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Pastimes : GET THE U.S. OUT of The U.N NOW! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eashoa' M'sheekha who wrote (160)	6/12/2002 7:23:31 PM
From: Tadsamillionaire	Respond to of 411

United Nations slams Australia's policy of mandatory detention of asylum seekers Thu Jun 6, 2:00 AM ET By EMMA TINKLER, Associated Press Writer SYDNEY, Australia - The United Nations (news - web sites) slammed Australia's mandatory detention of asylum seekers Thursday, saying refugees are treated worse than criminals because they aren't told how long they will be held. "The detainees live day in, day out with an agonizing uncertainty ... about the duration of their detention," said Louis Joinet, chairman of the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Joinet and the working group has just spent two weeks touring Australia's five detention camps, which house hundreds of asylum seekers — mostly from the Middle East, Afghanistan (news - web sites), Iraq, Iran and Sri Lanka — caught trying to sneak into the country without visas. All illegal immigrants, including young children, are locked up under Australia's mandatory detention policy and are not freed until their visa applications are processed — which can take up to three years. The tour included a trip to the notorious Woomera camp in the desert of South Australia state, where asylum seekers have rioted, sewn their lips together and attempted suicide to protest what they claim are inhumane conditions. Joinet would not comment Thursday on conditions in the camps, except to say that the situation at Woomera was "dramatic" and the centers — which are surrounded by high fences topped with barbed wire — were by no means "luxury prisons." He said the group had serious concerns about the plight of asylum seekers in Australia. "Our first subject of concern is the detention of ... vulnerable people, particularly young children, unaccompanied minors, persons with disabilities, pregnant women and of course the elderly," Joinet said. He said the U.N. experts had seen what they described as "collective depression syndrome" among refugees behind the razor wire. "This time in detention is something that doesn't happen to common criminals when they're put in prison because their time is limited by law," Joinet said. "The (refugee application) process is very slow and also there's a lack of adequate information given to detainees on the status of their visa applications, with the result that it appears they are almost living in limbo," he added. At a press conference in Canberra, Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock rejected the group's criticisms and said that "no substantive issues were raised" in his meeting with members of the U.N. committee. Ruddock also blamed some of the problems in the camps on visits by groups seeking information, such as the U.N. committee. Detainees try to exploit the visits as opportunities to "impress their claims upon individuals whereby they then seek to self-harm and exhibit what some people call 'collective depression,'" he said. story.news.yahoo.com