Gerry Georgatos
The email below this one is the news that will imminently eventuate - which would grab the attention of the news media without fail. From Christmas Island families are transferred and crowded into Detention Centres - for instance Darwin Airport Lodge, which is bursting at the seams. Children are walking around witness to abominable tensions, in witness to young adults who are swathed in bandages from physical wounds - from injuries where blood stains are fresh.
Two weeks ago a seventeen year old attempted suicide by slashing his throat, and others too, far too young, have attempted suicide because they cannot take it any longer.
Today I received advice from Airport Lodge that once again another child attempted suicide. However SERCO and DIAC describe far too often, and report them as so, and others likewise classify them, what we'd describe as attempted suicides rather as self harm and self injury. In my opinion this is done to perceptually modify what occurred and what it means. Self harm and self injury as a class and manner of an incident is intended to signify that people are crying out for attention rather than they have had enough of unbearable conditions and an unbearable life. There should be an evaluation of the classification of various harms - for instance many incidents classified as self injury are in fact attempted suicides, and therefore the attempted suicides, signifying the conditions and circumstances people are forced to live under, are far worse than are being reported.
DIAC should remove families from Darwin Airport Lodge and into for instance Brisbane Community detention where at least there are more, if not adequate, support services.
At Darwin Airport Lodge it has come to my attention there are two Cerebral Palsy girls, aged nine and fifteen, in the company of only single parents, their mothers, and who are scared to offend DIAC and SERCO.
UPDATE: Chilout get the story out through Lateline:
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3638188.htm?site=melbourne
SERCO, in reference to its contract, is obliged to provide two hours of Carer contact for the girls, however they are not fulfilling this. Where is DIAC to ensure the contractual obligations are being met? SERCO personnel are responding to inquiries about the predicament of these young girls with indifference and as if it is no big deal. Well, it would be a big deal if these were their families, their children.
The girls need to be urgently removed from Darwin Airport Lodge and onwards to at least Brisbane Community detention where adequate medical support and Carer contact provision can be met. Behind the scenes Chilout and Amnesty are working at a frantic pace to leverage a positive outcome for these two young girls and their mothers.
The public interest requires that everyone knows how DIAC and SERCO are maltreating these young girls and that they have failed them. It will be a decade before the full extent of maltreatement by our Government and its agencies, and by DIAC and SERCO finally strikes legitimate public scrutiny.
A couple of years ago I sadly forewarned that there would be a spate of suicides in our Detention Centres and in ten months to follow there were six. I had warned that the most vulnerable group are young adults, between 20 to 30 years of age - an age when the form and content seeks to engage with the world, not dulled by the blow of incarceration. Five of the six deaths were of young men 20 to 28 years of age.
I forewarned that the next most vulnerable group are young children, and that if they languish in prison-like detention for far too long, their form and content is impeded and damaged, and the despair leads to various meltdown including the desire to end it all. Children are now attempting suicide - there will be suicides, just like the email news below describes. Now is the time to highlight what is ahead and prevent it rather than look back and assess where we went wrong.
We warned of suicide attempts and suicides at Nauru, and the letters of despair are pouring out of Nauru, and sadly the spate of suicide attempts continues on Nauru, and there will be death, as one detained Asylum Seeker on Nauru said to me, "the smell of death is here."
For all the people that suffer, breakdown, attempt suicide and suicide in detention, whether at Christmas Island, Nauru or on the mainland, the statistics around each of these realities are multiplied post-release - in time we will document that more people who were detained Asylum Seekers have attempted suicide or killed themselves in the equivalent periods (pre-release) post-release. This is the phenomena found post-release from our prisons - if there are 70 suicides per year in prisons then in the first year post-release from prison there are at least 350 deaths - most of them in the first three months. Immigration detention is a prison-like experience that trauma research clearly indicates is cruelly following a similar path as the harsh experience of our general prisons.
DIAC and SERCO should immediately relocate the young girls from Darwin Airport Lodge to appropriate accommodation. DIAC and SERCO should refuse the Government's impropriety to crowd people, and especially families, in inadequate Centres. There is nothing in SERCO's contract that stipulates that over-crowding should occur - so why do they not refuse DIAC and Government transfers of peoples who bring about overcrowding and concomitant traumas?
