HREOC renews call to end mandatory detention : Melbourne Indymedia

One activity condemned in the report was the use of detainees to wash staff cars at the Northern centre in Darwin. HREOC said the staff were using detainees for their own personal benefit and the activity should be removed from the internal activities program. HREOC has renewed its call for an end to Australia's mandatory immigration detention laws.

Mr Innes is calling for the mandatory detention policy to be scrapped. He says detention has "an impact on the person's mental health," he said. Mr Innes says the biggest problem for detainees is the length of time they are kept in the centres.

Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone says despite serious concerns over detainees' mental health, the Government's harsh mandatory detention policy will remain. She said the government has made some improvements in mental health assessments. "People [are] getting a mental health assessment on the way in to detention, so we pick up the problem earlier," said the Minister.

Mr Innes said detainees were still being held in detention for far too long, and he identified 41 areas for improvement. HREOC wanted mandatory detention laws to be repealed but said if this was not possible there should be greater efforts to release or transfer people out of detention centres within three months.

The HREOC report, "Summary of Observations following the Inspection of Mainland Immigration Detention Facilities - January 2007", states that the main complaint from detainees in the Perth facility is the length of indefinite detention, particularly for those detainees whose visas have been cancelled under section 501 of the Migration Act. Detainees also complained about crowded accommodation.

The report also outlines many other issues. The greatest problem in the Maribyrnong centre appears to be the indefinite periods of time for which detainees are held. There is particular frustration for those detainees whose visas have been cancelled under section 501 of the Migration Act, as many of them have strong family ties in the local community. It seems that detainees do not have legal assistance. They are apparently not entitled to legal aid or any other free immigration assistance. Further, it seems that there are no bridging visa options available to those detained under a section 501 cancellation.

In Baxter IDC, where six detainees attempted suicide in 2 days late last year, detainees complained about the quality and variety of food amongst other issues. The report noted that the notorious Red One compound (Solitary Confinement) is still used for "behaviour management purposes".

In 2004, HREOC found that Australia's immigration detention laws, as administered by the Commonwealth, and applied to unauthorised arrival children, create a detention system that is fundamentally inconsistent with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The Commonwealth's failure to implement the repeated recommendations by mental health professionals that certain children be removed from the detention environment with their parents amounted to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of those children in detention.

Inside the Villawood complex, there is still a real fear about asbestos after the earlier removal operations. Another concern was that most mental health nurses are on short contracts, making it difficult for detainees to gain trust in any one staff member. Further, many of the mental health problems happen at night when there are no mental health staff available.

The human rights of hundreds of people are being abused daily, hourly by the Australian Federal government.

The full report is available here

SOURCES:
HREOC renews call to end mandatory detention - ABC
Detainees used to wash cars - The Age
HREOC - Media Release
National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention
Submissions to the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention
HREOC: Scrap mandatory detention - GLW

Human Rights and Equal Opportunity?

HREOC is an arm of the despotic John Howard government. And it's not about washing cars or being saved from washing cars. It's about whitewashing lives. Selected human beings in cages and treated like animals and not even for a crime.

The Unquestionable should be questioned

http://illusivemind.blogspot.com/2005/05/australian-detention-centres.html

Where were HREOC? Having sunday lunch with John Howard and then on to nice game of golf! Illusive Mind Indeed!

Further why did you leave this media release off your list here? Shame shame, shame.

HREOC attempts to save face!
by Parrot Press 2007-01-20 6:11 AM +0800

You may recall a comment yesterday about HREOC if you don't here it is once again for your perusal...

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HREOC?
by Parrot Press Friday January 19, 2007 at 01:35 PM

Detention centres' living conditions improve, HREOC says

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission says living conditions have improved in mainland immigration detention centres.

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Goes to show you what HREOC is good for doesn't it!

Maintaining despicable inhumane human rights for selected people who are treated like animals in a cage!

HREOC should continue to be condemned as another arm of government, which is all that it has been and is! Good for sanctioning despots!

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Seems like they took our call yesterday and today we get this from them...

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HREOC renews call to end mandatory detention

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) has renewed its call for an end to Australia's mandatory immigration detention laws.

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However this is not because they have realised the error of their ways but more likely how stupid that previous statement was and this is imho is just another cover up and face saving exercise by the government arm to cover their mistake and not a genuine attempt to something about human rights and equal opportunities at all.

So don't take the bait so easily.

By the way what did they do for David Hicks lately????? 5 years aye?

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The lucky country? Lucky you're not waiting for HEROC to save you!

Why are there apparent abuses of justice? In viven solon, cornelia rau, Mulrunji , Hickey, Hicks case. Institutional discrimination by bodies set up to eliminate it. Discrimination in the law and legal system. Welcome to the kangaroo Court.

For John Howard to be allowed his White Australia Policy, his puppet HREOC and von Dousa QC must allow him full rein

http://perth.indymedia.org/?action=newswire&parentview=43446

High Risk Management Unit Goulburn NSW

Harm-U is guaranteed to cause any prisoner within it’s walls psychosis and self harm due to the conditions, over-crowding, lack of facilities, lack of programs, and lack of any constructive lifestyle imposed on vilified prisoners some who are on remand others on suspicion of being a terrorist. This treatment is in breach of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.

Things like heath care, contact visits and access to religious material don’t rate at the (Guantanamo Bay of Goulburn) where you can be freezing, overheated or starving in a box within a box with no fresh air, little natural light (because you’re locked up 24 hours a day for up to 3 days a week and the only days you can be certain to get out is on Saturday and Sunday. Transferred to the next cell every 14 days. No legal facilities and where your visitors are subject to a security check that may take six months. Your mail is withheld and if you call health care banging your head on a wall or religion praying for mercy in isolation.

