Australia breached the rights of Indonesian children it jailed as adults after they came as crew on people-smuggling boats and should apologise, the nation’s human rights head said yesterday.
Australian Human Rights Commission president Catherine Branson said 180 Indonesians claimed to be under the age of 18 when they arrived in Australia between late 2008 and late 2011, but some were not believed and put in prison.
“The fact is that a significant number of Indonesian children have been incarcerated in adult correctional facilities, including maximum security facilities ... in some cases for very long periods of time,” she said.
Photo: AFP
Branson, releasing a report on the treatment of the minors, said while obviously young Indonesians — including a boy who claimed to be eight — were sent home, authorities often relied on wrist X-rays to determine their age.
The accuracy of wrist X-rays, an age-profiling tool which compares an individual’s bone growth against a standard “atlas” developed in the US in the 1950s, was now “discredited,” she said.
“We now know that a significant number of young Indonesians assessed to be adults on the basis of X-ray analysis were in fact children, or were very likely to have been children, at the time of their apprehension,” she said.
Asked whether Canberra should apologize for the treatment of these minors, who were mostly poorly educated and came from impoverished fishing villages, Branson said: “My feeling would be that they probably should.
“There is a cohort of individuals whose human rights have not been respected in Australia,” she added to reporters in Sydney.
“They were not given the benefit of the doubt that they might be under the age of 18. They have not been separated from adults.
“These are all breaches of the convention on the rights of the child,” she added.
Branson said 48 Indonesians, many of whom were likely to have been children when detained, had charges against them dropped, while 15 who had been convicted were released and returned home because there was doubt about their age.
The government has since changed its approach and only one person has had their wrist X-rayed since July last year, while there are currently no Indonesians in Australian jails who have complained of being minors, Branson said.
Australian Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said there was now a fair system in place for assessing the age of people-smuggling crew who claim to be under 18, with all accused determined on an individual basis.
“Minors do not belong in adult jails, which is why the government significantly changed age-determination policy last year,” she said.
“These changes now see minors returned to Indonesia as soon as possible,” she added.
Roxon said Australian police and judicial officials give the benefit of the doubt in cases where age cannot be clearly established, often an issue with crew who sometimes are themselves unsure of their age.
People-smuggling is a sensitive issue in Australia, with more than 6,550 asylum seekers arriving by boat since the beginning of this year, many beginning their sea journey in Indonesia.
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