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Submission to National Inquiry

into Children in Immigration Detention from

Marist Brothers' Province

Centre

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We, the Solidarity

Committee of the Marist Brothers Province of Melbourne, wish to make the

following submission to the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration

Detention.

We believe that immigration

detention is profoundly detrimental for children. As an Institution involved

with the education and welfare of school aged children, our many years

of collective experience tell us that for children to thrive they need

to be and feel safe, secure and loved. We know from reports from people

who have visited the detention centres, and from the reports we are receiving

through the media, that these centres are not places that are able to

promote for children a sense of safety, security and love.

We ask the Inquiry

to recommend that children spend an absolute maximum of two weeks in a

detention centre, while their health and the identity of their families

are checked. We ask the Inquiry to recommend that children, in the company

of at least one parent, be released into the community where they can

begin the process of healing after the trauma they have faced on their

difficult journeys to Australia.

We ask the Inquiry

to recommend that children be supported through access to appropriate

education and health care by Government agencies while they await decisions

affecting their future and that of their families.

Signed: The

Solidarity Committee of the Marist Brothers Province of Melbourne

Brother Paul Gilchrist

(Provincial Superior)

Brother Gregory McCrystal

Brother Doug Walsh

Brother Dennis Cooper

Brother John Dyson

Brother Linus Meehan

Brother Bryan Leak

Mr Mark Thomas

Last

Updated 9 January 2003.