No child should be in the predicament that is Darwin Airport Lodge this very day. Similarly so elsewhere. As I write this article at Nauru, with its high density tent lodgings, overcrowded, a mass hunger strike is underway, and more emails from people suffering, traumatised, and with the loom of the "smell of death."
IF WE do nothing now in time this will be the news:
To: "info@humanrightsalliance.org"
Sent: Thursday, 1 November 2012 12:14 PM
Subject: A child suicides in immigration custody... We now have the tragedy of a child suicide death in immigration custody - We long warned this chilling tragedy would eventuate and the phenomena will unfold tragically into a spate...
A child suicide is the culmination of a vacuum of inhumanity - fettered by racism, indicted by a lack of moral leadership as demonstrated by the majority of our politicians.
My PhD research is in Australian deaths in custody - all forms of custodial predicaments - and I have been warning of a rise in immigration deaths in custody for three years and that suicides would take young lives, of those in their twenties when the bloom of life should be met with vibrancy, not by the dull blow of incarceration - and I have long warned that children incarcerated would lead to child suicides and now this has sadly come to pass, and I warn that this cruel tragedy, will rise into a spate of child suicide attempts, as more children whose form and content begs for the light of day myriad bright cannot continue to languish in the predicaments Australia has thumped upon them.
Acute and chronic clinical breakdowns, various traumas, multiple traumas - once again acute and chronic, various depressions, psychotic episodes, self harm and self injuries, suicide and multiple suicide attempts, and death are inevitable and will rise, and the rise will be terrorized by spates of suicide attempts and suicides unless we remove children and young people from within the languish of incarceration.
There are no resident psychologists, resident psychosocial counsellors nor adequate clinical experience - both physicians and psychiatrists - onsite or nearby detention centres.
Post-release the detention centre experience, there will also arise suicide attempts and multiple suicide attempts, and suicides of those who were children and young people in immigration detention whose form and content was damaged by the prison-like experience and the discrimination they believed they endured.
Every day Asylum Seekers call me, email me, write to me of their pain and suffering, and the fears they hold.
Gerry Georgatos
PhD Law researcher, Australian Deaths in Custody
Convenor, Human Rights Alliance
0430 657 309
CHILOUT Press Release:
2 November 2012
Boy attempts suicide in detention
Yesterday yet another young asylum seeker attempted suicide at Darwin Airport Lodge, as did a child, two weeks ago. Suicide attempts and self-harm are rife in Australia’s detention facilities as people grow anxious about being sent to Nauru and Manus Island.
Detention facilities are bursting at the seams with families, children and heavily pregnant mothers flown in from Christmas Island. The situation is a tinderbox.
Children are seeing many people with bandages around their necks and wrists. Blood is splattered on walls from people cutting themselves.
Ms Leila Druery, a spokesperson for ChilOut states, ‘These children are seeing things no child – or adult for that matter – should ever see. We fear that they’ll see acts of self-harm and suicide attempts and think that’s an option for them.’
Two weeks ago a 17-year-old boy cut his throat in an attempt at suicide.
Gerry Georgatos, PhD Law researcher, Deaths in Custody says, 'Communications from within Darwin Airport Lodge describe horrific circumstances …
"Young children are among the most vulnerable. If they languish in prison-like detention … their despair leads to multiple trauma and for some to suicide. Children are attempting suicide in great numbers."
Asylum seekers are being told they will be sent to Nauru if they speak out.
ChilOut echoes recent calls by the Australian Medical Association (NT branch) for Immigration Minister Chris Bowen and Health Minister Tanya Plibersek to visit Darwin.
Ms Druery says, 'They should see for themselves what's happening. Both are parents of young children and should not accept any child being exposed to these horrors.'
DIAC currently classifies many incidences as self harm and self injury rather than attempted suicide. That's why advocates say the numbers are deceptively low.
