Australia’s immigration system and its detainees were under considerable strain, documents showed yesterday, with self-harm reports surging 12-fold as waiting times stretched to almost a year.
Compiled for a government committee examining Australia’s mandatory detention policy for asylum seekers arriving by boat, the official documents offered a rare insight into the troubled centers.
There were 6,403 people in immigration detention as at June 30 this year, with the main facility on remote Christmas Island housing 759 — almost double its operational capacity.
The detainees were predominantly young men, more than half of whom came from Afghanistan or Iran, although the report showed the number of children rising to 964 in the past year.
The riot-hit Christmas Island center has been overflowing since mid-2009, with its surging population accompanied by a spike in incident reports to 1,176 in the three months to June 30, from 83 a year earlier.
There were 104 disturbances in the period, nine classed as “major” and 35 people on protracted hunger strikes, with 83 self-harm attempts — 27 of them serious.
Sydney’s Villawood center, also rocked by riots, suicides and protests, was in a similar state, with 451 incident reports in the three months to June 30 from 189 a year earlier, dominated by self-harm, unrest and aggression.
Across the entire detention network self-harm threats and acts surged from 90 in 2009-2010 to 1,132 in 2010-2011, 386 of which were actual attempts.
In the past year there had been six deaths, 1,320 hunger strikes, 2,473 hospitalizations and 93 psychiatric admissions, according to the 600-page report.
Australian Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Andrew Metcalfe said that the department was “acutely aware” that the system was under pressure, and took the unprecedented step of calling for the government to look at alternatives to mandatory detention.
“We need to discuss asylum needs and focus on trends and the relative success rates for various cohorts,” Metcalfe told the committee.
“Can we manage different cohorts, with different success rates or security and risk features, in different ways?” he asked.
The average detention period has extended from 103 days in the first half of 2009 to 316 days in the six months to June 30 this year. It is longest — an average of 413 days — for asylum seekers from Sri Lanka.
Though they arrive in relatively low numbers by global standards refugees are a thorny political issue in Australia, and a record influx last year of almost 7,000 boat people has stretched facilities.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was