AMA Supports Georgiou Bills on Detention
AMA Vice President, Dr Choong-Siew Yong, said today the short and long term physical and mental health of detainees must be central to policy governing people living in Immigration detention.
Speaking in support of Petro Georgiou's Bills, which seek to remove children and long term detainees from behind razor wire, Dr Yong, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, said health and social care should be provided by doctors and health care workers who are independent of detention facilities.
"Health services should be provided by the relevant State and Territory body and not contracted to the Department of Immigration and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA)," Dr Yong said.
"People in Immigration detention deserve access to the health care and social services available to all Australians.
"And children in detention should have access to the same child protection services as other children in the community," Dr Yong said.
At its National Conference in Darwin the AMA called for all children in indefinite detention to be removed from behind razor wire to live in the community with their parents.
"Indefinite detention is bad for a child's physical and mental well being. We see severe and chronic post-traumatic stress disorder among asylum seekers during and after detention," Dr Yong said.
"We see children treated in hospital for serious mental health problems and have tried to refer them to the State child protection agency. But the agencies are powerless to act on behalf of children in detention.
"The only body that has any power over immigration detainees is DIMIA. But DIMIA is not a child protection agency or a health department," Dr Yong said.
"Some health services in Australian gaols are run by the Department of Health, not by Correctional Services. Similarly health services provided for people in Immigration detention should be provided by the Department of Health and not DIMIA.
"The Australian Government has a duty of care to all asylum seekers held in immigration detention, in facilities or in the community, to give them access to independent, transparent, appropriate and timely health care," Dr Yong said.
15 June 2005
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