THE SAD WRITING’S ON THE WALL
Wendy Harmer writes: You may be astonished to learn that 90 refugee children in detention in this country were denied colouring pencils and crayons as presents for Christmas. Sophie Peer from ChilOut isn’t.
She confronts the inhumanity of our immigration laws every, single day.
And, in the face of immense human suffering and injustice, she gets up, speaks up and does it all over again.
She does not rest. She will not. Not until every child refugee in this country has found freedom.
Thank you, Sophie for writing the following piece for The Hoopla.
“Children can’t have textas and crayons. They may draw on the walls.”
I am not kidding, this is the response that was given to Darwin families on Christmas Day who turned up to a Darwin detention centre with individually wrapped craft packs for kids who would spend the summer holidays locked in detention.
Children Out of Immigration Detention ChilOut, a very small not-for-profit organisation, raised enough money in December to ensure that every child in detention who was without a parent would receive a gift.
Our terrific supporters made this happen and books, craft items and MP3 players have been delivered to the nearly 200 unaccompanied children in detention.
With a late rush of support we were then able to send even more gifts to children detained with their families.
To get the presents in to each centre and ensure the gifts were things that kids could actually use, we worked with terrific volunteer groups based near each of the centres.
Craft items are a common and seemingly perfectly reasonable request from all centres. Especially given the six weeks of school break ahead, hot weather and lack of much else stimulating.
SERCO, the company managing the Darwin detention facilities (and all of Australia’s immigration detention facilities), eventually relented.
The gifts were allowed in to the children. Twelve days late, mind you, and having turned away the local kids and their parents who had taken the time out of their own Christmas Day celebrations to deliver the gifts.
A SERCO guard who, until being stood down, worked at the Darwin Airport Lodge ranted on his Facebook page about how these “non-Christian children didn’t deserve Christmas presents”. I won’t even go into the other diatribe he carried on with.
The reasons behind ChilOut’s appeal, the generosity of our supporters and the dedication of volunteers should need no explanation.
Just for the record, many of these children attend local schools, encounter Australian culture in many ways and history shows us that the vast majority will be accepted to Australia as refugees and settled in to our towns, suburbs and communities.
| Page 1 of 2 | next >> |
7 Responses to this article
-
Lucy January 12, 2012
All power to you, Sophie. I hope Chilout is successful in its quest to raise awareness enough that the travesty of children in detention is seen for what it is…wanton abuse of human rights of a child.
-
Linda Jaivin January 12, 2012
The various security companies who have administered the detention centres never cease to come up with new ways of making their young (and old) charges’ lives as miserable as possible. I visited Villawood regularly between 2001 and 2005. One little girl (3 or 4 years old) had been transferred from another detention centre where her parents were held and spent every evening until her own mother was finally given permission to join her asking one or another of the other refugee women if she could sleep in their bed. Another little boy had stopped eating and speaking. Criminals awaiting deportation were held together with families. The first day I visited, I met a teenage boy with a bandaged wrist – he’d tried to commit suicide that morning. Months later he and his brother sewed their lips; suicide attempts and self-harm were endemic among these young people, whose depression and distress grew worse by the day. One long-haired teenage boy from Iran wanted to put blonde streaks in his ponytail, but the hair dye I brought was confiscated because the guards said he might make a bomb out of it. Another told me how at a different centre, the guards had wrenched an apple out of a child’s hand because she’d had her allocation of food for the day. At Villawood again, one family’s children were given permission to attend school while another’s were not, despite them and their parents (with my help) pleading futilely with the management for at least a reason. I could go on and on – but it’s ChilOut, which formed at that time, which really has gone on and on and they deserve all our respect and support for sticking with what is a very hard battle on ever-shifting ground, a battle for human rights in Australia that sadly, many Australians want to know nothing about.
-
Jill January 12, 2012
How dare they treat little children this way, I would love to know that guards face book name I would soon tell him what I think of him. I am a home work tutor for refugee children living in Frankston Vic, the Brother hood of St. Lawrence run this. The children are beautiful and love Australia so much. Why any one has to be held is so wrong, we are the best country in the word, AND YET WE TREAT OUR REFUGEES THE WORST, what does that really say about us and our Goverment. I am ashamed when I hear of another boat arrival and their lack of welcome. SHAME ON US ALL.
-
Luc January 12, 2012
Thanks for reminding us that these issues are continuing.
-
Lesley Walker January 12, 2012
Chilout’s Xmas gifts were also distributed to children in Inverbrackie Detention Centre in SA. Significant negotiation with Serco by a few dedicated & sensitive people achieved a successful outcome. Why must it be so difficult? Are we not all looking to suppport the children to maintain good physical & mental health? Is that goal not reflected in Serco’s mision statements? The Australian Govt insists on imposing these draconian conditions on children because it is afraid of voter backlash. The children & many others have been, & will be, badly affected for years to come. Shame on all of us for allowing it to continue.
-
ken downes January 13, 2012
I don’t care that they’re not Christian, just let them have some colouring pencils ffs.
And why does a charity have to give them pencils? This govt & their green puppet masters are happy to waste millions and billions on their whims, yet they’re penny pinchers when it comes to pencils? Ludicrous.
-
Alan January 13, 2012
I read about this incident through my local newspaper. The comments that were PRINTED in the paper and apparently made by the officer on Facebook, were not provactive in any way. There seems to an excessive amount of emotion by the refugee advocates in this Country over this. The Government ( aka taxpayer ) is already spending billions of our dollars on housing these refugees, providing health services and financial assistance. Think about the officer that has been stood down, he may have a family and children to support and bills to pay. Surely you don’t believe that anyone including children who have arrived here without appropriate documentation should be released into the community immediately they set foot on Australia soil. These “boat” people would have been aware of what would happen before they embarked on their Journey to Australia, so they should be thankful that their status will be ratified once all the necessary checks have been completed. There are so many other processed refugees languishing in dentention centres in other Countries awaiting re-settlement, so maybe these refugees should be given priority. I respect your opinion on the issue but others like me have a different one which also has validity.
