The federal government said on June 29 it had met its “commitment” to move child refugees out of detention and into community-based accommodation.
In October last year, 738 children were held in detention. Widespread public fears for the mental and physical damage caused by long-term detention forced the government to act.
The immigration department said it would “begin moving significant numbers of children and vulnerable family groups out of immigration detention” into community detention.
But immigration minister Chris Bowen said on June 29 only 62% — 586 — had been moved out of refugee detention. About one third were unaccompanied minors.
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said 329 children remained locked up and the government appeared to have no plans to move them.
About 100 children are still held in the Darwin Airport Lodge detention centre, close to where at least five refugees recently tried to commit suicide and others have sewn their lips shut.
More than 50 boys aged between 13 and 17 are still held at the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation in Broadmeadows, where refugees held protests late last year. In March, a distraught boy climbed a tree in the compound and refused to come down for more than six hours.
In Villawood detention centre in Sydney, children are still being held with their families, including the three children of Tamil refugees who face indefinite detention due to a “negative security check” by ASIO.
The youngest of the three was born in detention in August last year.
Many children — unaccompanied and with families — are still held on Christmas Island. Some face deportation to Malaysia if the government finalises its human swap deal.
The number of children in Australian detention peaked in April at 1048. Refugee advocates, legal groups, psychiatrists, churches, child welfare groups, human rights organisations and the UN high commissioner for refugees have roundly condemned Australia’s detention of children.
The rising numbers throughout 2010 led to the relaunch of the refugee advocate group ChilOut (Children Out of Detention). The group said: “We are again holding hundreds of children in remote desert and island camps — for tawdry political purposes.”
In April, ChilOut members visited Christmas Island detention centre. They later released a report, No Place for Children, detailing the “prison-like conditions” for children.
The report said many refugee children have “fled active war zones” and there is extensive proof that “detention compounds trauma”.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) condemned the government for continuing to detain children in Darwin, ABC Online said on July 4.
AMA Northern Territory president Dr Paul Bauert — director of Paediatrics at Royal Darwin Hospital — told ABC radio on July 6: “We know that children subjected to stress are going to end up with long term mental health and physical health problems …
“These children are in environments where there is a lot of stress on parents, relatives and other refugees. Many of these people are self-harming, many are attempting suicides, many are going on hunger strikes. These children are seeing this happening around them.”
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and ChilOut said moving children into community detention was a step forward, but raised concerns that the immigration minister could decide “on a case-by-case basis” who could be moved from detention. It “should not be a discretionary matter”, ChilOut said.