When police found a <a href="https://bethesdamagazine.com/2022/01/17/two-years-after-police-berated-5-year-old-boy-some-county-officials-want-to-settle-familys-lawsuit/">kindergarten boy who had walked off from school</a> after attacking his teacher and classmates, it didn’t take them long to start guessing about the cause of his behavior.</p>
<p>“He’s bad because no one’s correcting it,” one of the officers who brought the boy back to school is seen saying on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tliBSuTuFc0">police body-camera footage</a> of the incident, which took place in Silver Spring, Maryland, in 2020.</p>
<p>The officers asked the boy if he got spankings at home – and later told his mother she should beat him.</p>
<p>But when I first saw the video, I knew this case was much deeper than just one of a boy being bad or playing hooky from school. As an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=2T-HxYIAAAAJ&hl=en">expert in behavioral health, child trauma and school safety</a>, I can see from the video that the boy is likely experiencing emotional and psychological distress before the officer speaks with him. His behavior, posture and voice – hanging his head low, shoulders hunched and murmuring – indicate something is wrong. </p>
<p>The police seem indifferent, and when school officials get involved later on, they also don’t take steps to address what is, to me, clearly a child’s mental health emergency. To me, this is a case that typifies the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.03.008">uneven</a> and heavy-handed ways that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15388220.2016.1263797">police respond to school kids in crises</a>. These responses <a href="https://justicepolicy.org/research/policy-brief-2020-the-presence-of-school-resource-officers-sros-in-americas-schools/">disproportionately lead to arrests of Black and Hispanic children</a>. </p>
<p>To a trained person, <a href="https://www.samhsa.gov/child-trauma/recognizing-and-treating-child-traumatic-stress">a more thoughtful response</a> to the 5-year-old’s distress would have included speaking to him in a respectful and helpful way. For example, the <a href="https://cdphe.colorado.gov/engage-calm-distract">Pediatric Emotional Distress Reference System</a> uses the method called “engage, calm and distract” to respond to a child in crisis. <a href="https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/February-2018/The-Problem-with-Yelling">Yelling at and berating a child</a>, particularly during a crisis, is likely to escalate the behavior and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12143">may cause long-term psychological damage</a>. </p>
<p>Instead, the officers referred to the boy as a <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/01/25/maryland-cops-assaulted-berated-5-year-old-boy-lawsuit/">little “beast,” a “violent little thing” and a “fool” who needed to be put in a “crate.”</a></p>
<h2>Conflicting messages</h2>
<p>I can also see from the video that the boy’s mother is likely distressed trying to help her son and not lose her job in the process of constantly having to come to the school for his misbehavior. To someone who is properly trained, a response that prompts the suggestion to contact a local family agency to receive crisis services and a behavioral health referral is warranted.</p>
<p>On the video, she states that she overheard one of the officers ask, “What’s going on at home?” when she was contacted by phone to calm her son down. Not long after she showed up at the school, she removed her son’s shirt to reveal his bare back in order to prove to the officers that she wasn’t physically abusing the boy.</p>
<p>“We believe it’s the exact opposite,” a male officer says on the video.</p>
<p>“Yeah, we want you to beat him,” a female officer chimed in, the video shows.</p>
<p>Both of the officers were Black, as were the mother and her son.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tliBSuTuFc0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Video shows police berating the 5-year-old boy.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the mother explained that on a previous occasion, she had said that she would beat her son when they got home – and school officials who overheard had warned her that they are mandated by law to report even the possibility of child abuse to state officials.</p>
<p>The police, meanwhile, assured the mother she can hit her child. The video shows a male officer saying, “As law enforcement officers … you can, most definitely – as a matter of fact we applaud the fact that you will please beat your kid.”</p>
<p>Then one of the officers placed one cuff on the boy’s tiny wrist with his hands behind his back to demonstrate what will happen if he doesn’t learn to control his behavior.</p>
<p>“You know what these are for?” the male officer asked the boy. “These are for people who don’t want to listen and don’t know how to act.”</p>
<h2>Costly consequences</h2>
<p>In the end, it wasn’t the mother’s actions, but those of the police officers, that were questioned. The mother <a href="https://bethesdamagazine.com/2022/07/08/trial-scheduled-for-case-that-alleges-police-assaulted-harassed-5-year-old-boy/">filed a lawsuit</a> on behalf of her son. The case was <a href="https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/OPI/Resources/Files/2022/Release-and-Settlement-redacted.pdf">settled in August 2022 for US$275,000</a>. Of that amount, $220,000 was ordered to be paid on behalf of the two officers who were seen in the video berating the boy, and $55,000 on behalf of the school system. The money will be put in a trust that the boy can access as an adult.</p>
<p>Without the video, it’s hard to see how the case would have resulted in a settlement of any sort. It would have boiled down to a troubled 5-year-old boy’s recollection versus the memory of several adult authority figures. </p>
<p>But there was a video. And it captures how fraught the encounter between the boy and the police officers was from the very start.</p>
<p>“Why are you out of school?” the male officer asks the boy after finding him near a car several blocks away. “Are you an adult?”</p>
<p>He proceeds to say, “Get back over there now!” and grabs the child by the arm. The officer asks whether the child has been hurt and says he needs to return to school. At this point, the boy begins to cry and say, “No, no, no,” to which the officer responds, “Get in or we are gonna have problems … you are bad … this is why people need to beat their kids.” </p>
<h2>Challenging behaviors</h2>
<p>If police and educators don’t figure out better ways to respond to children in crisis, I predict they will face similar legal actions like the lawsuit they faced in the Maryland case. </p>
<p>More and more police departments are being required to ensure that their <a href="https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/research-body-worn-cameras-and-law-enforcement">officers wear body cameras</a>. And it is inevitable that officers will have encounters with children and families in crisis. </p>
<p>Adults often have trouble responding in helpful ways to children with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/10634266020100040401">challenging behaviors</a>.</p>
<p>But there are <a href="https://www.samhsa.gov/child-trauma/understanding-child-trauma">several evidence-based approaches</a> to dealing with a child in crisis that are likely to be more effective than the heavy-handed approach taken with this boy. Examples of evidence-based approaches include assuring the child that he is safe, reassuring the child that he does not need to feel guilty or bad about any feelings or thoughts, and seeking the help of a trained professional. </p>
<p>In situations where a child’s behavior is aggressive or harmful, pediatric psychiatric experts recommend <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314514229">de-escalation techniques</a> such as respecting personal space, avoiding provocation, setting clear limits and offering choices of possible actions. </p>
<p>Many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2019.1600590">school staff</a> are <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1185373">trained in these methods</a>, including through a <a href="https://community.asu.edu/content/asu-helps-teachers-learn-how-heal-young-victims">program I developed</a> with a colleague. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-020-09404-z">Similar training programs exist for police officers</a>, especially those who work in schools. But <a href="https://www.law.georgetown.edu/poverty-inequality-center/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2018/05/17_SRO-final-_Acc.pdf">most states do not require</a> even <a href="https://theconversation.com/police-presence-on-school-grounds-poses-potential-risks-to-kids-180476">police permanently stationed in schools</a> to receive specialized training on how to handle youth in crisis.</p>
<p>In addition, there’s not much guidance on what educators should do – or whom they should call – when police respond poorly to a young person in crisis. On the one hand, an educator could have intervened, questioning the officers’ use of force and even calling for a police supervisor to consult with. But it’s also reasonable that a teacher or principal would defer to an officer of the law.</p>
<p>Leaving the school was definitely unsafe for the 5-year-old boy. But it was not appropriate for police to berate the boy, threaten him with handcuffs and suggest his mother beating him would take care of the problem. It was also very concerning that educators stood by and let it happen. To me, this situation raises serious questions about how professionals are responding to children in crisis – and about whether police officers are doing more harm than good in schools.</p>
<p>A judge presiding over the lawsuit against the officers said their behavior toward the boy “was assaultive in nature,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/02/yelling-police-suspended-child/">The Washington Post reported</a> on September 2, 2022.</p>
<p>The article stated that the two officers involved had been “administratively charged with several counts, including neglect of duty and failure to be courteous.”</p>
<p>“They agreed to the proposed punishments,” the newspaper stated, “and the matter was closed.” The female officer was suspended for four weeks and the male officer was suspended for two weeks, according to the newspaper.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188878/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth K. Anthony does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A lawsuit against police and school officials for how they responded to the kindergartner has been settled, but deeper systemic issues remain.Elizabeth K. Anthony, Associate Professor of Social Work, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1622892021-06-08T04:29:27Z2021-06-08T04:29:27ZAs a young child is evacuated from detention, could this see the Biloela Tamil family go free?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404991/original/file-20210608-23-51ixqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A boy holds a poster in support of the Biloela Tamil family at a 2019 rally. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Carrett/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Monday, the image of a small girl in a hospital bed, crying as her big sister gives her a kiss flooded social media feeds.</p>
<p>The girls are Tharunicaa and Kopika Murugappan, the <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and-stats/files/immigration-detention-statistics-31-march-2021.pdf">only two children</a> in immigration detention in Australia. </p>
<p>The photo was released by advocates as three-year-old Tharunicaa was medically evacuated to Perth on Monday evening. She had reportedly been <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/youngest-daughter-of-biloela-tamil-family-medically-evacuated-from-christmas-island">unwell for ten days</a> with high temperatures, vomiting and diarrhoea, as her family called for more medical help.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, family supporter Angela Fredericks <a href="https://7news.com.au/politics/biloela-family-must-be-resettled-mps-c-3043111">told reporters</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It looks like they have said she has untreated pneumonia that led to a blood infection.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While the <a href="https://twitter.com/joshgnosis/status/1402087429692030976?s=20">government denies</a> there were treatment delays, it has once again raised the plight of the Tamil family, who have been detained since 2018.</p>
<h2>Why are the family on Christmas Island?</h2>
<p>Tharunicaa, her parents Priya and Nades and her sister, Kopika, have been in detention on Christmas Island since August 2019.</p>
<p>This followed a Department of Home Affairs attempt to deport the family from a detention centre in Melbourne to Sri Lanka. The deportation was interrupted mid-flight <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-31/tamil-asylum-seeker-family-taken-to-christmas-island-lawyer-says/11467312">after an urgent injunction</a> from the Federal Court. The plane was forced to land in Darwin, and the family was taken to immigration detention on Christmas Island, pending the outcome of their court appeal.</p>
<p>This came after the family had initially settled in the Queensland town of Biloela. Residents welcomed the family and have been actively campaigning for them to come “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-17/tamils-priya-and-nades-murugappan-asylum-seekers/13160708">home to Bilo</a>”. </p>
<h2>Where is their legal fight up to?</h2>
<p>The family has been engaged in legal appeals since 2012. Tharunicaa’s father and mother are both Sri Lankan nationals who arrived in Australia by boat in 2012 and 2013 respectively. </p>
<p>As they arrived without visas, they are considered in law to be “unlawful maritime arrivals.” Although Tharunicaa and six-year-old Kopika were born in Australia, they are also “unlawful maritime arrivals”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-give-visas-to-the-biloela-tamil-family-and-other-asylum-seekers-stuck-in-the-system-155354">It's time to give visas to the Biloela Tamil family and other asylum seekers stuck in the system</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Both parents applied for visas claiming they would be persecuted if they returned to Sri Lanka. Kopika was included in their application. But they <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-biloela-tamil-family-deportation-case-highlights-the-failures-of-our-refugee-system-123685">were refused</a> and appeals to tribunals, courts and the immigration minister were not successful.</p>
<p>Former home affairs minister Peter Dutton <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/using-every-trick-peter-dutton-accuses-detained-biloela-family-of-preventing-deportation">repeatedly said</a> the family is not owed protection. They are part of a caseload who had their claims for refugee status determined under a “fast track” process. The Australian Human Rights Commission found significant issues with the “fast track” process and <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/about/news/commissioners-call-compassionate-approach-tamil-family">has called for a compassionate</a> response to this family. </p>
<h2>Tharunicaa</h2>
<p>However, the family’s applications did not include Tharunicaa. </p>
<p>Current legal action centres around the obligations of the government to consider whether she can apply for a visa in Australia. As Tharunicaa is an “unlawful maritime arrival” she cannot apply for a visa unless the Home Affairs Minister (Andrews) personally intervenes. </p>
<p>Lawyers argue she has a strong claim for protection based on a <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/FCAFC/2021/12.html">range of factors</a> including: the extensive media coverage of the family, the family’s Tamil ethnicity and their “purported” connections to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protesters hold signs in support of the Biloela Tamil family." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404988/original/file-20210608-135198-3nyrsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404988/original/file-20210608-135198-3nyrsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404988/original/file-20210608-135198-3nyrsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404988/original/file-20210608-135198-3nyrsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404988/original/file-20210608-135198-3nyrsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404988/original/file-20210608-135198-3nyrsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404988/original/file-20210608-135198-3nyrsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There have been ongoing protests in support of the family, calling for them to stay in Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julian Smith/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In April 2020, <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-does-the-federal-court-decision-on-the-tamil-asylum-seeker-family-mean-136504">Federal Court Justice Mark Moshinsky ruled</a> Tharunicaa had not given “procedural fairness” when her September 2018 request for permission to apply for a protection visa was rejected. That decision was <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-give-visas-to-the-biloela-tamil-family-and-other-asylum-seekers-stuck-in-the-system-155354">upheld</a> by the Full Court of the Federal Court in February. But further complicating matters, the court also found the immigration minister did not have an obligation to allow her to apply for a visa. </p>
<p>The ongoing litigation means the family will not be removed from Australia any time soon. But it is not clear whether the family or the government will take the next step and go to the High Court.</p>
<h2>What are the ongoing health dangers for the family?</h2>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/am/daughter-of-asylum-seekers-medically-evacuated/13377886">media reports</a>, Tharunicaa had been unwell for ten days and did not get hospital access until this week, despite her families’ requests. As <a href="https://twitter.com/HometoBilo/status/1401788959982710784?s=20">Priya said</a> in a statement</p>
<blockquote>
<p>She has been sick for many days, it took a long time for her to get to the hospital.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs <a href="https://twitter.com/joshgnosis/status/1402087429692030976?s=20">denied</a> there had been any treatment delays. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The minor has been receiving medical treatment and daily monitoring on Christmas Island consistent with medical advice. This has included an IHMS general practitioner and the Christmas Island Hospital.</p>
<p>As soon as the ABF was advised by the treating medical practitioners that the minor required medical treatment in Western Australia, the minor was transferred to a hospital in Western Australia.</p>
