Powerful proof that children don’t belong in detention.
“I have never seen happiness in my life,” one 17-year-old says.
“I feel like I’m in prison. I am so bored and sometimes I think of killing myself,” a 12-year-old girl says.
“My father and brother were killed. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have to be,” an unaccompanied child adds.
These are not fictional statements. These are the real words from children living in immigration detention centres under the control of the Australian government.
The powerful accounts, which were first presented in last year’s The Forgotten Children report, feature in a stirring new video produced by student activist group Kidz4Kids.
Post continues after video:
Because child detainees’ faces cannot be shown, the clever video shows Australian children reading out detainees’ devastating descriptions of life in detention instead.
The resulting two-minute clip is so chilling, it has been shared more than 1,800 times online in just two days.
Australia currently holds about 800 children in closed immigration detention for indefinite periods, including 88 children on Nauru.
Between January 2013 and March 2014 alone, there were 233 assaults in detention involving children and 33 incidents of reported sexual assault — with the majority involving children. During the same period, 128 children who harmed themselves, The Forgotten Children report found.
Top Comments
Seriously with all the half truths floating around how do we know it these are the actual uncoached words of children in detention?. Is detention good for children, of course not. Separating them from their family (when they are not in danger) isn't great either. There is NOT 800 children in closed detention, there are 138 children in detention on the mainland and 81 children in detention on Nauru, some of them have a parent with a negative finding against them, the other parent is often offered community placement with their children, not all accept the offer and choose to stay in the detention center. While there is still more to be done it is a massive improvement on the 2000 children we once had in detention.