Ms Druery states, 'Until suicides are properly classified we can't get a clear picture. We need the truth, not deception. Children's lives are at risk.
'If things don’t change it’s only a matter of time before a child dies. Children should simply not be in these horrendous environments.’
For more information contact Leila Druery 0410510595 or
Gerry Georgatos 0430 657 309
LINKS:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/08/01/letter-fate-asylum-seekers...
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/warnings-of-more-detention...
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/leonora-to-house-refuge...
http://darkwavesmedia.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/13311554-interim-c...
http://www.theage.com.au/national/gillard-criticised-for-wrist-xrays-201...
http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/06/22/deaths-in-custody-why-are-more-priso...
http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/04/15/deaths-in-custody-20yrs-after-a-roya...
http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/09/24/immigration-detention-27-dead-and-no...
http://www.aic.gov.au/criminal_justice_system/deaths%20in%20custody.aspx
http://www.minister.immi.gov.au/media/cb/2012/cb184703.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3638188.htm?site=melbourne
Comments
Gov's own policies
http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliam...
Gerry's point about self harms/attempted suicides important
http://rran.org/learn-more/detention/
What is observed in the Immigration Detention Centre (IDC) Population
1.Excess rates of suicide, suicide attempts and self-harm
•The number of suicides in IDC’s in the last 18 months suggests that suicide rates may be at least 10 times in excess of the general Australian rate, and 3 times that of young adult men, the age and sex group at highest risk1.
•Self-harm and suicide attempts, which are endemic in Immigration Detention Centres (IDC’s), involve children and young people.
•Serious methods such as hanging, throat-slashing, deep wrist cutting, and drinking shampoo are used.
•Prepubertal children, who almost never make suicide attempts, are involved.
•Protest, despair and imitation are important motivations for self-harm in IDC’s. DIMIA only sees protest (in the form of ‘manipulation’, or ‘terrorism’) as significant and ignores the role of these other equally powerful factors.
Children, they're only children
http://www.awch.org.au/pdfs/Children-Detention-Centres-Submission-HREOC-...
No group is more disadvantaged in the political process than children – they
cannot vote, cannot hold political office, and rarely can speak publicly for their
interests. They have no access to any of the traditional levels of political
power. Children need the advocacy voice of parents, health care providers,
and interested members of the community to speak on their behalf and
represent their interests.
9 year old
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/09/27/3326521.htm
One account of a nine-year-old boy who attempted suicide was brought to the committee's attention, described as shocking event that caused great distress.
Spokesperson for the NT branch of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Peter Morris, told 105.7 Breakfast there was no doubt that being held in detention contributed to young child's suicide attempt.
"I'd be surprised if it was an isolated event," he said, adding that the detention of children in Darwin was tantamount to child abuse.
"We think anyone that chooses to take a course of action that either harms them or places them on a course of risk is committing child abuse.
"We are the only developed country that has mandatory detention - people are seeking asylum so that means they have been in very difficult circumstances and they already have very high levels of post traumatic stress disorder."
He has reinforced calls for all families and children to be removed from detention immediately, saying "if countries like Sweden can do it we think Australia can do it".
injustice
Yes this is what is happening in Darwin and other places
SERCO WATCH
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Serco-Watch/211959242172274
Why is The Child Telethon Institute taking SERCO money?
Telethon and Murdoch University complicit by taking SERCO money
http://www.childhealthresearch.org.au/study-with-us/scholarships,-fellow...
2012 Serco Scholarship in Child Health Research
In July 2012, Serco established the Serco Scholarship for Child Health Research. This Scholarship will be offered to a Murdoch University student to undertake their Honours studies based at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in 2013.
The Serco Scholarship in Child Health Research will be one of the two most valuable Honours scholarships available at Murdoch University. It will be advertised and promoted from September 2012 through Murdoch University's scholarship program and potential candidates will undergo a rigorous application process.