<p>The Australian Border Force strongly denies any allegations of inaction or mistreatment of individuals in its care.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Health professionals have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/21/christmas-island-delays-in-medical-transfers-life-threatening-say-doctors">long warned</a> of the difficulties of placing vulnerable people in remote locations such as Christmas Island. While primary care is available, there is poorer access to specialist and complex services. </p>
<p>In 2018, a Queensland coroner <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jul/30/death-asylum-seeker-hamid-kehazaei-preventable-coroner-says">found delays</a> in diagnosing and removing Iranian asylum seeker Hamid Kehazaei from Manus Island directly contributed to his death from septicaemia. </p>
<p>Tharunicaa has come to Perth with her mother, while her her father and sister have been left on Christmas Island. Last year, Priya <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-30/tamil-mother-flown-back-to-christmas-island-detention/12506818">was brought to Perth</a> for treatment of an abdominal condition and had to leave the family behind. </p>
<p>This is a grave concern. There is a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8090905/">substantial body of evidence</a> regarding child trauma to suggest that forced involuntary separation from family will have lasting mental health effects. The splitting up of the family will almost certainly compound existing trauma. Children are particularly vulnerable. </p>
<h2>What can Karen Andrews do?</h2>
<p>Andrews, as the senior minister responsible, is under increasing <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2021/06/08/biloela-family-evacuation-karen-andrews-petition/">public pressure </a> to do more for the family. </p>
<p>Dutton has previously said the <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/scott-morrison-says-exception-for-tamil-family-an-invitation-to-people-smugglers">reason the family was detained on Christmas Island</a> and not the mainland was that it would allow them to be flown back to Sri Lanka without protesters putting Border Force officers in a “difficult position.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Minister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews in the cabinet room." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404987/original/file-20210608-21-a9ad40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404987/original/file-20210608-21-a9ad40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404987/original/file-20210608-21-a9ad40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404987/original/file-20210608-21-a9ad40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404987/original/file-20210608-21-a9ad40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404987/original/file-20210608-21-a9ad40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404987/original/file-20210608-21-a9ad40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Karen Andrews was appointed Minister for Home Affairs in March.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Due to their status as “unlawful maritime arrivals,” only Andrews or Immigration Minister Alex Hawke have the power to allow them to live in the community. This can either be on Christmas Island or on the mainland on bridging visas or in community detention. Andrews <a href="https://minister.homeaffairs.gov.au/KarenAndrews/Pages/interview-fran-kelly-abc-05052021.aspx">recently said</a> she was taking advice on whether she would allow them to live in the community on Christmas Island.</p>
<p>On Tuesday she added the government was “investigating a range of resettlement options”. </p>
<h2>The ‘public interest’</h2>
<p>The minister can grant any detainee a visa if they consider it to be in the “<a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ma1958118/s195a.html">public interest</a>” to do so. </p>
<p>The published guidelines on the exercise of this power states Andrews can grant a visa if a person has particular needs that cannot be properly cared for in a secured detention facility. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/will-new-home-affairs-minister-karen-andrews-bring-a-more-compassionate-approach-158065">Will new Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews bring a more compassionate approach?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In 2013, we were involved in a case with then immigration minister, Scott Morrison. He intervened to release a woman with intellectual disabilities into the community with her family, stating that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/23/morrison-advised-to-move-intellectually-disabled-asylum-seeker-into-community">this was necessary</a> due to her immediate mental health and welfare needs. </p>
<p>The health and welfare of Tharunicaa — at the very least — provides a clear reason to release the family from detention.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162289/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Anne Kenny has previously received sitting fees from the Department of Home Affairs.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicholas Procter has previously received grant funding and sitting fees from the Department of Home Affairs.
This article is part of a series on asylum seeker policy supported by a grant from the Broadley Trust.</span></em></p>Three-year-old Tharunicaa Murugappan’s hospitalisation has once again raised the plight of her family, who have been detained since 2018.Mary Anne Kenny, Associate Professor, School of Law, Murdoch UniversityNicholas Procter, Professor and Chair: Mental Health Nursing, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1424002020-08-06T13:34:20Z2020-08-06T13:34:20ZHow South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe measure up on child offenders<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351084/original/file-20200804-20-74g79o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The best interests of the child require detention to be used as a last resort. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Around the world, hundreds of thousands of children are not free. They are deprived of their liberty in settings such as migration holding camps and criminal justice processes. </p>
<p>According to the United Nations (UN) <a href="https://www.chr.up.ac.za/images/publications/UN_Global_Study/United%20Nations%20Global%20Study%20on%20Children%20Deprived%20of%20Liberty%202019.pdf">Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty</a>, there are about <a href="https://undocs.org/A/74/136">410,000 children</a> detained in the criminal justice system every year, globally. This number excludes those in police custody. In some countries, such as Zimbabwe, information about the number of children in police custody is not easily available.</p>
<p>Children end up in detention when they are accused of committing criminal offences. Legally, children (defined as aged under 18) should not be detained except as a measure of last resort. But in practice children are often detained before and after trial.</p>
<p>We argue that the best interests of the child is a powerful legal principle to ensure that children are only detained as a measure of last resort.</p>
<p>In child justice, the meaning and scope of the best interests of the child are multifaceted. The principle is provided for in terms of the UN <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/ProfessionalInterest/crc.pdf">Convention on the Rights of the Child</a>, ratified by all UN member states except the United States.</p>
<p>It is generally accepted under international children’s rights law that the best interests principle performs multiple functions. It can shape the content of other rights of children in the criminal justice system. It can be directly applied to a specific factual situation. And it can be an interpretative legal principle or a rule of procedure. The flexibility of the principle allows any person, authority or court to tailor its application to the context.</p>
<h2>Best interests of the child principle</h2>
<p>The best interests of the child principle is enshrined in the constitutions of <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/constitution-republic-south-africa-1996">South Africa</a>, <a href="http://kenyalaw.org/kl/index.php?id=398">Kenya</a> and <a href="http://extwprlegs1.fao.org/docs/pdf/zim127325.pdf">Zimbabwe</a>. It requires that in all matters concerning the child, the best interests of that child are of paramount importance. </p>
<p>In practice, courts use the principle to evaluate whether laws and court processes protect the rights of children involved in the justice system. Further, the principle can be used to justify, support or clarify a specific approach to dealing with a matter concerning a child offender.</p>
<p>The right not to be detained, except as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period, aims to protect children from the harmful effects of incarceration. It is based on the understanding that childhood (particularly adolescence) is mostly a period of experimentation and learning. </p>
<p>At that stage of life, children are striving to understand many issues, and their mental capacities are still developing. Given their ability to accept correction, children have a better claim to rehabilitation, reorientation and reintegration. That’s why child offenders should only be sent to prison if there is no other suitable alternative response to the crimes they commit.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-south-african-court-case-reminded-adults-of-the-rights-of-children-142834">How a South African court case reminded adults of the rights of children</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The research</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02587203.2020.1775495">our research</a> we examined legal developments in South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe. We wanted to determine how these countries’ courts interpret the best interests of the child offender to give effect to the right not to be detained – except as a measure of last resort, and for the shortest appropriate period. The choice of countries was informed by a shared legal heritage and the protection of children’s rights in their constitutions.</p>
<p>The study reviewed literature on international children’s rights law, domestic legal instruments and case law. It specifically looked at the legal and policy position on pre-trial and post-conviction detention in each of the selected countries. </p>
<p>We observed that the constitutions of the three countries protect the best interests of the child – and the right not to be detained except as last resort. All criminal justice processes in the three countries should thus comply with constitutional standards on the detention of children. </p>
<p>There is evidence that child justice processes in South Africa comply with the constitutional standards on detention as a measure of last resort. Kenya is following the steps of South Africa, although there is room for improvement.</p>
<p>In Zimbabwe, there is a need for law reform to ensure that criminal justice processes comply with constitutional dictates. But it is worth noting that in some instances courts have been trying to enforce compliance, albeit using different interpretations of the best interests principle, and the right not to be detained except as a measure of last resort. </p>
<h2>Findings</h2>
<p>Firstly, the best interests of the child principle obligates the police to ensure child offenders are not detained in police cells, except as a last resort. During arrests, the police are required to respect the dignity and best interests of the child. </p>
<p>Courts in South Africa and Kenya have made it clear that the police must use child-friendly justice approaches. Some of the measures required by law include allowing the child offender to sleep at home and instructing a parent or guardian to bring her or him to court. But in practice child offenders are always detained in police cells before appearing in court. This is the case in all three countries.</p>
<p>It may be that police lack knowledge of child justice laws. Detaining children may also reflect police attitudes and the belief that children must be punished in order to learn. In Zimbabwe, the treatment of child offenders during arrest or detention in police cells is not documented. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/protection-not-public-shaming-is-the-way-forward-for-child-offenders-66983">Protection, not public shaming, is the way forward for child offenders</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Secondly, the best interests of the child play a central role in sentencing. South African courts have consistently applied the best interests principle and used detention as a measure of last resort. In many instances, courts choose sentencing options that ensure the rehabilitation and reintegration of the child into society.</p>
<p>The appropriateness of an alternative sentence is determined by the seriousness of the offence. A sentence may be, for example, a wholly suspended prison term or community service (provided it does not interfere with the child’s education).</p>
<p>Kenyan courts appear to be following the South African example. They are progressively interpreting the best interests of the child as a special protection mechanism in the context of detention as a measure of last resort. This approach is commendable and ensures that child offenders are given a second chance.</p>
<p>We observed that in Zimbabwe there are differences in the way courts approach cases concerning child offenders. In some instances, judges adhere to the right not to be detained unless there is no other option under the circumstances. But sometimes judges use detention as a <a href="https://zimlii.org/zw/judgment/files/masvingo-high-court/2018/7/2018-zwmsvh-07.pdf">punitive measure against child offenders</a> and as a measure of first resort, without considering the best interests and other less restrictive alternatives. </p>
<p>There is abundant evidence that South Africa and Kenya are doing fairly well in protecting the rights of child offenders. We recommend that Zimbabwean courts, too, should promote the best interests of the child offender through avoiding arbitrary detention in clear violation of constitutional imperatives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142400/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rongedzayi Fambasayi received partial funding from the National Research Foundation of South Africa (Grant No: 115581)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Admark Moyo is a Research Fellow and Project Coordinator at the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria. He carries out research and publishes on children's right. </span></em></p>Given their ability to accept correction, children have a better claim to rehabilitation, reorientation and reintegration.Rongedzayi Fambasayi, Doctoral Researcher: Faculty of Law, North-West UniversityAdmark Moyo, Research Fellow and Project Coordinator, Children's Rights, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1127602019-03-04T03:29:50Z2019-03-04T03:29:50ZThe sounds of Speechless, where words are superfluous<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261553/original/file-20190228-106359-juoa48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Speechless is a Perth Festival co-commission produced by Tura Music.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Toni Wilkinson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Speechless, Perth Festival</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Speechless is the new opera by award-winning composer Cat Hope, co-commissioned by the Perth Festival and Tura New Music. This is Hope’s powerful response to the Australian Human Rights Commission’s 2014 report into <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/asylum-seekers-and-refugees/publications/forgotten-children-national-inquiry-children">children in immigration detention</a>.</p>
<p>Hope created what she describes as a “<a href="https://www.perthfestival.com.au/src/uploads/2019/02/EP_Speechless_8pp_V7_WEB.pdf">graphic score</a>” derived from drawings and graphics extracted from the Report. This system of “animated graphic notation” is explained by <a href="https://www.tura.com.au/the-speechless-score/">Tura</a> as “the representation of music through the use of visual symbols in place of traditional music notation”.</p>
<p>This graphic score serves as both the text and music of the opera. Rather than singing arias as in a conventional opera, the singers make sounds, not words, in response to the notation. The score is read during performance by the musicians through the Decibel New Music Ensemble iPad app.</p>
<p>The result proved to be an absorbing and visceral experience. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261555/original/file-20190228-106353-ecwqha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261555/original/file-20190228-106353-ecwqha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261555/original/file-20190228-106353-ecwqha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261555/original/file-20190228-106353-ecwqha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261555/original/file-20190228-106353-ecwqha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261555/original/file-20190228-106353-ecwqha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1064&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261555/original/file-20190228-106353-ecwqha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1064&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261555/original/file-20190228-106353-ecwqha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1064&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Speechless is the result of a ‘graphic score’ created by Cat Hope.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Toni Wilkinson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The opera took place in the community hall at the Sunset Heritage Precinct, on the banks of the Swan River in Dalkeith. As the performers were miked it is difficult to gauge the acoustics of the hall, but it has a wooden floor and I could feel the vibrations of sound through my feet. </p>
<p>Seating was arranged around a central oval space, with vertical tube lighting and hanging swathes of strongly hued material. </p>
<p>These were later transformed from hanging curtains and wrapped by the performers into what appeared like backpacks, or baggage, weighing down and inhibiting to some degree the movement of some of the soloists, giving them a certain stateliness in their movements. </p>
<p>The featured soloists in the Thursday night performance were soprano Judith Dodsworth, heavy metal band vocalist Karina Utomo, throat singing specialist Sage Pbbbt and Perth soprano Caitlin Cassidy, who substituted for the Iranian singer Tara Tiba who could not be present. All performed with clarity and strength.</p>
<p>The soloists’ voices were ably complemented by a combined community choir of some 30 voices. Their range of ages and physicality provided a rich comment on the diversity of peoples affected by political upheavals and natural catastrophes.</p>
<p>The expressiveness and variations of the sounds served to create empathic emotive resonances. This was even more evident when the soloists could improvise sections based on their own particular vocal practices. </p>
