Letter from south Australia.

 

Chris Goddard and Max Liddell have complained to the state government about the treatment of children at a detention centre for asylum seekers located in a remote desert region,.

 

On 21 March 2002 we reported to the South Australian Department of Human Services on the children and young people held in the Woomera Detention Centre. We took this action because we formed a suspicion, on reasonable grounds, that these asylum seekers are being abused or neglected or both - and, under the relevant South Australian legislation, the reporting of suspected child abuse is mandatory for social workers.

 

As a result of our referral, we expect the department to investigate the children's circumstances and act to secure their safety and best interests, as required by law.

 

There are many reasons to be concerned for the welfare of those children held by the federal government in Woomera. In February, after a five-day visit, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) confirmed that the camp was in breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It said the children were being inadequately educated, and that health services and living standards were poor. In two weeks, the organisation recorded 13 threats of self-harm, five lip sewings, one attempted hanging and three self-slashings. One 14-year-old was reported to have sewn his lips twice and slashed the word "freedom" into his arm.

 

The HREOC commissioner said in February that there were nine children who had been in Woomera for longer than one year, and 70 who had been there for more than six months. Australia's Catholic bishops have called on the federal government to reassess the way asylum seekers are treated. Former staff doctors at Woomera complained, describing conditions as "inhumane" and "distressing".

 

Although we have never seen these children, we know they must be emotionally and psychologically abused. The relevant South Australian government website (www.cyh.sa.gov.au) tells us that "emotional abuse is behaviour towards a child which destroys self-esteem, confidence and a child's sense of worth".

 

It is our view that all this forms the "reasonable grounds" that the Department of Human Services in South Australia requires for a referral to be made.

 

It is impossible to imagine that any child protection service anywhere in the world would regard keeping children behind razor wire in a desert as anything but emotionally abusive. It is not hard to imagine how history will judge the holding of children at Woomera.

 

In our hearts we know that keeping a child, anybody's child, out of sight in a desert camp behind razor wire cannot be justified. We know that it is through such abuse that violence and pain is passed down from one generation to the next.

 

On 4 April 2002, The Age newspaper reported that South Australian child protection workers will enter the Woomera Detention Centre "to assess the mental welfare" of young asylum seekers. We await the outcome of their assessment.

 

Chris Goddard and Max Liddell teach social work at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia (chris.goddard@med.monash.edu.au). Goddard is joint author of In the Firing Line, published by John Wiley and Sons, 2002.

 

 

Background

 

- South Australia covers 984,377 square kilometres - four times the size of the UK. It has a population of 1.5 million, of which over one million live in the state capital Adelaide.

 

-   It is Australia's driest state - a region of rocky plains and desert landscapes with summer temperatures reaching 40oC.

 

-   Woomera - a former rocket testing range - is the largest of Australia's six detention centres, with just under 1,000 inhabitants. It is also perhaps the most remote, being nearly 300 miles from Adelaide.

 

-   More than 25 per cent of detainees in immigration detention centres are Afghans. Other groups include Iraqis - around 13 per cent - and Iranians at about 7 per cent.