About 1000 doctors, nurses and clinical support staff across the Royal Children’s Hospital have gathered to express their concern about children in immigration detention.
In an opinion piece published in the Sunday Herald Sun, a group of our doctors wrote:
“We are concerned about the impact of detention on children. We are concerned about the children who remain in detention today. Detention causes harm and it must end. We call for moral leadership on this issue to find a solution, quickly – to use alternatives to detention and to stop the harm.”
Their stand has generated a huge reaction across Australia and has been supported by the Victorian Health Minister, the Hon. Jill Hennessy MP and the Australian Medical Association.
The doctors, nurses and clinical support staff would like to thank everyone for their support.
To learn more about their position, read the full opinion piece below.
At the Royal Children’s Hospital we look after children.
We provide care for all children — including children in immigration detention.
It’s our job to make sure children are well, and our role and responsibility is the health and safety of children, working with others in the community, and each child’s family.
Our experience is that detention harms children and families.
Many of the children in detention we see at the RCH have been there for a long time — 18 months to two years, sometimes longer.
For some children, this is more than half their lifetimes. For babies born in detention — it’s their whole life.
Detention centres have guards, fences, and checkpoints. Guards take children to school. Guards bring these children to the RCH, and stay at the door of their room or clinic for as long as the child is at the hospital.
In detention, families are not able to function. Everyday activities, that we take for granted in the community, are not possible. Parents are not able to cook for their children. They cannot take them to school, or have space to be alone as a family.
Over time, we see parents and children fall apart under this strain.
They develop severe mental health problems and lose hope for the future.
We see parents become overwhelmed and lose their confidence. Some parents can’t care for their children because of their own mental health problems.
Children have nightmares, bed-wetting, and behaviour problems. They develop depression and anxiety symptoms, and their development is affected. These issues are so common they’ve become normal in detention. It is difficult, if not impossible, for us to treat these children while they are still detained.
Detention centres are not safe for children. Children are exposed to the distress, violence and mental health problems of adults, and parents cannot protect their children from these circumstances.
We are concerned about the impact of detention on children. We are concerned about the children who remain in detention today.
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection and the Australian people have shown compassion and leadership in response to Syrian refugees.
The Victorian Government has shown a longstanding commitment to refugee health. We can be proud of these responses, however we cannot lose sight of the children who remain in indefinite detention.
While many children were released earlier this year, there are still close to 100 children in detention in Australia, with a similar number on Nauru. There have been no public statistics about children in detention since May.
We are responsible for providing the best possible care to the child in front of us.
We recognise the fact that while they may be labelled an asylum seeker, they are a child with a family that loves and worries about them.
We see an engineer and teacher with a four-year-old; the nine-year-old who wants to play football; the single dad who is finding parenting tough.
When we use these terms to describe our patients, we acknowledge the people caught within the policies.
When we use a different language to talk about these families — calling them “boat arrivals” or “illegal maritime arrivals” — we start to accept their situation in detention — one that we would not accept for other children, or for our own children.
We believe there are many, many Australians who share our concern.
As health staff at a leading children’s hospital, our duty is to support child health.
We cannot accept or condone harm to children. Detention causes harm and it must end.
We call for moral leadership on this issue to find a solution, quickly — to use alternatives to detention and to stop the harm.
18 comments for “Children in immigration detention”
Luciana Peloza
Congratulations to your staff, and parent’s of patients who have taken this important ethical stance. I applaud your position and agree with you.
As a teacher, l take my duty of care very seriously and am gratified that your staff decided on this action collectively. The children (and others) in detention are traumatised and ill and do not need to have their condition made worse. Unfortunately, the Australian government is ‘happy’ to politicise this matter at the expense of people’s physical and mental well being.
You have my support.
Kind regards
Luciana Peloza
Clare smith
Just wanted to say well done Drs , nurses and staff for taking a stand on children in detention. As a fellow nurse you have my full support and the support of many. Kind regards Clare smith
Phillip
Congratulations on taking a stand against children in detention. You guys all deserve to be Australians of The Year!
Gabrielle
Congratulations to the RCH team for standing with your doctor’s for doing the right thing and truly putting patient centered care into action. Too often these words remain policy statements that are eroded by systems and processes that put everything else at the center other than the patient. By taking this stand not only are you showing up the fatal flaw in the refugee policy and practice, you are also leading by doing and living patient centered care.
Katrina
Congratulations! True leadership! You are showing real care for enormously vulnerable people in word and action, and courage too! God bless you all, and thankyou.
Deborah Macdonald
Thank you so much for the inspiring, principled and compassionate stand you have taken. Actions like yours will change attitudes to the mandatory detention of asylum seekers and put pressure on the government to take a more humane approach to refugees. We have been far too cruel for far too long. Thank you again for being so wonderful!
Steve Pan
It is everyone’s “Duty of Care” to stamp out child abuse.
Thank you to all of you for taking a stand on this important ethical issue, and thank you for getting the conversation past the political football and three word slogans so often used when discussing this issue.
Well done to all of RCH, leaders in Paediatric care !!
Debra
Thank you all so much for taking such an important, inspiring, compassionate stand on this issue. Children are the most vulnerable and innocent victims in this and have no say in what happens to them, so thank you for standing up and speaking for them.
Hero Macdonald
Thank you to the brilliant and inspiring staff at the RCH for taking such a principled and united stand against our government’s shameful, cruel and inhumane refugee policies. This demonstration of true leadership and compassion is exactly what our country needs – and what has been sadly missing from the public debate so far. We, as a nation, owe you a debt of thanks for standing up so admirably for the most vulnerable people in our care. I, like so many other Australians, stand with you.
Karen
I support your cause.
Margaret de Campo
Profound thanks for your leadership and advocacy for children in detention
Ross Crisp
Congratulations on your stand.
Dr Jamal Malick
Congratulations on taking a stand against children in detention.
Although im not from Australia but still its the one of the important issue for the whole world
Thumbs up for every one You guys done a great job.
Ross Crisp
Your stand has been applauded by many people. Can you provide an update? Have you maintained your stand on this issue?
Liz Ralph
Thankyou for making this courageous stand. Courageous in the face of growing pressure and threats – you are a shining example of the compassionate and committed position we should all be taking.
Ms Curran
Please know, after speaking directly with the Immigration Department in Canberra today, they tell me that there have been no rapes, that the medical doctors etc are just making this up, and if a crime was committed, then why hasn’t the parents/people in authority called the police! You are amazing to stand up and speak out for vulnerable people, it’s important to know that the government is trying to discredit you by suggesting that the despair of the children is fabricated.
GlobalTree
Thanks you so much for the informative post.
GlobalTree
Thank you so much for the informative post.