<p>In particular, the guttural roaring of Karina Utomo into a microphone, and the anguished sounds emitted by Sage Pbbbt were evocative of the grief, outrage, fear, and anger that could well be expressed by children in peril.</p>
<p>The choir provided often subtle harmonies and backing sounds to the soloists and the orchestra, composed of the Decibel New Music Ensemble and the Australian Bass Orchestra. As the name implies, only the lower register of the musical scale is utilised – bass notes below middle C. The orchestra was superbly conducted by musical director, Aaron Wyatt.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261551/original/file-20190228-106362-tidhlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261551/original/file-20190228-106362-tidhlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261551/original/file-20190228-106362-tidhlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261551/original/file-20190228-106362-tidhlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261551/original/file-20190228-106362-tidhlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261551/original/file-20190228-106362-tidhlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261551/original/file-20190228-106362-tidhlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261551/original/file-20190228-106362-tidhlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Aaron Wyatt conducted the orchestra for Speechless, who used only bass notes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Toni Wilkinson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This use of these lower registers created sometimes haunting, sometimes cacophonous, visceral waves of sound. At times, these built from a gentle hum into great crescendos of percussion and brass, sending vibrations through one’s body.</p>
<p>In creating such physical resonances on and through the body, this seemed to work more effectively, at least for me, than much of the orchestral music of the Romantic era. However, that was admittedly playing to very different contexts. </p>
<p>Many of the sounds conveyed particular emotions, and towards the end of the performance, the mingling of the voices of the four lead vocalists plus the choir evoked the crying of children. </p>
<p>The performance certainly creates an emotional connection and visceral response to the issue of children in detention, that is arguably far more effective than words on a page, or even dialogue on a stage.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.perthfestival.com.au/src/uploads/2019/02/EP_Speechless_8pp_V7_WEB.pdf">Hope</a> speaks of the power of music being in its abstractness. She states that it is not her intention to speak on behalf of others, rather this work constitutes her personal response to the issue.</p>
<p>This was an excellent opera-theatre experience, creating a nuanced commentary on an emotive issue without the need to preach to the audience. The visceral quality of the sound and the power of the emotions expressed through voice and instruments amply made a point about children in immigration detention. Speechless allows their plight to be heard. Words were superfluous.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.perthfestival.com.au/event/speechless">Speechless</a> was performed as part of the Perth Festival from February 26 to March 3.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112760/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Chinna does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Speechless is an opera written in response to the Australian Human Rights Commission’s 2014 report into children in immigration detention.Stephen Chinna, Senior Honorary Research Fellow, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1016702018-08-22T02:30:40Z2018-08-22T02:30:40ZExplainer: what is resignation syndrome and why is it affecting refugee children?<p><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/lanesainty/australias-child-refugees-are-being-diagnosed-with-swedens?utm_term=.nwzY5dAAg#.ba0NxnWWy">Reports from Nauru</a> are raising concerns about an outbreak of a severe trauma-related mental disorder known as traumatic withdrawal syndrome, or resignation syndrome. </p>
<p>Recent legal action resulted in <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/fears-hunger-striking-boy-on-nauru-is-suffering-from-resignation-syndrome">urgent medical evacuation of a child</a> in an unconscious state following a progressive social withdrawal and failure to speak, eat or drink. The child was unresponsive, dehydrated and at risk of death from the physical complications of this extreme state. </p>
<p>Medical experts noted there are no adequate medical or mental health facilities on Nauru to treat this condition. This outbreak raises serious questions about the impact of our offshore facilities for vulnerable populations and the capacity of the current system to respond adequately. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-qanda-has-the-number-of-asylum-seeker-children-in-detention-declined-49056">FactCheck Q&A: Has the number of asylum seeker children in detention declined?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What is resignation syndrome?</h2>
<p>Resignation syndrome is a rare psychiatric condition that presents as a progressive social withdrawal and reluctance to engage in usual activities such as school and play. Children may become isolated and appear depressed and irritable. They frequently resist others’ attempts to support or encourage them to engage. </p>
<p>As the condition progresses, the child may stop talking and isolate themselves in bed, and may stop eating and drinking. The most serious stage of the disorder is when the child enters a state of profound withdrawal and is unconscious or in a comatose state. </p>
<p>This appears to be a state of “hibernation” in response to an intolerable reality. They are unresponsive, even to pain. They appear floppy, without normal reflexes, and require total care, including feeding and intravenous fluids as they risk kidney failure and death from complications of immobility, malnutrition and dehydration. </p>
<p>This is a life-threatening condition needing high level medical care.</p>
<p>Various names have been used to describe this condition since it was originally described in children showing a retreat from external reality. Terms previously used for this condition include depressive devitalisation and pervasive arousal-withdrawal syndrome. Both point out the withdrawal and lack of response.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19814751">Many children with the condition</a> were experiencing trauma, including environmental stress and psychiatric disorders in parents and carers. Common features are the ongoing nature of the trauma and the child’s feelings of hopelessness and helplessness in the face of inescapable stress. </p>
<p>In these situations, children appear to give up or resign themselves to an overwhelming situation and cope with this by a profound disengagement or withdrawal.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/report-calls-for-royal-commission-into-children-in-immigration-detention-experts-respond-36299">Report calls for royal commission into children in immigration detention: experts respond</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232985/original/file-20180822-149463-14k98dd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232985/original/file-20180822-149463-14k98dd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232985/original/file-20180822-149463-14k98dd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232985/original/file-20180822-149463-14k98dd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232985/original/file-20180822-149463-14k98dd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232985/original/file-20180822-149463-14k98dd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232985/original/file-20180822-149463-14k98dd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232985/original/file-20180822-149463-14k98dd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The sever culmination of resignation syndrome is when sufferers enter into a comatose state in order to escape their intolerable reality.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Trauma in immigration detention</h2>
<p>There are many factors contributing to trauma for child asylum seekers and refugees. Some are traumatised by experiences in their countries of origin and the process of fleeing. Experiences in detention and processing centres also directly contribute to feelings of lack of safety, anxiety and confusion. </p>
<p>Children are exposed to distress and despair in others around them and in their own parents. Some experience separation from important attachment figures. These traumas contribute to high rates of distress and mental health problems. As periods of time spent in these environments increase, mental health deteriorates. </p>
<p>In Nauru currently, some children <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/getfacts/statistics/operation-sovereign-borders-offshore-detention-statistics/">may have been there for five years</a> with little or no hope of finding a place of safe resettlement. Their mental health problems are compounded by a lack of support and mental health services and limited access to family support. Depression in parents further isolates vulnerable children.</p>
<p>Traumatic withdrawal has been seen in groups of asylum seeker and refugee children in European settings where families lack protection and resettlement options. The <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1651-2227.2005.tb01841.x#.W3zFAgQEXxg.email">largest studied group in Sweden</a> found seriously physically ill, withdrawn children requiring hospitalisation and high level care. </p>
<p>In Australia, similar cases have been seen in children exposed to the distress of immigration centres. Questions are now being asked about the possible development of an increase in cases on Nauru and how best to respond to this.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/are-doctors-ethically-obliged-to-keep-at-risk-children-out-of-detention-49047">Are doctors ethically obliged to keep at-risk children out of detention?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Treatment</h2>
<p>Treatment of severe withdrawal is urgent, and can only be undertaken in a hospital setting with specialist paediatric teams and capacity for nutritional support, intravenous rehydration and monitoring of kidney and other bodily functions. Children may remain in a comatose state for weeks and gradually emerge. They require mental health specialists to create feelings of safety and security. </p>
<p>Parents require treatment for their own mental health issues and support in providing care for their child. Families who are overwhelmed by stress may require longer-term counselling and trauma treatment. </p>
<p>The rate of recovery varies, but some children need support for 12 months. A crucial issue is to support the family in finding a safe haven and resolution of resettlement issues. For the current Nauru families, the lack of options and a loss of hope for the future is a major risk for mental breakdown and traumatic withdrawal. </p>
<p>The intensive and specialist treatment needed cannot be provided in Nauru. </p>
<p>Medical and mental health professionals and refugee rights groups are all <a href="https://ama.com.au/media/ama-calls-urgent-action-ensure-proper-health-care-aylum-seeker-children-nauru">calling for urgent care</a> for these children. There’s serious concern about the use of Nauru as a processing centre and the adequacy of health services. </p>
<p>With government wanting to maintain policies to deter asylum seekers and prevent entry to Australia, they’re seemingly accepting harm done to those in limbo. In the middle of this debate are children who know nothing of politics, but know they are abandoned without a future. The moral imperative is to rethink current policy, and to act urgently to protect children and save lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101670/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louise Newman is affiliated with the human rights group Doctors for Justice and is a past advisor to the Department of Immigration on the mental health of asylum seekers and refugees. </span></em></p>A boy has been flown to Australia from Nauru for urgent medical treatment for suspected resignation syndrome.Louise Newman, Director of the Centre for Women’s Mental Health at the Royal Women’s Hospital and Professor of Psychiatry, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/994542018-07-09T04:31:41Z2018-07-09T04:31:41ZHow imagery and media coverage influence our empathy for strangers<p><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-03/thailand-cave-what-happens-now/9934088">Footage of 12 boys trapped in a cave</a> system in Thailand has inundated our screens in recent days. </p>
<p>An international rescue effort is under way, which includes a team of specialists <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/australia-deploys-additional-personnel-to-thai-cave-rescue-20180705-p4zpn0.html">sent by the Australian government</a> to assist with the safe recovery of the young soccer team. Highlighting the gravity of the situation, a former Thai Navy diver has died after running out of oxygen during rescue efforts. </p>
<p>This is without doubt a frightening situation for the boys and their families. It’s no surprise the situation has received global media attention. Though it does raise some interesting questions about how we extend empathy and concern to people we don’t know.</p>
<p>Why does this tragedy capture the world’s attention, when more long-term issues such as children in detention don’t to the same extent? <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0963721417730888">Research from moral psychology</a> can help us to understand this.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/refugee-crisis-the-immediate-and-lasting-impacts-of-powerful-images-98312">Refugee crisis: the immediate and lasting impacts of powerful images</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A picture is worth a thousand words</h2>
<p>A key reason is simply that we can see the Thai soccer team. We’re watching the rescue effort play out, and we can see the emotions of the boys and their families.</p>
<p>We have seen this kind of viral, blanket coverage of tragic incidents recently. For example, the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-middle-east-39495806/children-killed-in-syria-chemical-attack">horrific scenes</a> of children fighting for their lives after the 2017 chemical weapon attacks in Syria. Or the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-19/mcallen-story-behind-image-of-crying-toddler-at-us-mexico-border/9886210">striking image</a> that emerged in June of a small Honduran girl crying as her mother is detained by officials at the US-Mexico border.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1006962031281360896"}"></div></p>
<p>By contrast, issues that are arguably <a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-the-us-border-policy-is-harsh-but-australias-treatment-of-refugee-children-has-also-been-deplorable-98706">no less frightening</a> don’t always generate the same outpouring of concern and sympathy. For example, the <a href="http://www.asyluminsight.com/statistics/#.Wz21mdIzZPa">more than 200 children</a> held in detention on Nauru and throughout the Australian mainland.</p>
<p>This isn’t to suggest the Australian government shouldn’t aid in international rescue efforts, but we should be equally concerned about the far greater number of children being held indefinitely in Australian detention.</p>
<p>The fact is we have very little access to images of children in detention, as media access to Manus Island and Nauru is heavily restricted. For example, <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-government-failed-to-stand-up-for-press-freedom-after-nauru-barred-abc-journalist-99366">journalists face substantial obstacles</a> if they want to visit our offshore detention centres, and in 2016 the Australian government threatened <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/oct/20/doctors-freed-to-speak-about-australias-detention-regime-after-u-turn">health-care workers with jail time</a> if they spoke about the conditions they encountered on Nauru and Manus. </p>
<p>We simply aren’t permitted to view the plight of child refugees, and we’re much less likely to experience an <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/01/cultivate-empathy-photograph/422793/">empathic response</a> if we can’t see them. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-history-of-live-exports-is-more-than-two-centuries-old-94730">recent outcry</a> caused by the dramatic footage aboard an Australian live export ship illustrates this perfectly. Most of us would be aware to some extent live export is a cruel practice. But it isn’t until the footage forces us to confront the realities that we create enough momentum to discuss meaningful change. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"983157548302897152"}"></div></p>
<h2>Time and perspective matters</h2>
<p>The perspective we take also makes a huge difference. If we can easily <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/science-behind-why-we-can-t-look-away-disasters-ncna804966">draw comparisons</a> between ourselves and those in need we’re more likely to extend concern and empathy.</p>
<p>Given Australia’s geography and climate, it’s not too difficult for us to imagine our children caught up in a natural disaster. It’s much more difficult for us to imagine our children fleeing their homeland and seeking asylum in a foreign country.</p>
<p>And it’s far <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0100115">easier to extend sympathy</a> to a situation that, one way or another, will reach an end. </p>
<p>Ongoing humanitarian issues such as asylum seekers or food shortages on the African continent feel like immense challenges often placed in the too hard basket. Therefore, these issues fade away in the face of what we consider more pressing matters with more straightforward resolutions. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/natural-hazard-risk-is-it-just-going-to-get-worse-or-can-we-do-something-about-it-84286">Natural hazard risk: is it just going to get worse or can we do something about it?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Language is crucial</h2>
<p>The labels we attach are also crucial in determining our response.</p>
<p>For example, in 2016, former prime minister Tony Abbott referred to asylum seekers as an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/sep/19/tony-abbott-says-europe-is-facing-peaceful-invasion-of-asylum-seekers">invading</a> force. </p>
<p>This sort of language is incredibly damaging, because when trying to make sense of a moral injustice we immediately look to identify both a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28504021">victim and a villain</a>. Suffering without a villain doesn’t always make sense to us – though the villains we choose are often subjective. </p>
