Children are still in detention

Yesterday, the Minister for Immigration, Chris Bowen, announced that the Government had met its promise made in October last year to release the majority of children from immigration detention by June 30th this year.  While congratulating themselves on their ‘great achievement’, the Government failed to acknowledge what will happen to the 329 children still left in immigration detention – some of who may be affected by the Government’s proposed Malaysia ‘solution’.

While there is no doubt that the community detention program has been a success – there are still many concerns.  We have heard heartwarming reports of teenagers coming from detention and cooking for themselves and inviting friends over for meals, attending school and finding their way around Melbourne within weeks. The model of installing a carer from the same ethnic background worked best of all. These carers knew from experience the difficulties faced by kids without parents in a new country. The kids themselves have not forgotten their friends in detention and have continued to journey from Ballarat, Geelong and Melbourne suburbs to visit those left behind in the MITA detention centre in Broadmeadows.

The success of community detention is clear – at a human rights level and a financial level.  The cost of community detention is a fraction of the two billion dollars spent on Immigration detention policy in 2009-2010. When the teenagers get their visas they know their way around and are involved in school and looking for work after hours. This is a more intelligent and compassionate way to care for refugee teenagers and children than locking them up in the “factories for mental illness”.

While the Government met the promised majority of children out of detention, it is still a failure as 329 children and over 6000 adults are still in detention under our mandatory indefinite detention policy.

Last year, Bowen spoke specifically of unaccompanied minors (UAMs) and his desire to ‘get the very significant majority of what we call the ‘unaccompanied minors’ out of detention’.  The Government’s announcement yesterday did not provide any details of how many UAMs will remain in detention.  UAMs are the most vulnerable of an already distressed group.  It is concerning that there are no provisions for future release of UAMs or any children from detention.

The Government has not outlined a plan to release those remaining in detention or provided any details of an extension of the Community Detention program beyond June 30th. There is capacity within the community sector to provide for more children and families entering community detention.  We cannot stop advocating until the Government promises to release all children from detention and outlines a plan to do so – along with a change in legislation to ensure that children are not detained in the future.

We also can not and should not overlook that over 6,000 people are left in limbo in Australia’s detention centres – people who have well and truly become forgotten.  Whilst we continue to advocate for the release of children in detention we should also be reminding the Government of its detention values and calling for an end to the policy of mandatory detention.  It’s up to us to act. The Government responded to the thousands of objections to the live export trade – they will do the same if we also raise our voices about asylum seekers.