Australia's refugee policy under fire

By Amit Baruah

SINGAPORE, AUG 15. If the idea is to deter people from travelling to Australia ``illegally'', then the treatment meted out to six- year-old Shayan Badraie should be a sufficient deterrent to both families and individuals.

This Iranian boy has been diagnosed as suffering from acute post- traumatic stress disorder after seeing an inmate at the Villawood detention centre attempting suicide by slashing his wrists. Earlier, at the Woomera detention centre for refugees, Shayan saw inmates setting fire to themselves and guards using batons to deal with rioters.

He remains in detention but is currently in hospital for treatment. Australia follows a mandatory policy of detaining all ``illegal'' arrivals and keeping them there until they are deported or found to be bona fide refugees according to the country's rules. The country's approach to refugees and their families led a Pakistani man to immolate himself outside the Australian Federal Parliament in Canberra earlier this year. The Iranian child, whose story was carried today by the Sydney Morning Herald, does not speak and is regularly admitted to hospital for he refuses to eat or drink after seeing the traumatic events at two detention centres. ``He, his younger sister, and Iranian parents have been in detention for 17 months. Their application for refugee status has been declined, and they are expected to be deported any day,'' the Herald reported.

According to Mr. Philip Ruddock, Australia's hardline Immigration Minister, the parents had brought their child to Australia ``unlawfully'', aware that they would be detained when they got to the country. ``A lot of psychiatric conditions arise when you have a predisposition to them, and this can be triggered if your parents elect to bring you half way around the world in order to make asylum claims,'' Mr. Ruddock said, putting the blame for the boy's condition on the parents.

In response, Mr. Duncan Kerr, Opposition justice spokesman, said blaming asylum-seekers for the condition of their child was sickening. ``I find this extraordinary...to blame parents for the trauma that happens if their child is placed in circumstances where they are behind the wire for 17 months, witnessing violence, and then blaming the victim, if that is the case, I'm quite upset about that and I don't think it does the Minister no credit whatsoever,'' Mr. Kerr was quoted as saying.

``Putting one's head in the sand and blaming it on the parents who have come to Australia seeking protection is something that makes me quite ill,'' he said, demanding that the Government hold an inquiry into the detention centres.

In its annual report for 2001, Human Rights Watch blamed Australia for pursuing a ``punitive asylum policy which showed little regard for either abiding or being judged by international human rights standards''. Despite only receiving a tiny proportion of the world's refugees - 9,450 asylum applicants in 1999, compared with 95,110 applicants in Germany - Australia reacted with disproportionate zeal to the arrivals, the human rights watchdog said. Australia, it said, pursued a policy of mandatory detention for all asylum-seekers and other non-citizens who arrived through ''illegal`` channels.

''In July 2000, the U.N. Human Rights Committee criticised Australia for its mandatory detention policies and for neither informing, nor allowing, NGOs access to inform detainees of their right to seek legal advice. Asylum-seekers were kept in remote detention centres thousands of miles away from major population centres,`` Human Rights Watch said.

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Section  : International
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