<p>There is some <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1088868309350299">fascinating research demonstrating</a> this. For example, throughout the US, belief in God is highest in states where citizens experience the greatest amount of suffering – infant mortality, cancer deaths, natural disasters. This relationship holds after controlling for a range of alternative explanations, such as income and education. God is perceived to be the “villain” responsible for all this senseless suffering. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/response-to-natural-disasters-like-harvey-could-be-helped-with-game-theory-83125">Response to natural disasters like Harvey could be helped with game theory</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It’s impossible to label those suffering at the hands of a chemical attack as anything but victims. However, if we perceive asylum seekers as wrongdoers trying to steal some sort of unfair advantage, we’re far less likely to think of them as victims requiring our compassion, meaning it’s far easier to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26751743">cast them out of our moral circle</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1015281337102684161"}"></div></p>
<h2>Do we have a moral responsibility to think differently?</h2>
<p>Of course we should have sympathy for the soccer team trapped in the cave. But no matter the outcome, the story will disappear from our screens as the next pressing crisis arises. </p>
<p>We should ensure the reality of longer-term problems doesn’t also disappear, having fallen victim to the failings of our moral cognition.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article has been updated to reflect that Tony Abbott was no longer prime minister in 2016.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99454/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charlie Crimston does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Of course we should have sympathy for the soccer team trapped in the cave. We should extend similar compassion to those caught up in long-term crises that are harder to tackle.Charlie Crimston, Postdoctoral Researcher in Morality and Social Psychology, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/985492018-06-20T23:03:49Z2018-06-20T23:03:49ZThe dreadful history of children in concentration camps<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224101/original/file-20180620-137720-1su7b84.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Child survivors of Auschwitz are seen in this 1945 photograph.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Creative Commons)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Children and family have been central to the institution of the concentration camp from its beginnings 120 years ago. Wikipedia has now added the notorious American border detention centres to its <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/d3kjma/wikipedia-us-detention-centers-concentration-camps-vgtrn">list of concentration camps</a>, and the #<a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23FamiliesBelongTogether&src=tyah">FamiliesBelongTogether</a> Twitter hashtag has brought up frequent comparisons. </p>
<p>The merits of the comparison between detention centres and concentration camps <a href="https://qz.com/1308141/are-us-immigrant-child-detention-centers-concentration-camps/">have been debated elsewhere</a>, but can we learn anything from this dreadful history of children behind barbed wire, even as the Trump administration <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/us/politics/trump-immigration-children-executive-order.html">finally moved to end the practice?</a></p>
<p>The British constructed camps during the 1899-1902 South African War in order to divide families. They hoped that Boer men who were fighting British forces would give up once they discovered that their wives and children were held in camps. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224108/original/file-20180620-137741-184qykf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224108/original/file-20180620-137741-184qykf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224108/original/file-20180620-137741-184qykf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224108/original/file-20180620-137741-184qykf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224108/original/file-20180620-137741-184qykf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224108/original/file-20180620-137741-184qykf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224108/original/file-20180620-137741-184qykf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A deceased young girl is seen at a concentration camp where the British housed Boer women and children during the Second Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Creative Commons)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similar to the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/18/politics/family-separation-deterrence-dhs/index.html">Trump administration’s apparent hope that the breakup of families would deter unwanted migration</a>, the British sought to deter Boer fighters. British parliamentarians critical of the policy labelled these “concentration camps,” alluding to the Spanish policy of the “reconcentration” of civilians during the Spanish-American War (1898).</p>
<p>Conditions in the British-run camps were horrific, particularly for children, with <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/591094">mortality rates upwards of 25 per cent</a>. An <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/1171343">epidemic of measles</a> accounted for roughly 40 per cent of childhood deaths in these camps, and other diseases such as typhus and dysentery were also devastating.</p>
<h2>Families broken up in former Soviet Union</h2>
<p>The Soviet Union’s system of camps that reached their peak during Joseph Stalin’s rule from the 1930s to the 1950s also reveals the destruction of families. While mass arrests broke up the family, and children of “enemies of the people” were separated from their parents, there were also many children in the Gulag itself.</p>
<p>Prison camps developed an infrastructure that, on the surface, <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/579144">supported pregnancy and childbirth</a>. There were maternity wards in some camp clinics, as well as nurseries, and pregnant women and nursing mothers officially received increased rations. </p>
<p>In practice, the system was regularly a nightmare. Children born in the camps were separated from their mothers, who only managed to see them at set times for nursing. </p>
<p>Hava Volovich, whose own daughter died in the camps, remembers that hundreds of camp children died each year, meaning that there were “<a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=YWHvXP7VfxAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=vilensky+till+my+tale+is+told&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj2v7b_p-HbAhVdIDQIHUtmBBMQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=plenty%20of%20empty%20beds&f=false">plenty of empty beds in the infants’ shelter even though the birth rate in the camps was relatively high</a>.” </p>
<p>At the age of two, many of the surviving children were sent either to orphanages or to relatives — a forced redistribution of children away from their parents, who, as Gulag prisoners, were at best stigmatized, and at worst seen as a major threat to Soviet society. </p>
<p>The Gulag also held camps for young offenders, where teenagers worked as forced labourers and faced horrific living conditions.</p>
<h2>Nazis crushed families</h2>
<p>Nazi policy included both large-scale deportations and large-scale importations of population groups, with major implications for families. </p>
<p>The Nazis removed citizenship from German Jews then, during the Second World War, sent most Jews, from Germany and elsewhere, to camps outside the borders of pre-war Germany. Yet, as the war progressed, Germany brought in huge numbers of forced labourers from all over Europe (U.S. Attorney General <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/19/politics/jeff-sessions-immigration-border-separation/index.html">Jeff Sessions’ claim that German-run camps were designed to keep Jews in</a>, rather than out, is unfounded). </p>
<p>Nazi family policy was a pivotal part of the concentration camp. Once the death camps were operational, the Nazis crushed the family unit among undesirable populations, focusing on Jews. </p>
<p>The selection process at Auschwitz could result in the temporary survival of one or both parents, if they were physically fit (or just lucky), but children were usually sent directly to their deaths.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224112/original/file-20180620-137750-1jq7c28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224112/original/file-20180620-137750-1jq7c28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224112/original/file-20180620-137750-1jq7c28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224112/original/file-20180620-137750-1jq7c28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224112/original/file-20180620-137750-1jq7c28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224112/original/file-20180620-137750-1jq7c28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224112/original/file-20180620-137750-1jq7c28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The late Elie Wiesel is seen in this 2012 photograph.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Jewish writer <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007176">Elie Wiesel</a> lost his mother and sister right away, and only survived selection because he lied about his age, claiming he was 18 and not 15, his actual age. </p>
<p>The unimaginable cruelty of many practices —the smashing of babies’ heads against walls, the medical experimentation, particularly on twins —reveals an extreme dehumanization. </p>
<p>Even at the show camp of Terezin, which included a family camp, <a href="http://www.terezin.org/the-history-of-terezin/">only 150 of the roughly 15,000 children sent there survived</a>.</p>
<h2>High mortality rates</h2>
<p>What do these historical cases have in common? All involved the separation, either immediate or eventual, of children from one or both parents, and all involved horrific conditions and extremely high mortality rates for the children. </p>
<p>In all cases, the dehumanization of the unwanted population was a key starting point. As <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/591094">historian Aidan Forth writes</a> of the South African case, Gen. Herbert Kitchener referred to the Boers as “savages with only a thin white veneer,” and British officials often described the Afrikaners as “dirty, careless, [and lazy.]”</p>
<p>Former Gulag prisoners frequently reported that guards and officials <a href="http://gulaghistory.org/exhibits/days-and-lives/guards/4">referred to them as animals or as “scum.”</a> As <a href="https://www.sakharov-center.ru/asfcd/auth/?t=page&num=11058">one former prisoner wrote</a>, quoting a camp boss: “A person? … There aren’t any here! Here are enemies of the people, traitors of the motherland, bandits, crooks. The dregs of humanity, scum, riff raff, that’s who is here!” </p>
<p>The dehumanization of the Nazi camps is well known, as Nazi propaganda frequently likened the Jews to vermin or to an infectious disease, making Trump’s tweet about asylum seekers particularly chilling:</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1009071403918864385"}"></div></p>
<p>Another commonality can be found in the experiences of the victims.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-long-term-separation-from-parents-harms-kids-97515">Why long-term separation from parents harms kids</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In all cases, children separated from parents could not have known if they would ever see their parents again, or under what circumstances. The children of the camps had to rely, for the most part, on other children, for any support or security. Often, the separation was permanent.</p>
<p>These comparisons only take us so far, however. Some commentators have looked not at European powers, but to a long North American history — <a href="http://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/featured/americas-legacy-slavery-seen-trump-policy-separating-children-families/">including slavery</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/Goodeeeeee/status/1009272719257604097">residential schools</a> — of separating non-white children from their parents.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224109/original/file-20180620-137714-1l4ugnz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224109/original/file-20180620-137714-1l4ugnz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224109/original/file-20180620-137714-1l4ugnz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224109/original/file-20180620-137714-1l4ugnz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224109/original/file-20180620-137714-1l4ugnz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224109/original/file-20180620-137714-1l4ugnz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224109/original/file-20180620-137714-1l4ugnz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children at a residential school in Fort Resolution, Northwest Territories, are seen in this undated photo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(National Archives of Canada)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If there is any optimism to be found in the historical examples of children in concentration camps, perhaps the history of public reactions can provide some hope. </p>
<p>In South Africa, reports by Emily Hobhouse and then the Fawcett Commission, particularly on starving children, galvanized public pressure to force the British government to <a href="https://www.angloboerwar.com/other-information/16-other-information/1847-emily-hobhouse">improve conditions at the camps</a>. </p>
<h2>Outcry helped end practice</h2>
<p>In contrast, in Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, there could be neither public nor parliamentary discussion of inhumane internment conditions. </p>
<p>Bu today, some U.S. reporters and lawmakers have visited the American detention centres, and non-governmental organizations such as <a href="https://act.amnestyusa.org/page/25820/action/1">Amnesty International</a> and even the <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/methodists-bring-church-charges-against-jeff-sessions_us_5b28fc2ee4b0a4dc9920b9dd">Methodist Church</a>, as well as many elected officials, maligned the policy. </p>
<p>The public discussion, and the public outcry against the separation of children from their parents that eventually caused U.S. President Donald Trump to cave and end the policy, perhaps makes the American case more similar to that of South Africa than either the Nazi or Soviet camps. </p>
<p>This similarity, however, depends on the actions now of the Trump administration, <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-war-on-children-is-an-act-of-state-terrorism-98612">which for several weeks before its reversal included denial, deflecting blame and even justification</a>. </p>
<p>But with reports of children being torn away from <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/migrant-children-border-facility-w521518">their mothers’ arms while breastfeeding</a>, the more notorious concentration camps of the 20th century must serve as a stark reminder that the act of dehumanization is a slippery slope towards violence and further atrocities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98549/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wilson T. Bell received an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), June 2015-May 2018. He is a member of the Canadian Association of Slavists and the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. </span></em></p>The more notorious concentration camps of the 20th century must serve as a stark reminder of the depravity of tearing children away from their parents and putting them in camps.Wilson T. Bell, Assistant Professor of History and Politics, Thompson Rivers UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/649252016-09-15T22:26:40Z2016-09-15T22:26:40ZWhy societies must protect children if they want fewer criminals<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136738/original/image-20160906-6121-166vgx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Research shows a link between violence against children and their subsequent criminality. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What drives and sustains high levels of violence in a society? This question has preoccupied <a href="https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/item/2154/Youth_Violence_Sources.pdf?sequence=1">researchers</a> and <a href="http://bjc.oxfordjournals.org/content/50/5/975.extract">policymakers</a> for decades. A common thread in a great deal of the research is that early childhood experiences play a vital role. Violent beginnings of a child’s life very often lead to violent behaviour in later life.</p>
<p>The question is particularly acute in countries with exceptionally high levels of violence. This is true of South Africa where the homicide rate of <a href="http://www.jonathanball.co.za/index.php/component/virtuemart/a-citizen-s-guide-to-crime-statistics-detail?Itemid=6">34 per 100 000 people</a> compares to the homicide rates of Honduras, Colombia and El Salvador, and places the country among the 20 countries globally with the <a href="https://www.unodc.org/documents/gsh/maps/Map_1.1.pdf">highest rates of homicide</a>.</p>
<p>Between 2010 and 2015 I undertook a <a href="https://www.issafrica.org/publications/monographs/beaten-bad-the-life-stories-of-violent-offenders">study</a> of the life histories of 20 men in prison. The intention was to improve understanding of recidivism, to inform sentencing policies, enable the early detection of indicators for repeat offending, and inform rehabilitation programmes and interventions. </p>
<p>I concluded from my research that preventing and reducing stubbornly <a href="https://africacheck.org/factsheets/factsheet-south-africas-official-crime-statistics-for-201314/">high levels of violence</a> in South Africa can only be achieved if the country focuses on ensuring that children are not exposed to violence or toxic stress at home, and that they are warmly cared for. It is equally important to ensure that children are protected from violence at school.</p>
<h2>Violent histories</h2>
<p>The men I interviewed had been jailed for multiple violent offences. They came from a range of socio-economic backgrounds and different areas in the country. In all cases their criminal behaviour was clearly linked to multiple adversity from early in their lives.</p>
<p>None of them is blameless. The crimes they committed were cruel and often brutal. But their personal, familial and contextual circumstances had a significant impact on their criminal careers. </p>
<p>They all shared an early and overwhelming sense of loss resulting from feelings of physical and/or emotional separation from parents, carers, professionals and responsible adults. Sometimes this loss was experienced as betrayal. In some cases this betrayal happened by omission and in others it was deliberate.</p>
<p>Their loss was exacerbated by experiences of neglect and abuse at the hands of family members and the staff of state agencies and institutions from whom they were entitled to expect care and support, if not love.</p>
