Iranian Boy Sues Australia for Traumatic Detention
- From: "Faris Jawad" <ana_faris_bila_jawad@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2005 09:14:50 -0400
Iranian Boy Sues Australia for Traumatic Detention
SYDNEY, August 29, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A 10-year-old
Iranian boy launched a landmark legal action against the Australian
government Monday, August 29, with his lawyers charging he was
psychologically scarred after being detained in a razor-wire immigration
camp for two years.
Through his father, Shayan Mahommad Saeed Badraie is suing the Immigration
Department and two detention center operators in a case which could open the
way for other detainees to claim compensation, reported Agence France-Presse
(AFP).
Shayan and his family, who said they were fleeing persecution in Iran,
arrived in Australia by boat in March 2000 and were placed in the Woomera
immigration detention center in South Australia's desert for two years.
The family, which includes a daughter born in detention in 2000, was granted
temporary protection visas in August 2002.
These visas have now expired and they are applying for new ones which would
allow them to remain in Australia.
Traumatic Incidents
Shayan's lawyer Andrew Morrison told the New South Wales Supreme Court the
child witnessed traumatic incidents in detention such as a riot, a detainee
threatening to stab himself in the chest with a broken mirror, a detainee
slashing his wrists and another threatening suicide.
Woomera detainees staged violent protests in 2000 and Shayan, who was five
at the time, watched officials use tear gas and water cannon against them.
As a result of these traumas, the child suffered from anxiety, nightmares,
was unable to eat and commonly drew detention center fences, but did not
gain adequate medical treatment, Morrison said.
In 2001 the boy was hospitalized and later stopped eating, drinking and
speaking, the court heard.
Gov't Inaction
The lawyer said the government knew for months that Shayan was suffering a
psychological illness due his detention "yet nothing was done... to arrange
for proper psychiatric treatment and evaluation".
The independent Immigration Detention Advisory Group advised
then-Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock in 2001 to urgently remove the
family into the community for the sake of the child's health, the court
heard.
But Morrison told the court that Ruddock declined to intervene.
"The word 'Bucklies' (sic) appears to be in his handwriting" on a memo, he
said.
"Buckley's chance" is an Australian expression meaning no chance at all.
Morrison said Shayan's case was not about Australia's policy of mandatory
detention for asylum-seekers, including children.
"It is about the way in which it was carried out and the permanent injury
inflicted on a young child by a regime which failed to provide for his
medical needs."
The defendants "continued to disregard his welfare even after told by
competent and independent medical practitioners of the harm being done to
him," said the lawyer.
Australia is a nation built on migrants but its policy of mandatory
detention of illegal immigrants, regarded as among the toughest in the
world, has helped conservative Prime Minister John Howard's government win
four straight elections.
Australia's strict policy includes detaining illegal arrivals, illegal
workers and people who overstay their visas in razor-wire camps, often for
years while their cases are heard.
Human rights groups have strongly criticized the detention camps.
The Australian government released the last 42 children from detention
center in July after an internal revolt against Howard's tough stance.
The government has been embarrassed this year by a string of immigration
bungles, including the wrongful detention and deportation of two mentally
ill Australian women.
http://islamonline.net/English/News/2005-08/29/article03.shtml
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