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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