Results: Australia Wants the World to Learn from Their Mistakes

Since 1994, every single person who has come to Australian shores by boat without a visa - mostly asylum-seekers - have been taken into mandatory indefinite detention. Mandatory, as in there are almost no exceptions. Indefinite, in that it could theoretically last forever. Detention is just like what it sounds like...mainly prison-like facilities. They have high, sometimes electrified walls, as well as guards, poor health care & an almost total lack of movement. Dirty conditions with concrete floors & poor pest control. Many have suffered tremendous pain in their custody. People detained in the highest security centers have staged hunger strikes over their treatment, self-harmed & struggled with suicidal thoughts. They have been subject to violent & inhumane living conditions with little access to medical care or appropriate living facilities for children. While in detention many of them have died - most of them suicides or suspected suicides & even some deaths at the hands of guards. Australia wants other nations to learn from their mistakes. Their example of keeping adults & children together in detention shows there is an immense potential for abuse, neglect & violence. Australia’s mistakes in handling illegal immigration, particularly when it comes to children, are outlined in recent disturbing reports by the Australian Human Rights Commission. Life in detention for children kept with adults increased the risk for their safety. From January 2013 to March 2014, the Commission counted 233 assaults involving children. It listed another 33 incidents of reported sexual assault, most of which involved children & 27 hunger strikes that children participated in. In addition to being victims of violence, children also witnessed violence. The commission notes that there were 57 serious assaults, 207 incidents of self-harm & 436 incidents of threatened self-harm that took place in detention centers where children were held. There may have been many more unreported cases. These experiences led to trauma-based issues like anxiety, aggression & regressive behaviors. Other effects include the development of a stammer & delayed language development. Children have been kept in these detention centers for an average of 14 months. The most harmful problem has taken place among the 128+ babies that have been born in these centers. Their parentage is sometimes questionable & may have been the outcome of sexual assaults, resulting in many infants being neglected. While there is medical staff at the centers, there was little to no health services specifically for children. Because of the amount of children, some with no adult, the guards were their ultimate authority figure. Parents had little control of their children & there was little they could do to protect them. When more complex medical issues arose, people waited a long time to receive treatment. Sufferers were often accused of having ulterior motives for the medical complaints & have had guards who said if they didn't calm down they would let the police dogs get them. At one point anyone on staff who spoke out about the conditions in these detention centers were threatened with prison sentences of up to 2 years. Australia's warning message to the world is "Keeping children in detention centers with adults is a recipe for abuse...please learn from our horrible mistakes".