<p>Ryan, a white man incarcerated for the brutal murder of his brother, started his life as an unwanted child. His mother told me: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I became a mother with him at age 17 years. I did not want him but my mother forced me to keep him. I was very hard on him; I slapped him around a lot. I never took to him. I did not like him. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Beatings at home were repeated at school where he was bullied daily. His stepfather, the only adult who ever showed him any love and warmth, died when he was 12 – a turning point in his life. From this point Ryan, who was deeply traumatised by the loss, began a trajectory that resulted in him being jailed, first in a brutal reformatory and later spending more time in prison than out.</p>
<p>There were plenty of warning signs and professionals who could have responded. The educational psychologist who assessed Ryan after the death of his stepfather could have used it as an opportunity to refer the family for further support. That did not happen.</p>
<p>Zibonele was the son of a farm worker on a racist Free State farm. He was left at two with his uncle who already had eight children. His life was hard. Like Ryan, he was bullied at school and beaten by his teachers. “At school there would be somebody who would like to ill-treat you for the fun of it. It was just like in prison…the older boys wanted to ill-treat me. We ended up fighting horribly. We were later beaten, given seven lashes by a teacher.” </p>
<p>He had an early experience of brutality and injustice at the hands of the criminal justice system. He and his co-workers were lashed by police after eating more mealies for lunch than the farmer thought they deserved. </p>
<p>Zibonele would go on to strangle and murder three young girls. No one took any notice of the early signs that he was in trouble. Teachers who could have seen the signs were instead complicit in his abuse.</p>
<h2>Loss and violence</h2>
<p>For most of the men I interviewed, their routine use of violence was both necessary for survival and a means to acquire symbols of status. Over time they adopted the hyper-masculine identities that were necessary to secure that status, at least among their peers. </p>
<p>Once they had dropped out of school they found peer groups who were equally alienated from adults and structures of authority.</p>
<p>Several of the men seemed to have had difficulties learning at school. These possibly stemmed from undiagnosed problems that were left unattended. Dropping out of school signalled an untethering from relationships that could have built resilience and increased opportunities to reverse their destructive trajectories.</p>
<p>All of them experienced stress and trauma from early in their lives, and several turned to alcohol and drugs as a form of self-medication. This led not only to more violence, but also to a deepening of their personal crises. </p>
<p>In their adult lives two factors in particular seem to have had a significant impact on their criminal trajectories. One was where they lived. The men who lived in urban areas were more likely to follow a trajectory from petty crime, such as shoplifting, to more serious and violent property crime.</p>
<p>The other was gun ownership. Having a gun did not necessarily initiate their criminal trajectories. But it did have an effect on the nature and severity of the crimes they committed. Gun ownership signalled an increase in the violence of their crimes, and the value of their crimes – they were able to rob more effectively with a gun than without.</p>
<h2>Breaking the cycle of violence</h2>
<p>Interventions at the family and relationship level need to be supported by change at societal level, in particular through addressing working and childcare conditions for parents. Accessible and safe early childhood development centres and after-school care facilities are essential, as is parental leave - for both parents - after the birth of a child. Parenting programmes have also been shown to reduce stress and improve the relationships between parents and their children.</p>
<p>But these need to be pursued alongside other interventions such as improving gun control, and targeted interventions to support individuals and families living in poor, high-violence environments.</p>
<p>The foundations for violence and criminality are laid between 10 and 20 years before the effects are felt by society. In other words, the way the state and a society respond to children who witness and experience violence, neglect and abuse in 2016 will determine whether we will see the same levels of violence in 2026.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64925/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chandre Gould receives funding from the Open Society Foundation. She is affiliated with the Institute for Security Studies and the Seven Passes Initiative. The research that informed this article was undertaken in partnership with the Department of Correctional Services.</span></em></p>Reducing stubbornly high levels of violence can be achieved if there is a focus on ensuring that children are not exposed to violence or toxic stress at home.Chandre Gould, Senior research fellow at the Institute for Security Studies and research associate, Durban University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/492792015-10-18T23:29:20Z2015-10-18T23:29:20ZFull response from senator Lisa Singh<p>A spokesman from the office of ALP senator Lisa Singh told The Conversation by email that:</p>
<p>In seeking to illustrate how processing has slowed and refugee detainees are being made to languish for longer, we submit this <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/20/its-been-two-years-since-manus-island-re-opened-not-a-single-refugee-has-been-resettled">info</a>. That covers the “languishing” on Manus – not a single person processed and re-settled in two years.</p>
<p>As for Nauru, some have technically been processed, but are <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-19/inquiry-submissions-reveal-conditions-at-nauru-detention-centre/6479422">languishing</a> in filthy tents, at risk of assault and rape – which might statistically count as processing, but which we do not class as properly processed and resettled.</p>
<p>Also, the quotes below are taken from <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/asylum-seekers-and-refugees/publications/forgotten-children-national-inquiry-children">this page</a> on the Australian Human Rights Commission’s website page about the Forgotten Children report:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Foreward</strong></p>
<p>Australia currently holds about 800 children in mandatory closed immigration detention for indefinite periods, with no pathway to protection or settlement. This includes 186 children detained on Nauru.</p>
<p>Children and their families have been held on the mainland and on Christmas Island for, on average, one year and two months. Over 167 babies have been born in detention within the last 24 months.</p>
<p>This Report gives a voice to these children.</p>
<p><strong>Commission decision to conduct an Inquiry</strong></p>
<p>By July 2013, the number of children detained reached 1,992.
As the federal election was imminent, I decided to await the outcome of the election, and any government changes in asylum seeker policy, before considering launching an Inquiry.</p>
<p>By February this year, it became apparent that there had been a slowing down of the release of children.</p>
<p>Over the first six months of the new Coalition Government the numbers of children in detention remained relatively constant. Not only were over 1000 children held in detention by February 2014, but also they were being held for longer periods than in the past, with no pathway to resettlement.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The remaining quotes are taken from the AHRC’s <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/forgotten_children_2014.pdf">report</a> itself:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Further announcements tightening asylum seeker policy by Prime Minister Rudd on 19 July 2013 left the vast majority of asylum seekers in detention in limbo. The policy implemented by the Labor Government and continued by the Coalition Government, specifies that anyone who arrives by boat without a visa since this date in July is liable to transfer to Nauru or Manus Island and will never be settled in Australia.</p>
<p>The claims of these asylum seekers have not been processed and they face uncertainty as to their future. The suspension of processing has had a profound impact on the time that people have waited to have their refugee claims assessed. It has also prolonged the detention of children in onshore and offshore
facilities.</p>
<p>By 2014, this has resulted in a significant lengthening of time that asylum seekers have spent in detention. In March 2014, children had been detained for 231 days on average.</p>
<p>At the time of writing this report, children and adults have been detained for over a year and two months on average – over 413 days. There are currently over 100 babies who have been born in detention – with no life experience outside the confines of the detention centres.</p>
<p>It is in this context that the President of the Australian Human Rights Commission launched a national inquiry into children in immigration detention on 3 February 2014.</p>
<p>The decision to conduct this Inquiry was part of the Commission’s regular annual planning processes in mid-2013. This was during the lead up to the federal election at which asylum seeker policies were high profile.</p>
<p>While the number of people in detention started to drop from its peak numbers in mid-2013, the Commission had significant concerns at the increasing time periods that children were spending in detention.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>From <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/forgotten_children_2014.pdf">page 19</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Australia is the only country in the world with a policy that imposes mandatory and indefinite immigration detention on asylum seekers as a first action. While other countries detain children for matters related to immigration, including Greece, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa and the U.S.; detention in these
countries is not mandatory and does not occur as a matter of course.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>From <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/forgotten_children_2014.pdf">page 56</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In March 2014, children in Australian detention centres had been held for 231 days (approximately 8 months) on average. By September 2014, the average length of detention for children and adults was one year two months.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Also see <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/forgotten_children_2014.pdf">Chart 10, page 56</a>:</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98573/original/image-20151015-30710-5natyj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98573/original/image-20151015-30710-5natyj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98573/original/image-20151015-30710-5natyj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98573/original/image-20151015-30710-5natyj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98573/original/image-20151015-30710-5natyj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98573/original/image-20151015-30710-5natyj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98573/original/image-20151015-30710-5natyj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98573/original/image-20151015-30710-5natyj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/forgotten_children_2014.pdf">The Forgotten Children report</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49279/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
A spokesman from the office of ALP senator Lisa Singh told The Conversation by email that: In seeking to illustrate how processing has slowed and refugee detainees are being made to languish for longer…Sunanda Creagh, Senior EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/490562015-10-18T23:28:41Z2015-10-18T23:28:41ZFactCheck Q&A: Has the number of asylum seeker children in detention declined?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98464/original/image-20151015-15131-17j3gzv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Assistant Health Minister Ken Wyatt (second from left) speaking with ALP senator Lisa Singh (back turned) on Q&A.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Q&A</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><strong>The Conversation is fact-checking claims made on Q&A, broadcast Mondays on the ABC at 9:35pm. Thank you to everyone who sent us quotes for checking via <a href="http://www.twitter.com/conversationEDU">Twitter</a> using hashtags #FactCheck and #QandA, on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/conversationEDU">Facebook</a> or by <a href="mailto:checkit@theconversation.edu.au">email</a>.</strong></p>
<hr>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wJzVNX3cWRk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Excerpt from Q&A, October 12, 2015.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<blockquote>
<p>KEN WYATT: When we came into government there were 2000 … There were 2000 children within Nauru. We now have it down to about 104.</p>
<p>LISA SINGH: But they were processed, Ken … They weren’t left languishing for years.</p>
<p>KEN WYATT: Yes. Yes, they were. </p>
<p>LISA SINGH: No, they weren’t. – Assistant Health Minister Ken Wyatt, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s4307494.htm">speaking</a> with ALP senator Lisa Singh on Q&A, October 12, 2015.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There are two assertions worth checking here:</p>
<ol>
<li> Has the number of asylum seeking children in Nauru declined from 2000 to 104 since the Coalition took office?</li>
<li> Were children in detention “languishing” when the ALP was in power, or were they processed out of detention quickly?</li>
</ol>
<h2>The number of children</h2>
<p>When the Coalition came into office in September 2013, there were <a href="http://www.border.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/statistics/immigration-detention-statistics-aug2013.pdf">around 1700 asylum seeker children</a> in restricted forms of immigration detention in Australia and there were <a href="http://apo.org.au/files/Resource/parliamentarylibrary_australiasoffshoreprocessingofasylumseekersinnauruandpng_oct_2015.pdf">87 children</a> at regional processing centres such as Nauru.</p>
<p>The 1700 figure does not include children in community detention, which is when people live in the community while their immigration status is resolved.</p>
<p>At the peak of people arriving in Australia by boat, around June or July 2013 when Labor was in power, there were close to 2000 asylum seeker children in detention, as shown in the chart below:</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98465/original/image-20151015-15156-e8vxon.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98465/original/image-20151015-15156-e8vxon.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98465/original/image-20151015-15156-e8vxon.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98465/original/image-20151015-15156-e8vxon.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98465/original/image-20151015-15156-e8vxon.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98465/original/image-20151015-15156-e8vxon.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98465/original/image-20151015-15156-e8vxon.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98465/original/image-20151015-15156-e8vxon.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.border.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/statistics/immigration-detention-statistics-sept2013.pdf#search=detention%20statistics">Department of Immigration and Citizenship</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The NGO ChilOut, which campaigns for the release of asylum seekers in detention, <a href="http://www.chilout.org/">reports</a> that the government’s latest <a href="http://www.border.gov.au/about/reports-publications/research-statistics/statistics/live-in-australia/immigration-detention">statistics</a>, dated August 31, 2015, reveal that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>104 children are held in immigration detention facilities within the Australian mainland;</p>
<p>93 children are held in detention facilities in Nauru.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So it is not technically accurate for Wyatt to say there were 2000 children “within Nauru” when the Coalition took office; he likely meant to say “in detention”. The number of children in detention centres in Australia and Nauru combined is now around 197, not 104 as he said – all easy mistakes to make under the pressure of a live TV debate.</p>
<p>However, Wyatt is broadly correct. The overall number of asylum seeking children in detention has declined significantly since the Coalition took office.</p>
<p>Wyatt clarified his comments in a statement to The Conversation, which you can read <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/30/20151015-response-to-the-Conversation-re-QandA-fact-check.pdf?1519863968">here</a>. </p>
<h2>Length of detention</h2>
<p>Under Australian law, children remain in detention until they are either sent to a regional processing country offshore, granted a visa (such as a bridging visa), or transferred into community detention.</p>
<p>When asked for evidence to support her statements on children “languishing”, a spokesman for Singh referred The Conversation to a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/20/its-been-two-years-since-manus-island-re-opened-not-a-single-refugee-has-been-resettled">series</a> of media <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-19/inquiry-submissions-reveal-conditions-at-nauru-detention-centre/6479422">reports</a> and The Forgotten Children <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/asylum-seekers-and-refugees/publications/forgotten-children-national-inquiry-children">report</a>. You can read her full reply <a href="http://theconversation.com/full-response-from-senator-lisa-singh-49279">here</a>. </p>
<p>Singh is correct in that most children arriving by boat were moved out of detention within fairly short timeframes during 2013. The <a href="http://www.border.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/statistics/immigration-detention-statistics-june2013.pdf">average time in detention</a> for people was 81 days as at June 30, 2013. </p>
<p>However, this is an <em>average</em> time spent in detention; some children were detained much longer. For example, children whose parents had an adverse security assessment are effectively <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AUIntLawJl/2013/5.pdf">held in indefinite detention</a>. </p>
<p>Being released from detention is only one step. Under both governments, there have been <a href="http://theconversation.com/fast-track-asylum-processing-risks-fairness-for-efficiency-35146">significant delays</a> in processing refugee status claims in Australia and in the regional processing centres (Nauru and Manus Island).</p>
