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My name is Keysar Trad. I am the Vice President of the Lebanese Muslims Association in Sydney. The Lebanese Muslims Association was established in 1961 by a group of Lebanese Muslim citizens to advocate on behalf of Lebanese and other Muslims in the Australian community. We have over 1100 financial members and over tens of thousands who use our facilities on festive occasions, many or our members…

This submission makes brief comment on the education of children in detention. It provides a more complete picture of the education services offered to these children by the Department of Education, Training and Employment in South Australia (hereafter the department) after they have been processed as refugees and released into the community. Note is also made of a group of children who have been…

"There have been times in our history when Australia has been generous and open hearted and times when it has been very mean. In 1938 at the Evian Conference about dealing with Jewish and other refugees from Hitler, Australia took a flint hearted position, saying that we did not want to import Europe's problems, or to increase racial differences, and that refugees should get back in the…

"Protection is not a simple concession made to the refugee: he is not an object of assistance, but rather a subject of rights and duties. Each country has the responsibility to respect the rights of refugees and assure that they are respected as much as the rights of its own citizens" [1]

Barnardos Australia is a family support and out of home care children's welfare agency operating services in New South Wales and ACT. We make this submission based on a number of detainee children and young people that we have provided services for within their own families, and as homeless adolescents. Furthermore, Barnardos has general experience of the impact of institutional care of children…

The National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention refers to the adequacy and appropriateness of Australia’s treatment of child asylum seekers and other children who are, or have been, held in immigration detention, including:

2. I was employed between August 2000 and February 2001 by Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) at the Woomera Immigration Reception and Processing Centre (WIRPC) as a registered nurse.

The Ethnic Communities Council of Western Australia commends the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and Human Rights Commissioner Sev Ozdowski in particular, for instituting the Children in Immigration Detention Inquiry.

The Sabean Mandaean Association in Australia was founded in 1982. The Association’s financial and non-financial membership is around 2,000 persons. Inter alia, the Association looks after the humanitarian, spiritual, and social needs of Mandaean asylum seekers who have settled or who wish to settle in Australia.

1. I am a qualified youth worker who was employed by Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) at the Woomera Immigration Reception and Processing Centre (the WIRPC) from May 2000 to January 2002.

The Australian National Committee of the United Nation's Children's Fund, ('UNICEF Australia'), welcomes the opportunity to present a written submission to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, ('HREOC'), in regard to their national inquiry into children in immigration detention, ('the Inquiry').

Although it is not possible to precisely specify all the circumstance that lead people to arrive in Australia through people smuggling routes, there can be no doubt that they undertake perilous journeys which put their lives and that of accompanying family members at risk. Given the very high rates of approval for those who have sought asylum in Australia through these routes, it is reasonable to…

Australia's Immigration Detention Centres are contradictory to the human rights of the child. The Immigration Detention experience is extremely harmful to children and has effects of traumatisation and re-traumatisation during the Detention experience and continuing after release. Concerning alternatives to Detention, the present options are also not geared towards the best interest of the child.

The quality of educational opportunities is very bad because the students are too traumatized to concentrate and it seems as if there is very little psychological help. There are no programs, no curriculum, no accountability to management, no education plan, no photocopier, no textbooks, no continuity in learning because teachers (in general) do not stay longer than 12 weeks, before September…

Part II - THE MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION AND MULITCULTURAND AND INDIGENOUS AFFIARS (DIMIA) AND THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN DEPARMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES (DHS) RELATING TO CHILD PROTECTION NOTIFICATIONS AND CHILD WELFARE ISSUES PERTAINING TO CHILDREN IN IMMIGRATION DETENTION IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Many of my clients (while I was working as a Child and Adolescent Counsellor with STARTTS June 2000 - January 2002) refused to talk about their experiences in Australian Immigration Detention Centres. In addition, several mothers only let me see their children for counselling on the condition that I not raise their Australian Detention experiences as it would distress them too much and they do…