Refugees, Children in detention

Backdrop

Half of the world’s refugees are children but their voices are amongst the least heard. Amidst the debate and conflict around refugees and border protection, the rights of refugee children have been neglected.

The vulnerable condition of refugee children is evident from the statement of Ibrahim Ishreti, a refugee child living on bridging visa, he says: before coming to Australia we heard that everyone’s human rights and freedoms are respected here but nobody would believe what is happening to us… We don’t have any human rights and are treating like animals. Like other human beings our lives are not normal and our feelings and thinking are dead. We are depressed and can not smile[1].

Australia is signatory of significant number of human rights treaties including the1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol and own affluent custom of providing shelter to refugees, however the current policy of mandatory detention for on-shore arrival including children (whether accompanied or unaccompanied) has acutely damaged its international reputation. The mandatory detention might be justifiable policy concerns but it advanced wide community pro and contra debate and discussion in the country.

The writer is a Pakistani origin immigrant in Australia. Pakistan considers a poorest country of the world host over a million Afghan refugees enjoying ample freedoms, however in Australia – where the number of unauthorized arrivals has never been much more than 4000 in any one year are placed indefinitely in detention camps with limited access to services, hence the motive for selecting this topic.

Key Aspects of the Policy

The inherent intentions for implementing the mandatory detention policy are to have an “ordered” approach to immigration and to make certain that the country’s boundaries are secure. But little or no consideration has been given to the impact of these polices on the children who are caught up in them. That policy

● Denies internationally recognised fundamental human rights to all children of

particular social group;

● Children without committing any crime are put behind razor wire and are locks up.

● And fails to recognises the vulnerability and special needs of these children.

United Nations being representative body of the international community has undertaken the responsibility for the promotion and protection of human rights of all human beings including children. T