Justice at last: UN says Australia violated human rights of refugee children detained on Nauru
Refugee Advice & Casework Service (RACS) welcomes a landmark decision from the UN Human Rights Committee, which found Australia violated the human rights of a group of refugee children. The decision comes nine years after RACS lodged a complaint on behalf of a group of unaccompanied children who were arbitrarily detained on Nauru.
“I cannot overstate how important this decision is,” said Sarah Dale, RACS Centre Director & Principal Solicitor. “We have been fighting for this justice, against all odds, for almost a decade.”
Aarash (a pseudonym), now in his late 20s, shared: “I was 16 years old and I cannot remember any of my birthdays since 2013. Now that I'm grown, when I see younger ones that age, having fun, playing, going to school, it reminds me of everything I lost. I felt less human, not human at all.”
Aarash is one of 24 children from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar who were intercepted at sea by Australia in 2013 while fleeing persecution in their home countries and enroute to Australia. After being detained on Christmas Island, he was one of the children were transferred to detention facilities on Nauru in 2014 and remained there despite all but one of them being granted refugee status that same year.
RACS filed a complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee in January 2016 and the case has involved almost a decade of gathering evidence, hearings, submissions and correspondence back and forth across time zones. Australia constantly contended that it was not responsible because the abuses occurred on Nauru. International law as reaffirmed in yesterday’s UN decision rejects such an argument.
“The outsourcing of operations does not absolve States of accountability. Offshore detention facilities are not human-rights free zones for the State party, which remains bound by the provisions of the Covenant,” said UN Committee Member Mahjoub El Haiba.
RACS calls on the Australian Government to:
1. Follow the UN’s recommendation to promptly compensate the young people for violating their human rights.
2. Provide permanent protection in Australia for the handful of unaccompanied minors and others who are still, after many years, on bridging visas in Australia, many with no pathways to resettlement.
“The UN’s ruling recognises the suffering of the young people who lost their childhoods to Australia’s cruel immigration system,” Ms Dale said. “The Australian Government must now respond by providing certainty and residency to these young people who, all these years later, remain in limbo, on bridging visas, despite being refugees owed protection by Australia.”
“Even now I'm suffering from depression caused by being detained all those years,” said Aarash. “It's affected my life too much. All those years that passed, they’re not coming back.”
###
ADDITIONAL QUOTES ATTRIBUTABLE TO SARAH DALE
“In 2014, we knew to our core that what Australia was doing to people seeking asylum – and in particular unaccompanied children – was unconscionable. We worked extensively with a group of young people on Christmas Island to prevent their transfer to Nauru, but always carried a deep sadness for those who had fallen victim to Australia’s offshore processing regime.”
“This decision recognises that States cannot outsource their obligations, and they are deeply responsible for the cost when they do. These children lost their childhoods. Many will never heal from the scars this has left. Many still remain in intractable limbo, not knowing when it will end. It should’ve ended then, and it certainly needs to end now that justice has been afforded to these young people.”
“For decades we have remarked that this will be a stain on Australia’s history, and this decision is the critical record and recognition of that. We as a nation, should be ashamed.”
“Let this ruling stand as a testament against the Australian Government, that policies of offshore processing, indefinite and arbitrary detention, inhuman and degrading treatment, in our name, will not stand. They will be called to justice, if not immediately, then eventually. RACS will be here to support people seeking asylum and refugees in their pursuit of justice, until the end.”
ADDITIONAL QUOTES ATTRIBUTABLE TO AARASH
“Living under a tent for several years, that was hard too. One of the memories that will never go away from my mind. All of that caused me a big depression. There’s trauma every day, every second, not knowing what’s going to happen to us.”
“If you ask me what I want, I want a bit of compensation and I want citizenship. I would like justice. Although I have no idea what that would look like. All those years that passed, they're not coming back. I don't know how they're going to compensate me, what is money compared to 10 years of my life?”
“I want them to imagine if this happened to their own child, what they would do? What would they do if that was their child?”
Sarah Dale is available for comment. Media enquiries: media@racs.org.au.