Further information on the Serco Scholarship and application form can be found on the Murdoch University website
Ideology - When one voice rules the nation
Ideology
When one voice rules the nation
Just because they're top of the pile
Doesn't mean their vision is the clearest
The voices of the people
Are falling on deaf ears
Our politicians all become careerists
They must declare their interests
But not their company cars
Is there more to a seat in parliament
Than sitting on your arse
And the best of all this bad bunch
Is shouting to be heard
Above the sound of ideologies clashing
Outside the patient millions
Who put them into power
Expect a little more back for their taxes
Like school books, beds in hospitals
And peace in our bloody time
All they get is old men grinding axes
Who've built their private fortunes
On the things they can rely
The courts, the secret handshake
The Stock Exchange and the old school tie
For God and Queen and Country
All things they justify
Above the sound of ideologies clashing
God bless the civil service
The nations saving grace
While we expect democracy
They're laughing in our face
And although our cries get louder
The laughter gets louder still
Above the sound of ideologies clashing
Above the sound of ideologies,
Above the sound of ideologies,
Above the sound of ideologies clashing
Billy Bragg
YOUTUBE - Then: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD9Ma3KnOYg
YOUTUBE - Now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN1Iugo1jIc
10 year old pleads for release
http://rran.org/blog/2012/04/10yo-pleads-for-release-from-asylum-detention/
It just goes on & on - children in prison, children in detention
http://rran.org/blog/2012/05/cultural-imperialism-jailed-indonesian-chil...
Children not being cared for
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-25/asylum-seeker-accuses-minister-of-...
Doctor reveals shocking suicide attempts
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-30/doctor-reveals-shocking-suicide-at...
Govt and the would-be govt criminals locking up children
appalling, our govt and the would-be govt are both culpable. criminals locking up children.
Children to Nauru
http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=bb59f5fd3221b4a4c85473c02&id=b74c737dfe
Live export of children poised to begin
Refugee advocates are reporting movement of planes and corralling of people – including women and children – within compounds in the Christmas Island detention facilities. Fears are that the live export of families including children to overseas detention facilities – such as Manus Island and Nauru – is about to begin.
A spokesperson for the Salvation Army on Manus Island has stated that they are now preparing to receive families from Australia.
Chilout says re-opening Nauru is a disaster for children
http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=bb59f5fd3221b4a4c85473c02&id=b62b330...
As the first planeload of people is deported there, ChilOut condemns the reintroduction of Nauru as a location for Australia to offload its responsibility to assess claims for protection.
ChilOut, Children Out Of detention has been campaigning since 2001 for humane treatment of children and families who are seeking asylum. Founding member, Dianne Hiles said "Between 2001 and 2005, ChilOut bore witness to the deterioration of young people we despatched to Nauru. Exactly like adults, the indeterminate length of their incarceration plays havoc with their mental health and well-being."
ChilOut is especially critical that this time, we know exactly what we are doing. Despite the known harm it causes, indefiniteness is being deliberately factored in through the 'No Advantage policy'.
ABC
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-03/reports-of-children-self-harming-i...
Asylum seeker advocates say two children have recently attempted self-harm at a Darwin immigration detention centre.
The Australian Lawyers Alliance says it understands a 17-year-old attempted self-harm at the Darwin Airport Lodge two weeks ago.
It says it was told yesterday of a second child attempting self-harm at the same facility.
Spokesman Greg Barnes says the centre should be closed down and the families moved into community detention.
"It certainly shows the human cost of detention of people in asylum, but particularly of women and children, is far too great," he said.
Mr Barnes says the Government must investigate the reports.
"The Commonwealth needs to look to see if it has breached it's own duty of care to these children," he said.
The Immigration Department said in a statement that "sadly these events happen from time to time".
It says all detainees have access to medical and mental health treatment.
The reports come less than a week after 170 detainees at the Nauru detention centre went on a hunger strike after a man tried to self-harm.
Needs citizen media when mainstream media fumbles...
(Thanks to Diet)... Barbaric Australian treatment of refugees causing child suicide attempts and hundreds of hunger strikers | linksunten.indymedia.org
https://linksunten.indymedia.org/de/node/70439
To Journalists Australia-wide who are worth their salt...
This went out be me earlier in a communique to journalists and news media mainstream...
