One child’s life in Melbourne

By Pamela Curr

One child’s life in Melbourne. He repeated  the words  “Court House” and was puzzled as he looked at the small simple white  building in a street  of houses in the back streets of Coburg. I explained that long ago this was a Court House but not any longer. He then told me proudly that he knew about Australia’s court system , that serious crime went to the Supreme Court and other matters to the High Court.

This clever  eleven year old boy whose life in Australia has been  8 months in detention centres on Christmas Island and Melbourne, was wide-eyed with pleasure and excitement  at being out of detention even for a few hours  His English is self-taught and he is desperate to go to school but so far this is denied. He attends classes for two hours  in the detention centre when they are organised and it was here that he learnt about the Court system. He will bring joy to any teacher with this active mind seizing on knowledge and facts with curiosity and pleasure.

Considering his life is ruled by guards and contained behind miles of two and three metre high cyclone fences, I wondered at the need to spend time on this limited topic of Australian life. There are schools in all directions from the Broadmeadows detention facility but five months after MITA 3 opened its gates to lock up 300 family members, no progress has been made on getting the children into school.Initially we were told that the children would be released so quickly that there is no point in sending them to school.

There are now children in Australia’s detention system for nearly a year without access to school. This denial of education to the children of asylum seekers is now universal throughout Australia.  It seems curious that the same Australian government which punishes Aboriginal parents for not sending their children to school, neglects its own responsibility to the children for whom the government bears direct responsibility.

SERCO is required to provide activities for those detained. To fulfil this requirement and tick the boxes, activities are designed for 60 minute blocks of time. To encourage participation, adult attendees can earn two points but only if they spend 60 minutes in the prescribed activity. The parents of the children in detention do these activities  to get biscuits and treats from the canteen  for their children. A regular activity is colouring an A4 page outline of the Australian flag. Mothers tell me that they have done it over and over, then shrug as they say what can we do- it is for the children.  I was intrigued to see that this creative activity is prescribed in Brisbane detention also, although the parents there get to colour in one of those cheap supermarket children’s colouring-in books.

Children are denied education while  their parents are forced to engage in demeaning activities to satisfy the detention contractors.  Just another reason why  detention drives people crazy.

By Pamela Curr
Detention Rights Advocate
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre