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
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