Keeping children in immigration detention ‘disgraceful’

The former chief justice of the Family Court of Australia says the Federal Government should be “deeply ashamed of itself” over its policy of keeping children in immigration detention.

Alastair Nicholson, now chairman of Children’s Rights International, said the criticism of Australia’s policy of placing children in detention, made by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Jakarta overnight, is “a very significant thing”.

UNHCR representative Thomas Vargas told ABC’s AM program “the negative impact that it has on a child’s life at the very beginning of their life, to put them in this type of horrible situation, you can just imagine the negative consequences that it has on their psyche, on their well being,” Mr Vargas said.

“Not only is it not humanitarian, but it’s illegal under international law.”

Mr Nicholson said it is time Australia realised it is in breach of international law and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

“The Minister [Scott Morrison] has been hiding these facts and pretending in some way he’s acting lawfully, when he knows full well that he’s not,” he said.

“It’s disgraceful behaviour on behalf of the Australian Government and it should be deeply ashamed of itself.”

There are currently 726 children in immigration detention facilities on the Australian mainland and offshore.

In a statement, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Scott Morrison said the Government “will continue to reduce the number of children in detention as we have been doing since the day we were elected”.

“Under this Coalition government, the number of children on Christmas Island has dramatically reduced by 75 per cent,” he said.

“There is now an almost 50 per cent reduction across all centres, including offshore processing centres, due to our successful border protection policies.”

Claims children being used as pawns for political gain

But the Federal Government is currently negotiating with crossbench senators to pass the Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Bill 2014.

This would see the introduction of temporary protection visas, create the Safe Haven Enterprise Visa, fast-track the assessment process and remove access to the Refugee Review Tribunal.

Mr Morrison said once the legislation is passed “we will be able to get the remaining children out of detention in Australia”.

But Mr Nicholson argued what Mr Morrison is doing is precisely what the UNHCR has said he should not.

“And that is to use children as a pawn to achieve a political objective … and that’s precisely what he’s doing,” he said.

“The Minister could release those children tomorrow if he wanted to but what he’s saying is he won’t do it unless – and it’s aimed at the crossbench in particular – they cave in and pass what is an appalling piece of legislation at its best, that he’s advancing in the Parliament.

“He’s got absolutely no excuse keeping any children in detention. He talks about the fact that he’s reduced the number of children in detention but that’s just not good enough.