The Australian US paper lambasts detention policies By Robert Lusetich, Michelle Gilchrist 07jan02
AUSTRALIA'S image as a faraway paradise to Americans has been shaken by a front page article in a prominent US newspaper which portrays a racist, xenophobic nation with an inhumane refugee policy. The Los Angeles Times yesterday published the second of a two-part story on Australia's treatment of asylum-seekers, headlined "The 'Crime' of Being a Young Refugee". But the article was dismissed by Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock, who yesterday said the newspaper made factual errors including that children received no schooling. Mr Ruddock, who was writing a detailed rebuttal to the newspaper, said the article also referred to all detainees as refugees, instead of what he calls asylum-seekers seeking an "economic outcome". The article questions whether Australia is endangering young asylum-seekers because it "is fearful of being overrun by a wave of immigrants". It says children are denied education, witness violence and alleges children as young as two are physically restrained. "Founded as a British penal colony in 1788, Australia has practised racial discrimination during much of its existence," writes Richard Paddock from Sydney. "Unlike other Western-style democracies, Australia has a policy of locking up all applicants for political asylum who have arrived without proper documentation." The article describes life in detention facilities as being worse than Australian prisons. It alleges the treatment of children is particularly oppressive and that young asylum-seekers have sewn their lips together in protest while others have gone on hunger strikes. It also says children are more vulnerable to sexual abuse. "We are punished same as criminals and called by numbers, not names," 13-year-old Shana Avesta, who is at Curtin detention centre in Western Australia, is quoted as saying. "We are the same as animal." Aamer Sultan, a physician who escaped Iraq in 1999 and spent 2=BD years at Villawood centre in Sydney, was particularly scathing of Australian attitudes to refugees. "We are not paying for what we have done," he said. "We are paying for what we are. I think we came to a very racist country. I think we made a fatal mistake." Mr Ruddock conceded sexual abuse had occurred but said the rate was lower than the wider community and usually involved family members. He also rejected the article's claim that children received no schooling, but said many were insufficiently literate to keep up in a regular school. "For many, particularly if they come as they claim from Afghanistan and are girls, the first time they may have been involved in education is when they come to Australia," he said. Mr Ruddock also said any violence witnessed by children in detention centres was the fault of other detainees. 2001 The Australian http://theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,3546977,00.html ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