The tragedy of Nauru unfolds however there is also the tragedy of child suicide attempts, their rise and a spate of them, culminating on the mainland - Darwin Airport Lodge - overcrowded, children witnessing tensions and breakdowns they should not - press releases from Chilout went out Friday night however little has been picked up by the news media.
Please look into what is occurring at Darwin Airport Lodge - we are in direct communication and have the facts.
The story of children suicide attempts should not be neglected and it should not turn into for me the labour it did with the Indonesian children in Adult Prisons - where it took me 6 months to one year to generate enough interest among journalists across the nation till at long last everyone jumped on board with their pro forma like stories on the disaster - all in all two years passed till together we exacted a modicum of change.
Please cover this story now, not later, and let us not wait till there are deaths.
What two journalists (from opposite parts of Australia) said to me about 'the newsworthiness of children attempting suicide' as compared to their 'suicide' will forever make me sick in the stomach.
Chilout press release:
https://indymedia.org.au/2012/11/03/chilout-press-release-boy-attempts-s...
For your reference, more information on Darwin Airport Lodge, and the preceding release:
https://indymedia.org.au/2012/11/02/children-attempting-suicide-in-immig...
And more from Nauru:
https://indymedia.org.au/2012/11/02/children-attempting-suicide-in-immig...
Gerry Georgatos, PhD Law research, Australian Custodial Systems/Deaths in Custody, HRA spokesperson - 0430 657 309
Berlin protest against inhuman treatment of refugees in Germany
For nearly three weeks, dozens of refugees have been camping out in a central square in Berlin to protest against their barbaric treatment by the German state. The protest camp is supported by refugee organizations such as the Voice and Karawane, which have links to the semi-anarchist anti-fa (anti-fascist) milieu. The protest itself has also been joined by many supporters who are not directly affected by Germany’s anti-foreigner policy.
The action began almost two months ago in Würzburg, southern Germany, when a group of 20 refugees set off to march the 600 miles to Berlin. The group was protesting against a German law that prohibits asylum-seekers from leaving their place of residence and strips them of the right to move freely in Germany. On their way to the capital, the group was joined by other victims of German asylum law and a total of 70 refugees eventually arrived in Berlin.
There they were greeted by a solidarity demonstration involving over 5,000 people—exceeding the expectations of the organizers. Banners bore slogans declaring: “Deportation is murder” and “No person is illegal”. Participants chanted “the right to reside anyway” and called for solidarity with the refugees.
Following the protest, some demonstrators occupied the Nigerian Embassy to protest against the country’s cooperation with Germany’s deportation policy. The occupation was broken up by police, with protesters complaining of excessive use of force by police using batons to disperse demonstrators.
Prior to the demonstration, asylum-seekers had written an appeal in which they summarized the goals of the protest. “We are refugees from various regions of the world”, they wrote. “We all fled in search of freedom and humanity. Contrary to the promises made, we found neither in Europe or Germany. Following the suicide of one of our fellow-sufferers, we decided to no longer tolerate our marginalization and disenfranchisement by the German government.”
Refugees described the common practice in the treatment of refugees in Germany. Victims are deprived of all basic human rights: they must remain in one location due to the stipulation of compulsory residence, often forced to live in inhuman conditions and banned from taking a job to earn a living. Many are tempted therefore to undertake illegal work under the most extreme forms of exploitation. Their lack of a residence permit deprives them of any employment rights.
In July of this year, the German Constitutional Court declared that the 20-year-long practice of awarding asylum-seekers financial support well below the basic rate of welfare support is unconstitutional and violates the basic right to humane subsistence.
This practice goes back to the virtual abolition of the right to asylum by all of Germany’s leading parties in 1993, the Christian Democratic Union, the Free Democratic Party and the Social Democratic Party. One component of the asylum law introduced at that time was the systematic deterrence of refugees. They were deliberately treated in an inhumane manner in order to minimize the number of asylum applications. In addition, the new law heavily restricted the right to apply for asylum.
