GOVERNMENT’S HOLLOW PROMISE LEAVES CHILDREN LOCKED AWAY

167 children will be left to languish in terrible conditions on Nauru, excluded from the deal struck between the Abbott Government and the Palmer United Party that saw cruel new migration laws through Parliament.

“Scott Morrison and Clive Palmer talked up their deal to release 106 children from Christmas Island before Christmas, but neither of them bothered to mention the children of Nauru, who will be left to struggle in sub-standard, life-threatening, conditions,” ASRC CEO Kon Karapanagiotidis said today.

“Psychologists and other experts working with children in immigration detention have spoken out about the mental and physical suffering they endure, including depression, developmental problems and the serious risk of abuse.

“An arbitrary decision saw some children placed on Nauru instead of Christmas Island when they sought asylum in our country.

“That arbitrary decision has sealed their fate and they are now struggling to understand why they weren’t part of Clive Palmer’s deal.

“When there refugee claim is eventually processed, they will be condemned to live on Nauru in a community that doesn’t want them.

“Refugee children who have already been settled on Nauru have been the subject of some horrendous attacks. One Iranian refugee was left blinded in one eye. On Friday, three refugee girls were attacked in their class room.

“This is the future that awaits Morrison and Palmer’s forgotten children.”

Mr Karapanagiotidis said the Government was also preparing to send 25 babies born in Australia to Nauru with their parents.

“They were due to go on Friday but the Minister has given them a reprieve until January.

“But, under his new laws, they are ‘unauthorised maritime arrivals’ and therefore not eligible to be settled in Australia – their country of birth.

“Meanwhile, the children coming from Christmas Island are hardly living an idyllic existence. First, they were used as bargaining chips by the Minister so he could ram his horror bill through the Senate.

“Now, they face a life of ongoing anxiety and limbo, entitled only to Temporary Protection Visas which have been shown to cause enormous mental and emotional suffering.

“Thirty unaccompanied minors from Christmas Island are likely to never see their families again because they are not entitled to family reunion on a TPV.

“Is this really how we treat children?”

Mr Karapanagiotidis also called on the Government to provide an update on its commitment to release children from locked detention on the Australian mainland.

“On August 19 this year, Mr Morrison announced via the Daily Telegraph that children under ten would be released from mainland detention facilities. This was his first attempt to woo Clive Palmer and also to assuage growing community concern about children being locked away for record lengths of time.

“Since then, only a small number of children have been released from detention. Hundreds more remain behind lock and key, unable to develop and thrive as is the right of every child.

“Mr Morrison has not met this front page commitment – how can he be trusted to release children from Christmas Island?”

Mr Karapanagiotidis said the ASRC would maintain pressure on the Government to:

• Release children from mainland detention immediately, in line with his public commitment of 19August,
• Release children from Christmas Island immediately, in line with his commitment to Clive Palmer, and
• Release children from Nauru, in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

“As Christmas approaches, Australians cannot turn a blind eye to the plight of hundreds of children in our care who are suffering in conditions akin to child abuse.”

Media Inquiries: Mary Fall 0407 683 664