- ChilOut
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ChilOut (Children Out of Detention) is a group opposed to the mandatory imprisonment of children under 18 in immigration detention centres in Australia. The group was formed in 2001, in the context of the policies of the Howard government regarding asylum seekers in Australia.
The group was established after a program on ABC Television showed an Iranian child called Shayan Badraie in immigration detention suffering post traumatic stress disorder.[1]
A refugee advocate describes her response when she first saw the boy: "At first I believed he was a fake boy; a child made to look like a boy, a fundraiser for famine in Africa." (Acting from the Heart, Sarah Mares and Louise Newman (eds), p 6).
(The Federal Government has since conceded that the child has been psychologically damaged while in mandatory detention.) According to his lawyers: "The settlement is an acceptance of responsibility for the psychiatric injuries suffered by Shayan as a result of the shocking circumstances in which he was detained."[2]
ChilOut's aim was to change the Migration Act 1958 (Cth), to release all children and their families from mandatory and indefinite immigration detention. It did this mainly by petitioning media and politicians, through a growing community base of volunteers.
In 2005 ChilOut won the Community (Organisation) Award at the 2005 Human Rights Awards.
At its zenith it had over 4000 members. Most children in immigration detention in Australia have been released (as at July 2005). At that time the Migration Act 1968 (Cth) was amended to effectively say that children should only be detained as a last resort.[3]
See also
- Human rights
- HREOC
- Immigration detention
- Mandatory detention
- Mandatory detention in Australia
- Convention on the Rights of the Child
- Amnesty International
External links
Categories:- 2001 establishments
- Australian society
- Children's rights organizations
- Organisations based in Australia
- Immigration detention centres and prisons in Australia
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