Nine church groups have joined together today to accuse the Federal Government of “state sanctioned child abuse”, claiming the Minister for Immigration is failing in his duty of care towards unaccompanied child asylum seekers.

Drawing by child on Christmas Island.

The church groups—Anglican, Assyrian, Baptist, Catholic, Churches of Christ, Lutheran, Quaker, Salvation Army and Uniting Church—make up the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce, who released a new report this morning, titled Protecting the Lonely Children. 

According to the report there are about 135 unaccompanied asylum seeker children being held in onshore and offshore centres, separated from their parents due to violence, abuse, threat of forced military recruitment or even the murder of their parents. These children, according to the report, already have “serious and complex mental and physical health needs”.

The Department of Immigration says at the end of May this year there were 775 children in immigration detention. Another 1507 children are living in the community under residence determinations.

“These vulnerable children are being locked away behind razor wire for the ‘crime’ of being born in countries in political and social turmoil,” the Chair of the Taskforce, Dr Peter Catt said.

Dr Catt says this report is not the first to label the Government’s actions regarding asylum seeker children as child abuse.

“There’s plenty of evidence that children are experiencing serious harm as a result of our policies. I say ‘our’—we include ourselves in this. It’s all of us. Australia as a nation has a problem.”

Dr Catt says the Government has been given the information they need and the evidence they need, not just with this latest report, but by many that have come before, including a recent report by Professor Gillian Triggs, the President of the Australian Human Rights Commission. He recently visited Christmas Island and returned to report conditions at the centre had deteriorated and presented significant threats to the health of infants and young children.

“The Government has all this information and they are choosing to allow it to continue. How much further do we need to get before we can call that child abuse?” Dr Catt says it’s now up to the Minister of Immigration, Scott Morrison to show what the Government is doing does not amount to abuse.

A spokesperson for Mr Morrison said the minister had not seen the report but was offended by the claims.

The report outlines recommendations to the Australian Government to relieve the Minister of Immigration of his responsibilities for unaccompanied child asylum seekers and reform guardianship laws. Dr Catt says the Minister has a “glaring conflict of interest”—the legal guardian of children in detetention, who should be thinking of the best interest of the child on one hand, and the “judge and jailer” of those same children, on the other.

“It is a sick joke that under Australia’s inadequate Guardianship Act, the Minister for Immigration, [the children’s] guardian and de facto parent, is also their jailor,” said Catt.

Instead, the report suggests an independent guardian be appointed, and an overhaul of the process by which an unaccompanied child asylum seeker must use to access protection.

Dr Catt says the Taskforce report carries significant weight, showing nine Christian denominations acting together and adding to an increasing body of evidence that change is sorely needed on asylum seeker policy. He says the Christian viewpoint on this issue is welcomed in the community.

“It reminds us that children are a gift from God, that they’re special and require special care. How we treat our weakest ones is a marker for the moral health of our community, so that Christian aspect is very strong [in the report].”

Dr Catt says there is work to be done in educating Australians on what is really happening. But, Christian or not, he believes Australians are deeply caring people. He thinks the country has “fallen” into the current situation of children in detention and hopes the report will act as a wake up call.

“It’s to remind ourselves that we’re talking about children, vulnerable children. And if you take a step back and depoliticise it, people I know will be very keen to see these children treated much better.”

Image credit: Human Rights Commission of Inquiry