Kids have been released into the community from detention centre
A human rights advocate fears children in the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre could face a “death sentence” unless they are released into medical care after a worker tested positive for coronavirus.
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Children have been released from the COVID-19 hit Youth Detention Centre in Wacol over the last few days and a Brisbane lawyer has been forced to close her offices where one of them visited on Monday.
Debbie Kilroy, the chief executive of Sisters Inside, an organisation that supports women and girls in the criminal legal system, told The Courier-Mail that her team were supporting a girl who was released into residential care on Friday and she knows of another boy who was released and has appeared in a Maroochydore court.
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“Our offices are now closed for COVID-19 cleaning and the staff member who was in contact with the girl is being tested for the virus. I believe there have been problems contacting the child. But I am aware of another boy who was released from the detention centre in last few days who has appeared in Maroochydore Children’s Court,” Ms Kilroy said.
The human rights advocate said she is highly concerned that Queensland will see a surge in COVID-19 cases akin to those seen in Victoria’s aged care facilities after a detention centre worker tested positive for the virus and put the centre into lockdown.
“I am afraid for the kids. Most of these children are on remand and have not been found guilty of anything but if the virus takes hold they could face a death sentence,” Ms Kilroy said.
The lawyer has had personal experience of the horrors of the coronavirus as she was hospitalised in March and continued to test positive for 100 days.
“The virus is vicious and causes ongoing health problems,” she said.
“The frightening thing is most of the kids in the centre are from Aboriginal or Torres Strait communities and these are the people most vulnerable to the disease,” Ms Kilroy said.
She has called for all the children in the centre to be released into proper medical care rather than put into lockdown.
“It will impact the children’s mental health to be put into isolation. There are thousands of people dying all over the world in prisons. I am not surprised this has happened here but we must protect these children,” she said.
The 77-year-old detention centre worker, from Ipswich, is known to have worked five shifts while sick. There are 127 young people detained at the centre.
When asked if they were tracing any released youths Queensland Health said: “As with all positive cases, Queensland Health does contact tracing to determine close contacts – this is underway”.