<p>In July and August 2013, the Rudd Labor government announced that any further boat arrivals would be processed at regional processing centres in Papua New Guinea and Nauru and would not be resettled in Australia. All children arriving after July 19, 2013, were to be taken with their families to Nauru. </p>
<p>The Coalition continued with this policy once it took office in September 2013. While the number of people arriving by boat dropped dramatically, the time people spent in detention increased.</p>
<p>Chart 10 in <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/forgotten_children_2014.pdf">The Forgotten Children report</a> by the Australian Human Rights Commission, released this year, shows that the number of children in detention dropped in the period July 2013 to January 2014 – but the length of detention increased. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98198/original/image-20151013-30298-1hsjyh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98198/original/image-20151013-30298-1hsjyh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98198/original/image-20151013-30298-1hsjyh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98198/original/image-20151013-30298-1hsjyh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98198/original/image-20151013-30298-1hsjyh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98198/original/image-20151013-30298-1hsjyh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98198/original/image-20151013-30298-1hsjyh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98198/original/image-20151013-30298-1hsjyh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/forgotten_children_2014.pdf">The Forgotten Children report</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.border.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/statistics/immigration-detention-statistics-31-Aug-2015.pdf">Statistics</a> from the Department of Immigration show that the average length of detention for asylum seekers has increased dramatically since September 2013. The average length is now 412 days. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98480/original/image-20151015-19337-1s722n2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98480/original/image-20151015-19337-1s722n2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98480/original/image-20151015-19337-1s722n2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98480/original/image-20151015-19337-1s722n2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98480/original/image-20151015-19337-1s722n2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98480/original/image-20151015-19337-1s722n2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98480/original/image-20151015-19337-1s722n2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98480/original/image-20151015-19337-1s722n2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.border.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/statistics/immigration-detention-statistics-31-Aug-2015.pdf">Department of Immigration and Border Protection</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, the statistics do not show the average length in detention for <em>children</em>. </p>
<p>There is <a href="https://www.mja.com.au/system/files/issues/199_11_161213/pro10804_fm.pdf">clear</a> <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20378223">evidence</a> that detention – particularly prolonged detention – has a significant negative impact upon the mental <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/oct/11/hospital-doctors-protest-to-demand-release-of-children-from-detention">health</a> and well-being of children and their parents.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Verdict</h2>
<p>To answer the questions posed at the beginning of this article:</p>
<ol>
<li>Has the number of asylum seeking children in Nauru declined from 2000 to 104 since the Coalition took office?</li>
</ol>
<p>This is close to being correct. There were approximately 1700 children in detention in mainland Australia and Christmas Island when the Coalition took government. There are now about 104 in detention in mainland Australia, but an additional 93 in the regional processing centre on Nauru.</p>
<ol>
<li>Were kids in detention “languishing” when the ALP was in power, or were they processed out of detention quickly?</li>
</ol>
<p>There were high numbers of children in detention under the ALP government due to the high number of boat arrivals. The average time in detention was around 81 days. However, some children were detained for longer than the average time. Under the Coalition government, while the number of children in detention has decreased, the average time in detention has significantly increased. <strong>– Mary Anne Kenny</strong></p>
<hr>
<h2>Review</h2>
<p>The author has presented a sensible analysis of the claims relating to the number of children detained and the duration of their detention period under different governments. </p>
<p>However, 608 children were released from detention between August 2013 and September 30, 2013. This was likely an outcome of existing standard procedure but it is also possible the Labor government released as many children as it could before likely electoral defeat. Whatever the reason, the Coalition would have had little impact on detention numbers within their first 12 days in office (they took office on September 18, 2013). For this reason, I refer to the September 30 figure to understand the size and composition of the detention population at the time the Coalition took office. </p>
<p>As the author shows, the number of children in detention on August 31, 2013 was 1773 (including <a href="http://www.border.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/statistics/immigration-detention-statistics-aug2013.pdf">1743</a> on the mainland and <a href="http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/library/prspub/4129606/upload_binary/4129606.pdf;fileType=application/pdf">30</a> in offshore facilities). However, as of September 30, 2013, the number of asylum seeking children detained was 1165, including <a href="http://www.border.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/statistics/immigration-detention-statistics-sept2013.pdf">1078</a> on the mainland and <a href="http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/library/prspub/4129606/upload_binary/4129606.pdf;fileType=application/pdf">87</a> in offshore facilities. </p>
<p>There are currently <a href="http://www.border.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/statistics/immigration-detention-statistics-30-Sept-2015.pdf">205</a> children in detention. These are the Department’s statistics from September 30, 2015. The author used the figures from August 31, 2015 which show <a href="http://www.border.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/statistics/immigration-detention-statistics-31-Aug-2015.pdf">197</a> children in detention. </p>
<p>I agree with the author that there is evidence the length of detention for children has extended under the Coalition government. <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/forgotten_children_2014.pdf">The Forgotten Children</a> report states the average period children were held in detention in March 2014 was 231 days (7.5 months). While equivalent child-only data is not available for the Labor-led government, the average for all detainees on September 30, 2013 was <a href="http://www.border.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/statistics/immigration-detention-statistics-sept2013.pdf">115 days</a>. <strong>– Robyn Sampson</strong></p>
<hr>
<p><div class="callout"> Have you ever seen a “fact” worth checking? The Conversation’s FactCheck asks academic experts to test claims and see how true they are. We then ask a second academic to review an anonymous copy of the article. You can request a check at checkit@theconversation.edu.au. Please include the statement you would like us to check, the date it was made, and a link if possible.</div></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49056/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Anne Kenny receives sitting fees from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. She has received grant funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robyn Sampson has previously received research grants from La Trobe University, Swinburne University and the International Detention Coalition. She collaborates with and is a member of the International Detention Coalition.
</span></em></p>Assistant Health Minister Ken Wyatt and ALP senator Lisa Singh couldn’t agree on Q&A about whether asylum seeking children “languished” in detention under the previous government. Who was right?Mary Anne Kenny, Associate Professor, School of Law, Murdoch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/490472015-10-14T01:58:57Z2015-10-14T01:58:57ZAre doctors ethically obliged to keep at-risk children out of detention?<p>Doctors and other medical staff at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital are <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2015/s4330123.htm">refusing to discharge</a> refugee children back into detention. They feel it is an unsafe environment that would be detrimental to their health. </p>
<p>This follows <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/royal-childrens-hospital-doctors-refusing-to-send-asylum-seeker-children-back-to-detention-centres/story-fnpp4dl6-1227564655023">a case earlier in the year</a> where staff refused to discharge an asylum seeker and her child who had been flown in for treatment from Nauru in late 2014. The mother was suffering post-traumatic stress and post-natal depression. </p>
<p>While she initially recovered well, she deteriorated again when discharged into community detention care. The health professionals involved felt they could not condone her being discharged into detention again given the impacts on her health and the risks for her child.</p>
<p>The health-care professionals are claiming they are ethically obliged to not discharge the children due to their duty of care. But which should be a priority for medical professionals – their duty of care to their patient, or the law?</p>
<h2>What does the law say?</h2>
<p>In 1992 Australia <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/fact-sheets/asylum-seeker-issues/mandatory-detention/">modified the Migration Act</a> to require all unlawful non-citizens to be detained, regardless of circumstances, until they are given a visa or leave the country. In 2001, the Howard government introduced the Pacific Solution which meant those trying to reach Australia without a visa would be detained and processed offshore. </p>
<p>In 2013, then-prime minister Kevin Rudd introduced the <a href="http://dfat.gov.au/geo/papua-new-guinea/pages/regional-resettlement-arrangement-between-australia-and-papua-new-guinea.aspx">Regional Resettlement Arrangement</a> between Australia and Papua New Guinea. Those determined to be genuine refugees would be resettled in Papua New Guinea rather than Australia. </p>
<p>There has been ongoing concern about conditions in offshore detention centres and the psychological impacts of prolonged detention, particularly on children. A <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/asylum-seekers-and-refugees/projects/national-inquiry-children-immigration-detention-index">Human Rights Commission</a> inquiry found children detained for long periods of time were at high risk of mental illness.</p>
<p>However, the recent <a href="https://www.comlaw.gov.au/Series/C2015A00040">Australian Border Force Act</a> prevents medical professionals from publicly revealing information <a href="https://theconversation.com/border-force-act-entrenches-secrecy-around-australias-asylum-seeker-regime-44136">critical of treatment</a> within detention centres. </p>
<p>Doctors’ refusal to discharge patients to these conditions could be seen as actionable under the Border Force Act. But whether the government would go down this path, or whether a judge would uphold a ruling, is highly questionable. </p>
<h2>What is right?</h2>
<p>While doctors probably wouldn’t be prosecuted for their actions, there is an interesting moral question of whether they should break the law in order to protect their patient. There are <a href="http://jme.bmj.com/content/33/9/522.short">legitimate boundaries to the duty of care</a>, such as protecting the interests of other patients by allocating scarce resources fairly. </p>
<p>It’s common practice for medical professionals to consider the environment that a patient will be discharged into as part of the discharge process. For example, if a patient was so elderly and frail that they would be unable to care for themselves, the doctor would not discharge the patient until appropriate care was arranged.</p>
<p>This is in part because there is no point expending medical resources for someone to come back in with the same issues because of an inappropriate living environment. But it is primarily because a medical professional has a fiduciary duty to their patient – where they must put their patient’s interests above all else.</p>
<p>While the roots of this obligation are complex, most consider it fundamental to the practice of medicine. Some derive it from the “do no harm” component of the ancient Hippocratic oath. More fundamentally it’s an important protection for both practitioners and patients from what would happen in a normal market relationship given the unequal knowledge and power between them.</p>
<p>This same fiduciary relationship holds for the same reasons between other professionals like lawyers and their clients. </p>
<h2>A doctor’s duty of care</h2>
<p>While in general we ought to obey the law, sometimes moral duties trump our obligation to obey the law. Consider as an unrelated example those who helped hide Jews in Nazi Germany – we would consider their law-breaking praiseworthy. </p>
<p>Knowing the impact of detention on children, it’s difficult to see how returning a child to this environment would be in their best interests. There is at least a minimal professional obligation to protest against present governmental practices, as the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2015/s4330123.htm">Australian Medical Association</a> among others have done. If medical professionals feel compelled to break the law it is entirely in keeping with their duty of care to their patients.</p>
<p>Perhaps a middle ground should be found here, where we minimise harm once potential refugees arrive. <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/fact-sheets/asylum-seeker-issues/mandatory-detention/">Community care programs</a> have been proven to be effective at protecting both the community and the children while avoiding the harms of long-term detention. </p>
<p>Until such a time, it’s fair to say while the Border Force Act may frown upon doctors refusing to release children into detention, few others will.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong><em>Further reading: <a href="https://theconversation.com/protecting-children-from-abuse-in-detention-requires-more-than-mandatory-reporting-49048">Protecting children from abuse in detention requires more than mandatory reporting</a></em></strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49047/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Hunter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Doctors at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital are refusing to discharge refugee children back into detention. Which should be a priority - their duty of care to their patient or the law?David Hunter, Associate Professor of Medical Ethics, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/428092015-06-09T05:18:03Z2015-06-09T05:18:03ZDetention gag orders make it impossible for doctors to do their job<p>Doctors and health professionals have always faced ethical dilemmas when choosing to work in the immigration detention system. The majority do so with the aim of providing high-quality care to a vulnerable group; traumatised adults and children often have significant <a href="https://theconversation.com/policy-deja-vu-will-have-a-devastating-effect-on-asylum-seeker-mental-health-11284">psychological and physical health problems</a>. </p>
<p>Doctors have long held concerns about the capacity of the immigration system to provide adequate health care – and about the health impact of prolonged detention itself. So health workers find themselves questioning the morality of a policy that in many ways can be seen as directly causing the health problems they are asked to treat. </p>
<p>From July, doctors will no longer be able to fulfil their ethical and professional obligations to report mistreatment of detainees. Under new legislation, passed last month with the support of both major parties, health professionals may be sentenced to two years in jail for the unauthorised disclosure of information about conditions in detention centres. </p>
<p>While it has always been hard to work with immigration, it may now be impossible.</p>
<h2>Expert advice</h2>
<p>Peak medical bodies and colleges have been raising concerns about policies such as mandatory detention and detention of children for more than a decade. </p>
<p>In 2006, following reports highlighting the poor standards of health and mental health care in detention centres, the government established the <a href="http://www.immi.gov.au/about/stakeholder-engagement/national/advisory/dehag/">Detention Expert Health Advisory Group</a> (DEHAG) to advise the immigration department about health and mental health services and care of asylum seekers. The group, which I chaired, consisted of representatives from mental health professional and consumer organisations. </p>
<p>While working to improve the standards of care within detention centres, the inherent tension on this role became apparent. We needed to provide expert and independent advice in the best interests of the detainees. However, maintaining professional ethical standards meant raising opposition to any government policy which causes harm and breaches international obligations. </p>
<p>The Department of Immigration disliked this approach, particularly when medical colleges and the professional bodies voiced opposition to detention and discussed these issues in a public way. Despite the group advising the government in good faith, the relationship became increasingly difficult and clinical expert opinion was consistently disregarded.</p>
<p>In 2013, the DEHAG was <a href="http://www.newsroom.immi.gov.au/releases/immigration-health-advisory-group-ihag-replaces-dehag">reconstituted</a> and eventually disbanded. The era of independent expert advice was seemingly over. A few individual clinicians continued to provide departmental advice but were unwilling or unable to make public comment. As a result, they were seen as being in a compromised position. </p>
<h2>Gag order</h2>
<p>The introduction of the Australian Border Force Act 2015 in July is a further step in the attempt to silence doctors and others who witness harm to asylum seekers and human rights abuses. </p>
<p>The implications span well beyond the professionals involved; it signals a fundamental contempt for freedom of opinion and the right to question the government’s approach to human rights and democracy.</p>
