Australia controversially convicted as people smugglers Indonesian minors who had been cooks and deckhands on asylum seeker boats from Indonesia to Australia and jailed them in adult prisons.[1] The practice was believed to have come to an end in 2011[2] but in 2015 allegations were raised of Indonesian minors who remain in adult prisons.[3]

The children's claims to their ages were dismissed by Australian authorities who instead relied on a discredited wrist-bone "age-scan" to determine their age. The children soon became known as the "age-disputes" but they were nevertheless convicted. Whistleblowers and human rights campaigners such as Gerry Georgatos[4] brought their plight to the nation and encouraged journalists such as Walkley awarded Stephen Pennells[5] and the former editor of The Age, Lindsay Murdoch,[4] to publish stories about the children.[6] Georgatos first broke the story through journalist for The West Australian newspaper, Jane Hammond.[7] Lawyers, Terry Fisher, Mark Plunkett, Edwina Lloyd came to the fore and argued to the Courts that were relying on the wrist-bone age scans as the determination of age that indeed they were children.[8]

In mid-2011, after Georgatos and Lloyd hosted a number of forums[9] around the nation and procured the assistance of the Australian Human Rights Commission the majority of the "age-disputes" were released from prison and deported to Indonesia.[10][11][12]

References

  1. ↑ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: gerry georgatos interview on the drum. YouTube.
  2. ↑ Georgatos, Gerry (6 September 2016). "Australia breaks Convention on the Rights of the Child". Green Left.
  3. ↑ O'Brien, Natalie (10 January 2015). "Indonesian children crewing asylum seeker boat put in adult jail". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  4. 1 2 Darwin, Lindsay Murdoch (27 June 2011). "Gillard criticised for wrist X-rays". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  5. ↑ "Age catches up with justice". Archived from the original on 20 December 2015. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
  6. ↑ Network, Refugee Rights Action. "Cultural Imperialism jailed Indonesian children in Australian adult prisons – and the Prime Minister's deaf ears".
  7. ↑ "Boy in adult jail says he s scared - The West Australian". au.news.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on 24 July 2015.
  8. ↑ Marriner, Natalie O'Brien and Cosima (5 November 2011). "Plucked from poor villages, boys land in jail". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  9. ↑ "Children in adult prisons - the Australian experience". UNSW Newsroom. 13 October 2011.
  10. ↑ May, Rebecca Le (23 May 2012). "Release of all kids in jails: rights group". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  11. ↑ "Rights of Indonesian children violated: Australian report". ABC News. 27 July 2012.
  12. ↑ "An age of uncertainty - Inquiry into the treatment of individuals suspected of people smuggling offences who say that they are children". Australian Human Rights Commission. July 2012.
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