Go HREOC? How many years has it been now???????

Does "indy" media mean selective, biased media? Whether you wanna believe HREOC or not, the general thrust of its report on immigration detention is
that conditions have improved considerably from their last visit, staff (both GSL and DIMA) are treating detainees with greater respect, and yes,
HREOC still believes the government's mandatory detention policy should be
repealed.

But funny how "indy" media can only focus on the negatives and skews its coverage as critical as possible.

As for the posting of detention numbers and locations (by one of your posters), it's so out of date -- it says it's from may 18. I assume that's almost a year ago. But I guess the nice artwork of an Australian map and
detentionc entre locations and numbers looks good on your site. The reality is there are about 500 detainees in immigration detention these days. More and more and being released into community detention. About
one third-half of those in detention are illegal fishermen. The full breakdown is provided on DIMA's website -- that's where I got my information (immi.gov.au).

Look, we may not all like or support the policies of the government of the day, and we may not all like the outcome of reports such as HREOC's most
recent on immigration detention. Furthermore, we may not like what DIMA does in its delivery of government programs and policies. But at the end of the day, it's how a democracy works.

Fortunately you, and me, have this site (and others) on which to vent our collective spleens!

You want to us to focus on the people who are not locked up. But we want to focus on the people who are locked up, have been, still are and being mistreated in custody. Including those that have recieved no help at all and those that have done nothing at all.

I didn't include those that made a complaint to HREOC and have subsequently died in custody after receiving no help.

The article focuses on a push for and end to Mandatory Detention. HREOC, in the media release, an indeed throughout the report made references to this fact.

Melbourne IMC needn't be a place for reguritating Government propaganda.

The fact remains that people should NOT be placed in these terrible places.

Did not list this initial statement in the original material why not?

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Detention centres' living conditions improve, HREOC says

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission says living conditions have improved in mainland immigration detention centres.

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In my view an intention to decieve!

Illegal fishing kids still getting a raw deal?
Date: Monday, 22 January 2007
Sophie Black writes:
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission report on Australia's five mainland immigration detention centres released on Friday received pretty good press over the weekend, echoing HREOC commissioner Graeme Innes' line that conditions within the centres have improved substantially.

Despite the revelation that detainees at one centre were being used to wash staff cars, according to the report most detainees made no complaints about staff attitudes or the way they were treated.

But buried within the reports was a passing reference to the continuing detention of children. The HREOC addresses the detainment of minors, all of whom at the time of writing the report were children who had been picked up by customs on illegal fishing boats.

These kids don't get much press. They're usually boys around 15 to 16-years-old, many are from the Kupang region in West Timor and many are unaccompanied by a guardian. Once Customs seizes the boat that they're on, they're handed over to DIMA, and according to DIMA, they're then detained in Australia for around three weeks before being returned home.

One tenth of illegal fishers are minors. There is an average of one child on every 2.5 boats picked up by Australian authorities. Last financial year there were 289 children from fishing vessels detained by the Immigration Department.

The HREOC report asserts that these children continue to be held in detention centres, despite DIMA's assurances to Crikey back in August last year that they're "accommodated in alternative arrangements ... such as motels and apartments with an appointed minder who is an adult from the crew they arrived with..."

The HREOC report on Australia's five mainland immigration detention centres: Villawood (Sydney), Baxter (Port Augusta), Perth, Maribyrnong (Melbourne) and Northern (Darwin) reports:

It was disappointing to find 13 unaccompanied children in the Northern centre when HREOC visited on 1 November. All of these children were Indonesian boys found on illegal fishing boats. As at 1 November, those 13 children had been detained for between 8 and 15 days.

Crikey understands that the 13 children were found spending their waking hours (7.30am till 7.30pm) in the Northern IDF, described around that time by Senator Trish Crossin as "grossly inadequate" and spent their nights in motel rooms.

The Human Rights commissioner reported:

There is nobody onsite at the Northern centre with child welfare qualifications. This is particularly worrying when children arrive without family members... HREOC was told that that children are appointed ‘minders’ by Australian Customs based on relationships that the children have with crew members on the fishing boat. We also understand that DIMA tries to verify that the child is happy with their minder. However, we were also told that there was nobody onsite with child welfare training and that there was no relationship with the Northern Territory child welfare services (except in the event of a reportable abuse incident). We understand that there is a ‘Child Liaison Officer’ on site. But we were told that that person is simply a detention officer who is appointed as a point person for the children. The officer has no special training in child welfare. In our view this is an inadequate safeguard...

The Human Rights Commissioner reported that he was of the "understanding" that the 13 children were all sent back to Indonesia as at the 1 December 2006 but Crikey understand that this was incorrect as the published Immigration Department detention statistics as at the 15 December 2006 had the 13 children still detained in Australia.

The Immigration Departments detention statistics suggest that as at of the 5 January 2007 there was one (fishing) child still held by the Immigration Department. You can read DIMA's response to the HREOC report here.

http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20070122-Illegal-fishing-kids-still-getting-a-raw-deal-from-DIMA.html

Probably because whilst government/corporate happy smiley propaganda pushes the many "improvements" angle, the alternative media are reporting that Mandatory Detention must end.

HREOC said that. Whats the point in regurgitating the government niceness.

Fuck you John Howard.

END MANDATORY DETENTION!

After getting called out in an early post, von Dousa and HREOC calls in the monkeys to post this little propaganda