Sources:
Detention causing mental illness:
Group slams Ruddock's response to child detainee report
Dr Sultan and the poet
Mohsen: a tale of two asylum seekers
[links live at 23-5-2003]
A study of 10 families imprisoned in an Australian detention centre discovered
children's mental illness increased ten-fold over a two-year period.
Adults experienced a three times increase in psychiatric disorders.
"Most of the children prior to their arrival in Australia were actually in pretty good shape," study coordinator Mr Steel said.
"Over the period of two years we found a ten-fold increase in psychiatric disorders among children......
This is the typical experience of families in detention."
A spokesman for Mr Ruddock tended to play down the results, noting that
since these were failed asylum seekers there claims "may have been exaggerated to boost their case.
"As people that have expended a lot of money, time and effort for no outcome, it is to be expected that they will be disappointed, anxious and very unhappy," he said.
"Adelaide Catholic welfare agency Centacare chief Dale West says he is not surprised that Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock has not accepted the findings.
"It's an absolute indictment on our system of detention in Australia that a report can find the highest levels of mental illness amongst children ever recorded in modern medical literature has taken place in our detention centres," Mr West said.
"And our best response our minister can make is to focus on whether there may have been some exaggeration in these claims and that these are people are failed asylum seekers.""
This is hardly the first instance of such reports about Australia's
barbaric detention policies. Dr Aamer Sultan spent more than three years
in Villawood Detention Centre. During this time he received a Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission award for his support of other detainees and research into the psychological effects of detention.
His research was good enough for publication in The Lancet and The Medical Journal of
Australia. He was not allowed to attend the awards ceremony, which I
suppose would have been to validate his work, something the government
cannot afford to do. . His articles were published in T
Dr Sultan and psychologist Kevin O'Sullivan discovered many detainees had
"immigration detention stress syndrome," which can apparently lead to
"an almost catatonic depressive state." Two-thirds of 33 long-term inmates frequently contemplated suicide and 85 per cent had chronic depressive symptoms."
There are several other articles on One Man's Web dealing with he health
of refugees imprisoned in Australia. As I write we are seething in
Australia over the sexual abuse of children and how institutions have
failed to act over abuse and hidden it. Surely the same thing is
happening here, with respect to the imprisoned refugees, except that it is
in plain view. But the Federal Government stands without compassion
or care. History will judge them severely.
More articles on One Man's Web
The Untold
Story of Parents in Detention
Child Health Specialists Call For Independent
Review of the Health Needs of Children in Australian Detention Centres
Mental health care in detention a contradiction in
terms: psychiatrists
Psychiatrists: Children In Detention Can't Wait 12
Months
Medical Negligence
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