Australia PM irked by report on violation of refugees' rights

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has blasted the country’s Human Rights Commission over a report criticizing the detention of asylum-seeker children.

“It’s absolutely crystal clear this inquiry by the president of the Human Rights Commission is a political stitch-up,” Abbott said in a Tuesday address to the parliament.

“This government has lost confidence in the president of the Human Rights Commission,” he said.

He was referring to the commission’s President Gillian Triggs, a respected international lawyer who released the shocking report earlier this month.

The 10-month investigation, which involved probing 11 detention centers, found widespread sexual abuse against the children locked up, as well as self-harm and severe mental disorders among them.

Stressing that the report should have been released when the previous Labor government was in power, Abbott said, “It’s too political to have an inquiry into children in detention when there is 1,400 of them but it’s not too political to do it when the number is under 200.”

The inquiry found that, from January 2013 to March 2014, nearly 300 of the over 1,100 children, who were aged between 12 to 17, had committed or threatened to commit self-harm in onshore and offshore detention centers like those in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

Triggs said on February 12 that, “The report cites medical data that shows 34 percent of children have been diagnosed with serious mental disorders.”

Sexual harassment of children

The survey, which is the largest ever conducted about children in detention, also revealed that about 30 children were reportedly sexually assaulted, while nearly 30 went on hunger strike and some 200 were involved in some sort of assaults.

Currently, there are 257 children in Australian immigration detention centers, including 119 on Nauru. Some 50 prominent Australians, including former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, have voiced concern about the government’s response to the refugee issue in a letter to Abbott last week.

They warned the government that not paying attention to the advice of human rights monitors “risk a dangerous slide into a national culture of discrimination and inequity and, ultimately, of societal disruption and moral decline.”

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) voiced support for the release of the children in Australian custody on Thursday, arguing that “detention is a dangerous place for children and can cause life-long harm. You can’t keep children safe in detention.”

Under its harsh anti-immigration policies, Australia currently keeps all asylum seekers arriving by boat in custody in offshore processing camps.

The United Nations and rights groups have criticized such asylum policies, saying the practice is illegal and inhumane.

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