An inhumane policy that damages some to deter others. Detention centres that cause psychiatric disorders, self-harm and suicide. Arbitrary. Unjust. Cynical.
This is how an open letter, named "J'accuse", signed by more than 220 psychiatrists, human rights lawyers, priests, health professionals and other experts describes Australia鈥檚 refugee policy.
The letter, which can be read via GetUp!, has accused the government of a raft of appalling actions that it 鈥渨ilfully and deliberately鈥 carries out against asylum seekers and refugees.
The letter follows an ongoing inquiry into the by the Human Rights Commission, which recently heard that the immigration department had tried to suppress statistics on the high rates of self-harm among children in detention.
Signatories to the letter believe the government is 鈥渃ontravening children protection policy and children鈥檚 rights, by continuing to detain children as a first resort when such detention should be a matter of last resort ... and by detaining children and unaccompanied minors offshore in isolated detention facilities, exposing them to violence, trauma and to poor medical and psycho-social care, with no access to independent monitoring鈥.
The scale of trauma has been revealed by the Human Rights Commission鈥檚 latest inquiry. Commission president Gillian Triggs visited children in the Christmas Island detention centre and said most of the 174 children there were sick, depressed and regressing.
Triggs told ABC Radio: 鈥淭here is no eye contact with some of them ... A lot of the younger babies are not crawling or doing the things they should be doing at their age group simply because of the conditions鈥.
Most of those held on Christmas Island are people the Coalition government insists will never be settled in Australia. Triggs said they were in a 鈥渓egal twilight zone鈥 and the stress on the parents was inevitably causing trauma for the children.
There had been 128 reported cases of self-harm in the 15 months to March 31 at the Christmas Island detention centre.
Psychiatrist Dr Peter Young told Triggs鈥 inquiry that as the head of the International Medical and Health Services he had reported to the department that 鈥渁 large number of children have significant distress鈥.
鈥淭he department has been very negative towards the results,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hey are concerned about what the figures are showing.
鈥淭hey have asked us to withdraw figures from the reporting.鈥
The number of casualties to this cruel system continues to rise. A Pakistani teen reportedly tried to kill himself rather than be returned to Nauru on August 12. He had spent less than a month on Nauru before being brought back to Australia to be treated for kidney stones in January. He was sent back in February, then returned and hospitalised in Brisbane again in June.
Sydney-based advocates said the 16-year-old had 鈥渟everely slashed his arms after being told that he was to be sent back to Nauru.
鈥淚t is an extreme statement that the conditions on Nauru are so bad that a 16-year-old boy is driven to so seriously self-harm rather than be sent back there,鈥 said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition. He said the treatment of the boy was evidence of institutional child abuse.
The evidence being presented to the Human Rights Commission 鈥 of systematic mistreatment, inadequate facilities and care, and active suppression of statistics by the department 鈥 show the government is not about to back down from the torture and harm of children.
91自拍论坛 Weekly on Facebook and on Twitter.