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September 26th, 2011 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
“The issues in relation to unaccompanied minors are really problematic here” … Sarah Hanson-Young. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
DETENTION of asylum seeker children was so damaging it should be considered child abuse, a parliamentary inquiry has been told.
Federal politicians sitting in Darwin heard of severe mental health problems among young immigration detainees in the Northern Territory, including the case of an unaccompanied nine-year-old who was hospitalised after attempting suicide.
”Detention of asylum seeker children and their families is a form of child abuse,” the Australian Medical Association’s Peter Morris told the inquiry into the troubled detention network.
When the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young asked Dr Morris why he used the term child abuse, Dr Morris replied that the damage was institutionalised and it was a system being imposed upon the families.
There are 119 children being held in immigration detention at Darwin Airport Lodge, including 58 unaccompanied minors. Another 10 Indonesian child crew members are held at Berrimah House in Darwin. They are being detained despite it being federal government policy that children should be housed in the community while awaiting protection visa outcomes.
Dr Morris said a third of the children were suffering from depression, and the detention of children should be limited to only three days.
Senator Hanson-Young said Dr Morris’s language was ”very strong”, but backed up by his point that it was highly unusual for nine-year-olds to attempt suicide in the general community. ”The issues in relation to unaccompanied minors are really problematic here. A nine year old attempting suicide – what independent advice and support is being given?” she said.
The immigration health service provider, IHMS, had recognised the worsening situation and had requested that more psychiatric services be provided to Darwin detainees, she said.
Royal Darwin Hospital said 33 detainee children under the age of 16 had been admitted to the hospital.
Susan Cox, QC, of NT Legal Aid, said the commission was concerned that unaccompanied asylum seeker children were also not being provided with independent legal advice.
The department replied that the Minister for Immigration was the guardian of unaccompanied asylum seeker children, so it was up to the department to appoint their legal representatives.
Immigration officials confirmed that 75 unaccompanied children will be moved from Christmas Island to the Leonora detention facility, 830 kilometres north east of Perth, this week.
The children, who were originally to be sent to Malaysia before the High Court blocked the Malaysia transfers, will travel with support workers from Life Without Barriers.
The children will be enrolled in the local school, but refugee activists have criticised moving them to such a remote location and questioned the lack of mental health facilities in the town.
❏ The Nauru government and United Nations yesterday said Nauru had officially become a party to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. A Nauru government spokesman said the nation had applied 90 days ago to become a party to the protocol. The federal opposition wants to send asylum seekers to Nauru and not Malaysia, which does not recognise the Refugee Convention.
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