A class action negligence lawsuit has been filed in the Victorian Supreme Court on behalf of a six-year old asylum seeker who spent over a year detained at a remote detention centre.
The law firm representing the girl has alleged that the government failed to provide adequate standards for medical and general care to the girl and others detained at the Christmas Island centre. According to the girl’s lawyers, she has suffered both psychological and physical injuries from her time in detention. This includes separation anxiety after her mother was removed from her to be sent to Darwin, shortly after they arrived by boat.
There is increasing attention and criticism of the government’s treatment of asylum seekers in detention in Australia. The Australian Human Rights Commission concluded a National Inquiry into Children in Detention, after receiving witness testimonies which highlighted the lack of medical and psychiatric care. The Refugee Council of Australia told news outlet Al Jazeera that information coming out of the inquiry built on a growing body of evidence establishing the harm of long-term detention and impressed that the removal of children from these centres is a matter of urgency. There is an available alternative know as community detention, which would mean children would avoid the remote centres. However a recent policy change means that children arriving after July 2014 have been sent to detention centres, partially as a deterrent measure.
The lawsuit is open to any asylum seeker who suffered injury over the past three years at the Christmas Island detention centre by the authorities’ failure to provide adequate care. They seek compensation and a court order directing the government to provide adequate care to asylum detainees by relocating them to community detention.
Click here to read a report from Al Jazeera.
This year’s University College Dublin Keith Cameron Lecture is on the topic of Australian asylum and immigration policy. Click here to read more.