Self-harm, hunger strikes, sexual assault: Gillian Triggs’ The Forgotten Children report finds prolonged detention ‘profoundly negative’
A six-year-old child’s drawing: under international and Australian law, children are supposed to be detained only as a measure of ‘last resort’. Photograph: Australian Human Rights Commission/AAP
More than 300 children committed or threatened self-harm in a 15-month period in Australian immigration detention, 30 reported sexual assault, nearly 30 went on hunger strike and more than 200 were involved in assaults, a damning report from the Australian Human Rights Commission has found.
The long-awaited inquiry into children in immigration detention report, The Forgotten Children, found detention was inherently dangerous for children, and that “prolonged detention is having profoundly negative impacts on the mental and emotional health and development of children”. Please follow this link to view the full article.