<p>The phenomenon of the doctor whistleblower is not new; doctors have long acted to protect groups in the face of persecution and harm. </p>
<p>The <em>failure</em> to speak out about harm at the hands of the state is <em>equally</em> important and we should question clinicians who choose to support the immigration regime when their attempts to bring about change fail.</p>
<p>The 15 Christmas Island doctors who wrote a public letter of concern about standards of medical care for detainees did so after failure to influence in any other way. </p>
<p>Similarly concerned clinicians have raised issues about sexual abuse and exploitation of women and children on Nauru and the poor treatment of a fracture in an 11-year-old boy. Doctors are also involved in the inquiry into the death of a Nauru man from septicaemia and in highlighting high rates of mental health problems in detained populations. </p>
<p>Under the new Act, they all face possible imprisonment for two years for complying with standard professional obligations. </p>
<p>A culture of fear and secrecy based on threats to imprison and punish clinicians can only serve to further erode any semblance of an immigration system that that is based on humanitarian principles. </p>
<p>At worst, it creates a secret state where immigration controls health practice in the interests of so-called border protection and doctors involved are essential colluding with human rights abuses. </p>
<p>It’s time to pass control of health care in detention facilities from immigration to health authorities. Clinical involvement in the current system is unsustainable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42809/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louise Newman received a sitting fee for her DEHAG role until 2013. She is Vice President of Doctors for Refugees. </span></em></p>From July, doctors will no longer be able to fulfil their ethical and professional obligations to report mistreatment of detainees.Louise Newman, Professor of Psychaitry, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/376372015-03-10T02:26:06Z2015-03-10T02:26:06ZIn praise of partisanship: Triggs is on the side of human rights<p>If you’ve been following the government’s attack on Human Rights Commission President Gillian Triggs and the commission’s report, <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/asylum-seekers-and-refugees/publications/forgotten-children-national-inquiry-children">The Forgotten Children: National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention</a>, then you’ll know that her cardinal political sin has been to be partisan and politicised.</p>
<p>As Prime Minister Tony Abbott <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-12/human-rights-immigration-report-blatantly-partisan-abbott/6087148">asked</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Where was the Human Rights Commission during the life of the former government when hundreds of people were drowning at sea? Where was the Human Rights Commission when there were almost 2000 children in detention?</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Being partisan doesn’t mean party-political</h2>
<p>Those who have come to Triggs’ defence have correctly <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/taxi-drivers-and-tony-abbott-could-learn-from-children-inside-our-detention-camps-20150304-13ulod.html">pointed out</a> that the Forgotten Children report takes Labor to task as well as the current government. And Triggs herself has <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/tony-abbott-slams-blatantly-partisan-triggs-call-on-children/story-fn9hm1gu-1227216895923">denied</a> that her report is politicised or partisan.</p>
<p>It’s true that Triggs’ report apportions responsibility for Australia’s brutal detention policies to both sides of politics. But in trying to deflect the government’s criticisms, we shouldn’t throw out partisanship and politicisation entirely.</p>
<p>In fact, a Human Rights Commission that isn’t partisan or politicised isn’t worth having.</p>
<p>How can a serious discussion of children in detention – or innocent people in detention whatever their stage of life – be anything other than political or partisan? Is the commission expected to say some nice things about mateship and Australia being a sport-loving country in its future reports to balance out the less savoury aspects of our national story? </p>
<h2>A false ‘balance’ is not being objective</h2>
<p>Part of the problem with criticisms of partisanship is the widespread misconception that it is the opposite of being objective and truthful. People who are partisan, according to this view, have an incomplete view of how things really are. If a more balanced view was taken about children in detention, for example, it’s assumed that things would look a whole lot better for the government.</p>
<p>But that in itself is to misunderstand partisanship. The truth is that partisanship and objectivity aren’t polar opposites. Properly understood, partisanship and objectivity are bedfellows. A measure of partisanship — and therefore politicisation – is required to be objective.</p>
<p>As Irish philosopher Terry Eagleton notes in his book <a href="https://philosophynow.org/issues/55/After_Theory_by_Terry_Eagleton">After Theory</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Objectivity and partisanship are allies, not rivals. What is not conducive to objectivity on this score is the judicious even-handedness of the liberal. It is the liberal who falls for the myth that you can only see things aright if you don’t take sides … The liberal has difficulty with situations in which one side has a good deal more of the truth than the other — which is to say, all the key political situations.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Policy of deterrence is ethically confused</h2>
<p>Abbott’s insistence that Triggs’ assessment of children in detention would be more acceptable if she were also to note the reduction in boat arrivals perpetuates this myth of even-handedness. On Abbott’s reasoning, once you take into account the reduction in the number of drownings, the practice of locking up kids supposedly becomes a defensible enterprise.</p>
<p>Of course, it isn’t. The two don’t – and cannot – balance each other out in a way that is ethically acceptable.</p>
<p>On the contrary, once you try to square things up in this way, Australia’s policies on detention, as enacted by both of the major parties, are even more barbaric. What Abbott and his supporters are effectively saying is that locking up some human beings is defensible if it dissuades other ones from stepping on to leaky boats.</p>
<p>Such a calculation flies in the face of a whole tradition of ethical thought, stretching back <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorical_imperative#The_Second_Formulation">to at least Immanuel Kant</a>, who holds that people are only ever to be treated as ends in themselves – rather than as a means to an end.</p>
<p>Against such a backdrop, it might have been best for the Abbott government to simply take the criticisms of the Human Rights Commission’s report on the chin.</p>
<p>Discussion about the timing of the Forgotten Children report and charges of partisanship are nothing but a beat-up by a government desperate for a distraction from ongoing leadership woes.</p>
<p>While human rights commissioners, journalists and academics – and anyone else who is in the business of seeking truth – have an obligation to avoid partisanship to a particular party or party line, Triggs’ report has avoided that, as any non-jaundiced reading of her report shows.</p>
<p>But we should never accept that a Human Rights Commission ought to be non-partisan or depoliticised. Without both, it would be incapable of doing its job.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37637/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Scanlon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We should never accept that a Human Rights Commission ought to be non-partisan or depoliticised. Without both, it would be incapable of doing its job.Christopher Scanlon, Academic Director, Learning Focus Area Hub, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/362992015-02-11T10:58:12Z2015-02-11T10:58:12ZReport calls for royal commission into children in immigration detention: experts respond<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71653/original/image-20150210-24679-owwzea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A drawing by a six-year-old child detained at the Christmas Island detention centre.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/AHRC</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The federal government has tabled the long-awaited Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/forgotten_children_2014.pdf">report</a> into children held in immigration detention. The report, which recommends a royal commission be held into the issue, has been subject to intense politicisation. This has included the AHRC and its president, <a href="https://theconversation.com/legal-scholars-statement-in-support-of-gillian-triggs-36476">Gillian Triggs</a>, coming in for criticism from <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/human-rights-commission-chief-gillian-triggs-drowning-in-evidence/story-fn59niix-1227131308575">government MPs</a> and <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/truth-overboard-at-gillian-triggs-inquiry-on-children-in-detention/story-fni0ffxg-1227034983124">media commentators</a>.</p>
<p>The report found that children in immigration detention had been involved in nearly 300 instances of actual or threatened self-harm between January 2013 and March 2014. It also revealed that more than one-third of children detained have developed a mental illness requiring psychiatric care.</p>
<p>The Conversation’s experts assessed the report’s implications for asylum seeker law, policy and health. Their responses follow.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Malcolm Fraser, Professorial Fellow at University of Melbourne</h2>
<p>Enough is enough. The government had the report on November 11 last year. It has tabled it on the last possible day. It is now clear that the attacks made on the AHRC, especially by senior ministers, has been designed to make it easier for the government to ignore the AHRC’s report.</p>
<p>The government’s response is a disgrace. It is based on a lie. It claims to have saved lives by stopping the boats and that the trauma inflicted on children by detaining them, is a small price to pay. It deliberately chose an inhumane way of stopping the boats. </p>
<p>If the Australian government worked with our regional neighbours and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to process people humanely in offshore detention centres in Malaysia or Indonesia, then there would be no market for people smugglers. Refugees would be flown to their final destination. This is not supposition or hearsay. This was the policy model adopted during the exodus of refugees fleeing Indochina following the Vietnam War. It would work again.</p>
<p>The real question for the government is why did it choose to do this, despite the trauma and harm done to hundreds of children, when there was a decent and proven way of achieving a much better result. </p>
<p>The attack on the integrity of the AHRC and its president, Gillian Triggs, is only to be expected of this government, who uses bullying as their default tactic. The attack is consistent with the way the government has approached legal decisions that have gone against it. This government has also refused to listen to our highest court, undermining the rule of law and ignoring international law.</p>
<p>The only conclusion we can really draw is that the inhumanity inflicted on these children is part of a policy of deterrence, which the government has pursued relentlessly. Australians needs to understand that this government has chosen an inhumane path when a compassionate path was available to it. </p>
<hr>
<h2>David Isaacs, Professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at University of Sydney and Hasantha Gunasekera, Senior Lecturer, Paediatrics & Child Health at University of Sydney</h2>
<p>When faced with the meticulously compiled report on children in detention, the government had two choices – respond to the substance or discredit the messenger with personal attacks. Unfortunately, it chose the latter – a sad indictment of current political debate. </p>
<p>For two decades, each government contributed to the current state of affairs. Keating introduced mandatory detention; Howard offshore processing; Gillard Malaysian rendition; Rudd barred visas; and Abbott turned back boats. This is beyond partisan politics. Asylum seekers have committed no crime, whether they arrive by plane or by boat, yet both sides of politics demonise them and treat them worse than criminals. </p>
<p>The current government boasts that the number of children in detention has fallen from nearly 2000 to 211. However, 119 children remain on Nauru, detained in inhumane conditions for an average 18 months. Their families are in limbo not knowing when, if ever, their refugee applications will be processed. </p>
<p>Prime Minister Tony Abbott used drownings at sea to justify the harsh policies. However, every parent has to decide which danger is greater: staying in their war-torn country; remaining in dangerous refugee camps in Indonesia; or the risk of drowning. Do any of us know better than them which is the greatest risk? </p>
<p>Offshore detention patently failed to stop the boats. Prime Minister Julia Gillard re-introduced offshore detention in 2012, and the boats continued to arrive regardless. </p>
<p>In addition to being immoral and ineffective, mandatory detention of children is also extraordinarily expensive. According to the government’s own response to questions on notice, last financial year the government spent A$1.2 billion operating the detention centres on Christmas Island, Manus Island and Nauru. On average, it cost taxpayers $422,800 in one year for each person held on Manus Island and $529,000 for each person detained on Nauru. </p>
<hr>
<h2>Catherine Smith, PhD Candidate in the Sociology of Education at Deakin University</h2>
<p>The press and politicians are finger-pointing and shifting blame in response to the report’s release. It is likely that Australia has broken the international <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx">Convention on the Rights of the Child</a>. This disregard for international conventions is not unprecedented within the immigration practices of the last 12 months, and the ramifications of this are still to unfold.</p>
<p>At the meta-level, these debates are global ones. There are more displaced people in the world today than there were after the Second World War. Around half of them are under 18. This means that there is a crises or global proportions involving millions of children who have had disrupted, traumatic childhoods where they have often been deprived of the essential elements of care which allow a child to flourish.</p>
<p>These are trapped children. Their parents have arrived somewhere, asked for protection, and been caught within the bureaucratic machine which encases their childhood in detention facilities, while the finger-pointing and blame shifting rages overhead.</p>
<p>Detention centres are highly <a href="http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.se/library/captured-childhood-introducing-new-model-ensure-rights-and-liberty-refugee-asylum-seeker-and">securitised settings</a>. Researchers have <a href="http://jrs.oxfordjournals.org/content/26/1/47.full.pdf?etoc">described</a> the:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… negative nature of the detention environment as ‘corrosive places’, ascribing it explicit culpability in the frequency of self-harming behaviour and growing rates of mental illnesses.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Additionally, there are reports that children have been abused and mistreated by other detainees and/or security guards and these young people are especially vulnerable because jurisdiction and protocol for child protection is not always clearly defined in detention centres.</p>
<p>The inability to protect their children from any of this is an <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20378223">additional trauma</a> on parents and has resounding impacts on family relationships. Many times parents are kept separate from their children and allowed to “visit” with them. Parents reported “anguish at not being able to provide for the basic needs of their children”. </p>
<p>Researchers have found that for parents, the restrictions in immigration detention can impact on parents’ capabilities to care for their children. They are unable to make choices around nutrition and schooling, and in some situations, where they are housed in separate units, not able to sleep close to them. </p>
<p>This, in combination with long periods of uncertainty and parents’ experiences of persecution, war, violence and exhaustion, can have detrimental impacts on the relationships between these parents and their children.</p>
<p>Children have historically had inadequate educational provision in immigration detention compared to those with similar needs in the Australian community. Reportedly, there are situations where young people have been denied things such as crayons in detention because “the children might draw on the walls”. The regular movements from facility to facility reported by families, adds further disruption to the opportunities these children do have to access education.</p>
<p>In a visit to the Christmas Island detention facility, the AHRC remarked that overcrowding had lead to the education wing being used for accommodation and that the high numbers of detainees meant that many children could not attend the local island school because there was not enough space.</p>
<p>These are trapped children and parents who have little opportunity to access the rights that should be afforded to them by the international conventions that protect us all. It is in the interest of everyone that notice is taken.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Elizabeth Elliott, Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health, Sydney Medical School at University of Sydney</h2>
<p><em>The Forgotten Children</em>. Three words that encapsulate the fate of children forcibly detained in Australia’s immigration detention centres. Children stripped of their identity and denied the basic human rights of freedom and education. Vulnerable children, many suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, with mothers who have lost hope. Children who have, for many months, remained invisible to the average Australian. </p>
<p>Invisible, inaudible and forgotten. That is, until the advent of the 2014 Australian Human Rights Commission’s <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/asylum-seekers-and-refugees/national-inquiry-children-immigration-detention-2014">National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention</a>.</p>
<p>The inquiry’s report finally gives asylum seekers and their children a voice. It humanises the children and it helps us to visualise their plight. The report provides tangible, credible, quantitative evidence to underpin observations reported by clinicians, <a href="https://theconversation.com/eyewitness-with-gillian-triggs-on-christmas-island-to-inspect-child-detainees-29692">including me</a>, who’ve visited detention centres – on the mainland, Christmas Island and Nauru – and those who provided submissions to the inquiry or appeared at hearings. </p>
