Detaining children 'akin to abuse', says AMA

ASYLUM-SEEKERS as young as nine are being admitted to hospital for self-harm injuries, an inquiry has been told

Sarah Hanson-Young

ASYLUM-SEEKERS as young as nine are being admitted to hospital for self-harm injuries, an inquiry into the nation's detention network has been told.

The Australian Medical Association told the joint select committee into the nation's detention network that it had grave concerns for the mental welfare of child asylum-seekers and believed mandatory detention was akin to child abuse.

Speaking before the hearing in Darwin yesterday, the AMA's Peter Morris said doctors had dealt with a recent case in the Northern Territory of a nine-year-old detainee admitted to hospital after trying to commit suicide.

He told the committee that up to 30 per cent of children in detention were affected by depression, which was "completely different to what you see in the general public".

"We agree that detention of asylum-seeker children and their families is a form of child abuse," Dr Morris said. "We are basically just agreeing with what experts are saying."

The director of medical services at the Royal Darwin Hospital, Sara Watson, told the inquiry that last financial year there were 33 recorded discharges from the hospital of children 16 and under. These included self-harm cases.

There are 795 children in the detention network, including those in community placements. Of these, 282 are unaccompanied.

Detention services provider Serco told the hearing of two attacks on guards by asylum-seekers in Darwin's Northern Immigration Detention Centre in the past two months. The managing director of immigration services for Serco, Chris Manning, said one of the attacks had involved an "improvised cutting device" and the other had followed a protest in the detention centre.

His Serco colleague and NIDC centre manager Karen Stuart said attacks on guards by detainees were "not a common occurrence". The reports of attacks on Serco staff follow a string of incidents at Christmas Island's main detention centre, including one that left a guard in hospital after an Iranian detainee threw a kettle full of boiling water over him.

The committee is due to table its interim report by October 10.