A 10-year-old Vietnamese girl, who has spent a year living in detention centres across the country as an unaccompanied minor, calls her life in a detention centre in Darwin “very sad, depressing and hopeless”, in a note passed to a community visitor this week.
The note, given to a community visitor volunteer from the Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and Advocacy Network, translates as follows:
“In here, our lives are very sad, depressing and hopeless. As each day passes, we feel heavy-hearted and lacking any sense of hope. We have no way of knowing what our future holds for us. All the Vietnamese living here have done so for over one year, they feel very sad, and do not know what else they can do. In summary, our lives in this place is extremely depressing, we are suffering and lack any sense of a future. We don’t know who will help us.”
The unnamed girl arrived last March on a boat with her older teenage brother, as part of a larger group of unaccompanied minors from Vietnam. She is currently one of apparently 25 unaccompanied Vietnamese minors in the Darwin Airport Lodge, one of the government’s alternative places of detention. It currently houses 339 asylum seekers.
The Darwin Airport Lodge is her third place of detention, after first being moved to a detention centre in Western Australia, then to Port Augusta detention centre in South Australia and finally to Darwin at the start of the year.
When asked why the girl had been moved around so often, a spokesperson from the Department of Immigration told Crikey: “The placement of clients is made on an individual basis and takes into account a range of factors.”
However, the behaviour of the unaccompanied Vietnamese minors had played a role in where they were housed. “This cohort has a poor record of escapes and absconding from detention, including community detention,” added the spokesperson.
Twenty six unaccompanied Vietnamese minors had escaped from detention between July 1, 2010 and January 31, 2012 (the most up-to-date data available in time for the Crikey deadline). By the end of January, 18 of those children had been located. It’s widely believed that those unaccompanied minors who fled had been taken in by the wider Vietnamese community.
The Vietnamese girl’s note talks about how the lives of the minors in detention is “very sad” and “extremely depressing”. Late last year Peter Morris from the Australian Medical Association told the joint select committee into Australia’s national detention centres that a nine-year-old detainee was hospitalised in Darwin last year after a suicide attempt. Morris said up to 33% of children in detention suffered depression.
Mental health support is available for young detainees and “they are receiving education and they can participate in a range of activities, including excursions,” said the Department of Immigration spokesperson.
Data from April 22 shows that 1029 minors whose claims for protection were currently being processed by the Department of Immigration. Of these, 589 are accommodated in community detention and 440 are in alternative places of detention — immigration residential housing, immigration transient accommodation and other facilities.
Unaccompanied minors still make up a large number of underage asylum seekers being processed by the department, with 389 unaccompanied minors currently in its care. Of these 389, 166 are having their claims processed in the community, 97 are in alternative places of detention on Christmas Island and 126 are in alternative places of detention — i.e. transient accommodation or immigration residential housing.
18 thoughts on “‘Our lives are very sad’: a girl, 10, in detention makes her plea”
shepherdmarilyn
April 24, 2012 at 4:40 pmIt’s even worse than that, we won’t even let them make refugee claims because we are trying to force Vietnam to have them back.
Kevin Herbert
April 24, 2012 at 5:32 pmDisgraceful…..in effect our major political parties have adopted the US major parties amorality when it comes to the victims of war.
Where’s our Ron Paul equivalent?
Tom Jones
April 24, 2012 at 6:21 pmIs it possible that our PM could understand that all the little children need a home as well as an education. She needs a new voice and this would be a good start to rehabilitate herself. Unfortunately I am not hopeful.
shepherdmarilyn
April 24, 2012 at 7:30 pmTom, have you forgotten she was quite happy to flog refugee children to Malaysia to be jailed.
Microseris
April 24, 2012 at 8:23 pmAustralia, land of the fair go.
Surely a low point of Australian politics. I wouldn’t say the bottom. We will probably see what that might look like come next election.
AR
April 24, 2012 at 9:20 pmKevH – he resigned last week but his shoes are well filled by ms Milne. VOTE GREEN or be forever guilty.
gikku
April 24, 2012 at 9:25 pmThis little girl reminds us all of our shame.
The ALP has long ago extinguished the light on the hill.
Andrew McIntosh
April 26, 2012 at 12:26 pmA few years ago, I can’t remember exactly when but it was around the time Amanda Vandstone had taken over from Phillip Ruddock as minister against immigration, there was an exhibition in the Immigration Museum in Melbourne of drawings from children in detention. All depicted scenes of riot and atrocity within the detention centres – for me, the most poignant being that of a man lying in barbed wire, blood streaming from his side, calling out “God help me”. The ages of the children making these drawings was between five and ten.
This is what the governments we vote for do now. They give our money to private companies to imprison children because they come to the country in boats. And we worry about interest rates and a tax on carbon emission.