YAREN DISTRICT, Nauru (Medical Journal of Australia / Radio New Zealand International / Press TV / Pacific Media Watch): Detaining asylum seeker children in deportation centres is child abuse, say a majority of Australian paediatricians.
In a study published this week in the Medical Journal of Australia, more than 80 percent of 139 pediatricians surveyed said the practice amounted to child abuse.
This is the first study to investigate the knowledge and attitudes of Australian paediatricians about refugees and asylum seekers. Over 80 percent "disapproved or strongly disapproved of offshore processing in Papua New Guinea (PNG)", the study said.
The release of the study has attracted global media coverage.
The study sought to determine the knowledge and attitudes of Australian paediatricians in relation to the health of refugee and asylum seeker children both onshore and offshore.
It found that "over 80 percent agreed with the Australian Medical Association assertion that mandatory detention of children constitutes child abuse, and disagreed with offshore processing", said the journal article:
"Less than half knew which subgroups were eligible for Medicare or had had pre-departure HIV and tuberculosis screening tests; or that the average stay in refugee camps before settlement in Australia was more than 10 years. Only about 60% knew that the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship was the legal guardian of detained unaccompanied minors. One in eight knew about the Medicare eligibility hotline. Australian paediatricians considered mandatory detention a form of child abuse and strongly disagreed with offshore processing. There is a clear need for education about practical issues such as current health screening practices and Medicare eligibility".
RNZI interviewed one of the report's authors, Dr Hasantha Gunasekera, who said there was no excuse for putting children through the trauma of detention:
We see children who are wetting the bed, who are not sleeping, who don't want to play with other children, pulling their hair out, who are having nightmares, who are not eating properly - so we see the physical manifestations of what they've been through. We're perpetuating those traumas and we're exacerbating them and that is the thing that concerns paediatricians. Children should not be treated like this. We cannot use any excuse for putting children through the trauma that they're going through.
The Australian government is set to launch an investigation into alleged sexual abuse at the Nauru detention centre.
The president of Australia's Human Rights Commission has called for an end to the government's policy of locking asylum seeker children up in mandatory detention.
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Pacific Media Watch
