Will they be caned?

I do not know  under what degree of anguish and suffering a mother might send her child in a small boat to a foreign land. But I do know what degree of callousness is required to send an unaccompanied child in a plane to Malaysia. It remains to be seen whether Australia will abandon its international responsibilities and any claim to the concept of “fair go” and send the recently arrived unaccompanied children to Malaysia.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s position on asylum seekers who arrive here by boat has been clear for some time. As I noted in Aussie Views News recently:

The people, men women children, are not thought of as refugees. Nor is their well being considered. All that matters are those who smuggle them.

Chris Bowen, Australia’s Minister for Immigration and Citizenship was asked twice during doorstop interview in Adelaide two days ago what he would do with the 14 unaccompanied minors who were on the recently arrived refugee boat.

He ducked the question twice. But he did say “there are no blanket exceptions” three times.

The previous day (4 August) the Minister’s web site released the text of a speech he gave a speech at a conference entitled Transition, From Refugee to Citizen. Extolling Australia’s achievement in this area he noted that there was now a new humanitarian settlement services program. In particular this would result in:

the creation in DIAC of a Community Services and Children’s Division to coordinate and address complex issues relating to minors, particularly Unaccompanied Humanitarian minors

Sounds like the the new Division has some work to do.

The Australian Human Rights Commission has no doubt about the issue. It released a statement on 25 July titled: “Sending asylum seekers to Malaysia is not the answer to addressing people smuggling”. Commission President Catherine Branson QC said:

The Minister is the guardian of unaccompanied minors who arrive in Australia seeking asylum and he is obliged to act in their best interests. It is difficult to see how transferring unaccompanied minors to a third country could be in their best interests

According to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, 1,048 children were detained in immigration facilities as of 15 April 2011. Some of those were behind razor wire. In centres when grown men are driven by desperation to commit self harm and suicide. It is also difficult to see how the Minister is acting in the best interests of those children, either.

Life of course would not be life without its ironies. August 4 was the National Aboriginal and Islander Children’s Day.

The Australian head of UNICEF, Norman Gillespie has commented on the “cold and calculating demeanour” of the Australian Government on the issue of sending unaccompanied minors to Malaysia.

From a so-called developed and civilised society, this is a very extreme act. And I would ask the minister to use his discretion on these very vulnerable cases of unaccompanied children

Even West Australian Premier Colin Barnett could not contain himself:

My personal view – and I probably won’t win many friends in the Liberal Party – I think it is absolutely indefensible for Australia, a prosperous country, to send children by themselves to another country

And what does Chris Bowen say now?

My position has not changed one little bit, and that is: no blanket exemptions

Australia, to its shame, still does not have a Human Rights Act. Nor do we have a National Children Commissioner to protect children’s rights, although the Australian Human Rights Commission believes we should.

The next few days will determine whether Julia Gillard and Chris Bowen will consider the feelings of children or the profits of smugglers.

How do you think they should respond?