Should the asylum kids be kept in detention centre's?

[Raz]

what about we work up to a point where we will be able to provide community housing for detainees?

I like this idea....obviously you don't just throw someone who's a total newcomer into the country into a city and let them fend for themselves, but how does it help treating them like prisoners of war?

While their claims are being processed (which apparently takes years 8(), why NOT try and integrate them as much as possible into the country they've risked a lot to travel to? Worse comes to worst, they get sent home with a more decent opinion of Australia and children who aren't going to grow up hating us....

 

[haste]

Ruddock defends child detention
May 6, 2004


CHILDREN will continue to be held in immigration detention despite a damning report into the practice, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said today.

A leaked analysis showed a draft Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC) report was critical of the detention of children, the ABC reported.

The draft was critical of health and education services, the treatment of disabled children and the level of hygiene in bathrooms at detention centres.

Children had been called by numbers instead of names, placed in security compounds used to manage the behaviour of adults, and were not protected from exposure to tear gas and water cannons, HREOC reportedly found.

But Mr Ruddock said children would continue to be held in immigration detention.

"I've taken the view that the law makes it clear that people are only released from detention on valid visas or when they're removed from Australia," he told ABC radio.

Mr Ruddock said witnesses to the inquiry had detailed issues which had occurred in the past when the government was forced to deal with thousands of unlawful entrants to Australia.

"We're in a very different position today the number of minors being held have diminished very significantly, we've developed alternative detention models which enable ... particularly women and children to live largely within the community with minimal supervision," he said.

Mr Ruddock said the final HREOC report would be tabled in parliament at the first available opportunity.

AAP

Link

 

[Void]

I am totally against it. There are any number of countries that manage to give detainees housing and allow them to move around freely under low-grade supervision. It works.

I feel that the prisons should be scrapped completely, although it may be problamatic, arent they contracted from America? I heard something about them being designed and created by an american company that builds jails, which is basically what they are. You could at worst stick them in government housing in some remote town, would bring in money to the local community and also the isolation can aid in security concerns, but overall I do not think security should be an issue. I mean, everything concerning the security and intelligence sector is secret, out of the public eye, so why should they flaunt concerns now just to promote these prisons? Let the security sector handle security issues behind closed doors as it does with everything else. I am sure they are all screened for terrorist connection, and the CIA/global intelligence firms probably help with that.

The government wants to bring in more immigration to australia, which is impossible for some people as there is no 'front door' open to them, so why not just accept them into the community rather then have people wait in prison for several years just to get kicked out.

 

[Sllip]

(*Pulls up the fire extinguisher in preparation*)

First I do agree that refugees should be processed quicker and allowed into our comunity. They should not be locked up.

But what about the rest of the boat people who are jsut trying to bypass Australia's immigration policy? The people who are jsut buying their way into the country. Personally if I had to flee my home country in fear that my family is going to be killed then I would be happy to live up north for a few years in a prison till they process my claim. Atleast ,my family would be safe.
I get the feeling that the bulk of the people complaining are those who aren't genuine refugees.

(*Getting cold in here, better turn on the heater*)

 

[Naughtiest_Maximus]

Beneath our radiant Southern Cross,
We'll toil with hearts and hands,
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands,
For those who've come across the seas
We've boundless plains to share,
With courage let us all combine
To advance Australia fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia fair.

 

[-Thoth]

ersonally if I had to flee my home country in fear that my family is going to be killed then I would be happy to live up north for a few years in a prison till they process my claim. Atleast ,my family would be safe.

The problem here is twofold. One, years in any such institution is no trivial matter. People do go nuts, get depression and/or develop asocial and suicidal tendancies in such conditions, and I cannot imagine the effects on a childs development being raised inside what is essentially a prison (not a club fed minumum sec one either). Secondly, while the claims are processed there is absolutely no certaintly or peace of mind regarding one's safety. Detainees simply have no way of knowing weather or not they are going to be deported back to whatever hell hole they came from at short notice. When you mix this terrible consistent fear of the unknown with lengthy dentention times, you can probably begin to see how it would start to manifest neurotic behaviour even in the most stable of induviduals.