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Submission to National Inquiry
into Children in Immigration Detention from
Marist Brothers' Province
Centre
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.