<p>It highlights the harms – to health, mental health and well-being – that result from detention in hostile, inappropriate settings.</p>
<p>In March 2014, at the start of the inquiry, more than 1000 children under 18 years (153 under four years, 336 primary school-aged and 196 teenagers) had been held in arbitrary detention in centres in mainland Australia, Christmas Island and Nauru – for more than eight months on average (now more than 17 months), in violation of international human rights law.</p>
<p>Among these children we documented mental health disorders sufficient to warrant treatment in 34%, a level that wildly surpasses the 2% of the general child population who use outpatient mental health services. More than 30% of children surveyed report being always sad or crying; 25% are always worried; 18% sleep badly or have nightmares; 12% eat poorly; 4% self-harm.</p>
<p>The severity of their mental ill-health was measured using a validated tool, the Health of the Nation Outcomes Scales for Children and Adolescents (HoNOSCA). This revealed moderate to severe problems across all domains measured including behaviour, mood and social skills. Specific problems with concentration, language, and emotional control and anti-social behaviour were moderate or severe in more than 10%. </p>
<p>Perhaps these results should not surprise, considering the toxic environment. In one 14-month period, the Department of Immigration recorded 233 assaults, 27 cases of voluntary starvation and 128 incidents of actual self-harm in children in detention. The risk of suicide or self-harm was “high-imminent” or “moderate” in 105 of these children, ten of them under the age of ten. Add to this mix the mental ill-health of their parents and detention cannot but provide a bad beginning in life for child detainees.</p>
<p>We acknowledge the government’s efforts to decrease the number of children in detention, but have a duty of care to those who remain. We must also provide ongoing assessment and treatment to minimise long-term health and mental health outcomes for those living in the community. In future, the detention of children must not be arbitrary, should be a measure of last resort, and must be for the shortest possible time. Our evidence confirms that the longer the duration of detention, the worse the outcomes. </p>
<p>The report flags the urgent need for Australia to release all remaining child detainees into the community and to consider legislative change to ensure we manage children differently into the future. As a society we owe it to all children, in or out of detention to offer compassion, humanity and the health care and education that is their right.</p>
<p><em>Note: Elizabeth Elliott travelled to Christmas Island as part of the ARHC’s inquiry. Read her account <a href="https://theconversation.com/eyewitness-with-gillian-triggs-on-christmas-island-to-inspect-child-detainees-29692">here</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<h2>Madeline Gleeson, Research Associate, Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW Australia</h2>
<p>International law is clear on the circumstances in which detention will be arbitrary and unlawful. Detention, whether of asylum seekers or anyone else, is prohibited unless it is “reasonable, necessary and proportionate to a legitimate purpose”. </p>
<p>This “legitimate purpose” is the linchpin. The purposes that may justify detention of asylum seekers have traditionally been constrained to initial identity, health and security checks, and a few other specific grounds. More recently, there has been debate about whether these grounds could be expanded to include deterring irregular migration. </p>
<p>The Human Rights Commission’s inquiry renders this debate moot. </p>
<p>In evidence to the inquiry, former immigration ministers Scott Morrison and Chris Bowen admitted on oath that detaining children does not deter either asylum seekers or people smugglers. In conceding this point, they undermined the purported “legitimate purpose” that successive Australian governments have relied on to justify mandatory detention. In the words of the ARHC:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… there appears to be no rational explanation for the prolonged detention of children.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The tests of reasonableness and necessity require that detention be based on a detailed assessment of the necessity to detain, taking into account the circumstances and needs of each individual, and possible alternatives to detention.</p>
<p>When a child is involved, international law demands an even higher level of protection. The best interests of each child must be assessed individually and taken into account as a primary consideration, and no child should be detained except as a last resort. This final requirement is also enshrined in the Migration Act.</p>
<p>Australia’s current regime does not comply with any of these obligations. No real best interests assessments are conducted, nor are less restrictive arrangements considered for any child. Detention itself is causing harm, as children are exposed to assaults, sexual assaults and self-harm. 34% of detained children have mental health disorders so severe as to require hospital-based outpatient psychiatric treatment, compared to 2% in the Australian community. Children on Nauru in particular are:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… suffering from extreme levels of physical, emotional, psychological and developmental distress. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>These findings are unequivocal. The detention of Australia’s “forgotten children” will not “stop the boats”. But it will cause potentially irreversible harm to young people in our care, many of whom may become Australian citizens one day.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36299/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Elliott presented the findings of her visit to Christmas Island in a submission to a hearing of the Australian Human Rights Commission's National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention in 2014.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Isaacs is a consultant paediatricians who has run the Refugee Clinic at a tertiary children’s hospital for more than ten years. He is affiliated with the University of Sydney. He travelled to Nauru to consult on children in detention but donated all proceeds to the clinic.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Has Gunasekera is a consultant paediatricians who has run the Refugee Clinic at a tertiary children’s hospital for more than ten years. He is affiliated with the University of Sydney. He travelled to Nauru to consult on children in detention but donated all proceeds to the clinic.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Malcolm Fraser is a former prime minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983. He is patron of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Smith and Madeline Gleeson do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The federal government has tabled the long-awaited Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) report into children held in immigration detention. The report, which recommends a royal commission be held…Elizabeth Elliott, Professor of Paediatrics & Child Health, University of SydneyCatherine Smith, PhD Student in Sociology of Education, Deakin UniversityDavid Isaacs, Professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, University of SydneyHasantha Gunasekera, Senior Lecturer, Paediatrics & Child Health, University of SydneyMadeline Gleeson, Research Associate, Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW SydneyMalcolm Fraser, Professorial Fellow, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/226992014-02-05T03:34:00Z2014-02-05T03:34:00ZBack to the future: revisiting the treatment of child asylum seekers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40721/original/cwghj79p-1391565077.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Past failures cannot detract from the significance of documenting current abuses of children </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stephen Mitchell</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The 1,000-plus children <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/immigration-uncooperative-on-children-in-detention-gillian-triggs/story-fn9hm1gu-1226816520247">currently detained</a> in immigration detention facilities in Australia and Nauru are at risk of serious mental health and developmental problems. The Human Rights Commission this week <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/asylum-seekers-and-refugees/national-inquiry-children-immigration-detention-2014">launched an inquiry</a> into the potential harms suffered by these children, and those who were detained before them.</p>
<p>But while the need for a further inquiry into the detention of children is clear, its potential to bring about change is not; we’ve been here before. </p>
<p>In 2004, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission report <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/content/human_rights/children_detention_report/report/PDF/alr_complete.pdf">A Last Resort</a> documented the poor treatment of children and adolescents across the detention system. It found clear evidence of short- and long-term impacts on child development, well-being and mental health. </p>
<p>As someone who gave evidence to the inquiry based on my assessments of many children and families in closed detention centres, it seemed to promise reform and a greater commitment to child protection and children’s rights. So how is it that we’re here again?</p>
<h2>Last time</h2>
<p>The “first round” of immigration detention in the 2000s was typified by remote centres in Woomera and Baxter. Children were detained in harsh and deprived environments with limited facilities, activities or care. Children seen by child mental health specialists showed signs of developmental delay, attachment difficulties, anxiety and trauma-related conditions. </p>
<p>Those of us who went to the centres – all experienced clinicians – had seen these sorts of issues in extremely abused children. We struggled with the reality that the conditions of detention and the policy of mandatory detention directly contributed to these children’s mental deterioration. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40725/original/7wzvzvvs-1391566301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40725/original/7wzvzvvs-1391566301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40725/original/7wzvzvvs-1391566301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40725/original/7wzvzvvs-1391566301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40725/original/7wzvzvvs-1391566301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40725/original/7wzvzvvs-1391566301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40725/original/7wzvzvvs-1391566301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40725/original/7wzvzvvs-1391566301.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Drawing by a child detained in the Manus Island detention centre.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/greensmps/8445634471/">GreensMPs</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This experience led to <a href="http://rsq.oxfordjournals.org/content/27/3/110.abstract">research</a> into the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1056499308000217">factors contributing to mental disorder in detention</a> and advocacy for the rights of vulnerable asylum seekers to appropriate levels of care and support in an attempt to prevent harm. Professionals began to see the opposition of such damaging policies as an ethical responsibility. And major medical colleges, the Australian Medical Association and other health groups got involved to support the rights of child asylum seekers to care and protection. </p>
<p>This lobbying was a significant factor leading to the first HREOC inquiry. It also led to <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/12416449?selectedversion=NBD28676999">broader reviews</a> into the <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/hreoc-submission-inquiry-immigration-detention-australia">management of mental disorder in detention</a> as typified by the case of <a href="http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2005/september/1315447714/robert-manne/unknown-story-cornelia-rau">Cornelia Rau</a>, an Australian resident suffering from schizophrenia who was wrongly detained in immigration detention for ten months in 2004. </p>
<p>The series of reviews all pointed to the vulnerability of asylum seekers and the deterioration that comes with prolonged detention without hope in remote and harsh environments. The impacts on the very young are extreme; they are likely to suffer developmental problems with long-term consequences. </p>
<p>Those separated from their families experience grief and loss, which is compounded by the uncertainly of whether they’ll be reunited with their family: this is not an option currently with <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2013/08/16/abbott-toughens-asylum-seeker-policy">changes brought in</a> by the Abbott government.</p>
<h2>Sound advice</h2>
<p>The HREOC report and research by child psychiatrists and mental health professionals provided a clear outline of the impact of detention on children. This was widely discussed and shaped some <a href="http://www.immi.gov.au/managing-australias-borders/detention/services/detention-health-framework.pdf">positive reforms</a> in the “honeymoon” period of government openness to professionals having a consultancy role and input into policy reform. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40726/original/jyzzsx5p-1391566546.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40726/original/jyzzsx5p-1391566546.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40726/original/jyzzsx5p-1391566546.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40726/original/jyzzsx5p-1391566546.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40726/original/jyzzsx5p-1391566546.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40726/original/jyzzsx5p-1391566546.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40726/original/jyzzsx5p-1391566546.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40726/original/jyzzsx5p-1391566546.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lobbying was a significant factor leading to the first HREOC inquiry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenliveshere/439653423/sizes/o/">Stephen Mitchell</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The establishment of the <a href="http://www.immi.gov.au/about/stakeholder-engagement/national/advisory/dehag/">Detention Health Advisory Group</a> in 2006 and its follower the <a href="http://www.newsroom.immi.gov.au/releases/immigration-health-advisory-group-ihag-replaces-dehag">Immigration Health Advisory Group</a> (IHAG) was an important step in formalising a process for expert advice on complex heath and mental health issues. It contributed to better screening and identification of mental health problems, approaches to reducing risk of mental deterioration and, importantly, advice about the mental health and well-being of children. </p>
<p>Significant numbers of family groups were placed in forms of community detention and the advisory groups continued to highlight the needs of children to education, activities and less restricted environments. </p>
<p>Of course, there is always tension inherent in a process of independent advice. The professional bodies have always opposed the detention of children, torture and trauma survivors and those with mental illness, and have consistently articulated this view over the last 15 years. But while government may choose not to act on advice, it can still be given in good faith.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-16/coalition-disbands-immigration-health-advisory-group/5158084">disbanding of IHAG</a> in October 2013 raises concerns about lack of any independent expert advice on asylum seeker health and mental health and the willingness of government to have a degree of scrutiny around the impact of policy changes on asylum seekers.</p>
<h2>Towards reform</h2>
<p>Past failures cannot detract from the significance of documenting current abuses of children. It is shameful Australia has reverted to the conditions of a decade ago in the face of substantial evidence about the damage closed detention of children can produce.</p>
<p>We now face some major challenges: depression, despair and suicidal behaviour among young people on Christmas Island facing transport to Nauru; the government’s statements that there are “no exceptions” to transportation on the grounds of age, illness or mental disorder; a culture of limiting access to information about the welfare of children; and lack of any independent monitoring or review of detention centres are all major challenges. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40727/original/p43m8qjp-1391567017.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40727/original/p43m8qjp-1391567017.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40727/original/p43m8qjp-1391567017.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40727/original/p43m8qjp-1391567017.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40727/original/p43m8qjp-1391567017.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40727/original/p43m8qjp-1391567017.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40727/original/p43m8qjp-1391567017.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40727/original/p43m8qjp-1391567017.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Another drawing by a child detained at Manus Island.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/greensmps/8445634853/sizes/l/">Greens MPs</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The imperative is to seek information that will allow a review of the conditions of detention and the mental health and developmental outcomes for children. The challenge for a government wedded to remote processing and deterrence is to convince the community that damage to children is collateral damage in the “war” against asylum seekers and that the ends justify the means. </p>
<p>Without independent inquiries, this discussion will not occur and we are condemned to repeat past mistakes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22699/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louise Newman previously received funding from Beyond Blue (Treating trauma in refugee youth: An Australian experience) and currently from ARC (Small Mercies, Big Futures: Enhancing Law, Policy and Practice in the Selection, Protection and Settlement of Refugee Children and Youth). She is Vice-President of Doctors 4 Refugees.</span></em></p>The 1,000-plus children currently detained in immigration detention facilities in Australia and Nauru are at risk of serious mental health and developmental problems. The Human Rights Commission this week…Louise Newman, Professor of Psychaitry, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.