Further restrictions to the right of asylum, together with increased repression and controls at external borders of the European Union, have led to a drastic reduction in the numbers of asylum-seekers in recent years. In 2011, 45,741 persons applied for asylum in Germany. Only 1.5 percent of this total were successful in their claims for asylum. About 55 percent of applicants were deported immediately—often under brutal conditions. Others received a temporary residence permit and were able to delay their deportation for a few months.
The increased security at the EU’s external borders means that many seeking to immigrate to Germany are not even allowed to enter Europe. Thousands of people will have access to Europe, and even the right to apply for asylum, denied. Estimates also assume that at the external borders of Europe since 1988, more than 18,500 refugees lost their lives in an attempt to get past the border regime in a country of asylum. Major causes of death are dehydration and drowning.
At the demonstration in Berlin refugees told reporters from the WSWS about their fate in Germany and the reasons why they were participating in the protests.
Kofi is 34 years old and comes from Ghana, where he worked as a computer technician. He fled Ghana due to political persecution. Kofi resides in a home in Wismar and awaits the processing of his asylum petition. He said that there are German companies in Ghana and many business people who live and work freely. “I wonder why in Germany I was not able to freely pursue my profession”, he said. “I think that every person should be able to build a life in this world, wherever they are. I want to have a future!”
Yonas comes from Ethiopia. When riots began there in 2005, he fled to Germany by air. He is 28 years old and used to live with his family, who sold household items. Yonas is currently housed in a refugee camp in a Bavarian village, where he feels very isolated.
After a year of waiting, his asylum application had been rejected. He received only a tolerated status and is now working for a pittance at McDonald’s. For two years he has lived with other men in a room. “I just want to be treated as a human being”, he said, “as an entity that has the same rights as all other people in Germany”.
Jean Pierre came alone from Guinea to Germany when he was 18. He is now 23 years old, has no family here and lives in a home in a secluded place in Bavaria. Due to restrictions against asylum-seekers in Bavaria, he is left with only about €135 (US$175) a month in pocket money. It took two years before he was allowed to study. He now has his diploma and works as a kitchen assistant at a food supplier for hospitals.
The situation of refugees has greatly worsened in recent years, not only in Germany but throughout Europe. Immigrants often serve as scapegoats to divert attention from social attacks on the working class and the moves by state powers to suppress protests. The defence of immigrants’ rights is an integral part of the defence of the social and democratic rights of all workers in Europe.
First published on 26.10.2012 by the World Socialist Website.
Interview on The Wire
Interview with Leila Druery and Dr Gerry Georgatos on The WIRE
http://www.thewire.org.au/storyDetail.aspx?ID=9839
In the wake of hunger strikes in the Nauru detention centre, new evidence has emerged about children attempting to commit suicide in Darwin's detention centre. A new report has revealed just how badly detention centres are affecting asylum seekers, especially children and impaired refugees. These children suffer from psychological trauma from their experiences travelling as a refugee, risking their lives in a small but crowded boat. And when they are intercepted, asylum seekers are sent to detention centres, such as the Darwin Airport Lodge.
These suicide attempts in young refugees are partly due to the conditions of each detention centre.
Chilout get the story out through ABC's Lateline
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3638188.htm?site=melbourne
The plight of a family in immigration detention with two severely disabled children
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 21/11/2012
Reporter: Kristy O'Brien
From inside detention, two mothers have spoken out about what they say is woefully inadequate medical support for their severly disabled children.
Transcript
TONY JONES, PRESENTER: From inside detention, two mothers have spoken out about what they say is woefully inadequate medical support for their severely disabled children.
They say their daughters have been neglected as their condition deteriorates in detention. Their condition could get worse.
The Immigration Department has today confirmed they could be transferred to Nauru or Manus Island.
Kristy O'Brien filed this report from Darwin.
KRISTY O'BRIEN, REPORTER: On the other side of this fence, an immigration centre in Darwin, two families are hoping to carve out a new life in Australia, free of the religious persecution they say they've faced in their home country of Iran. They survived what they describe as a horrific journey before being placed in detention several months ago.
But these families have special needs. Nine-year-old Rosa and 15-year-old Zeineb have cerebral palsy and are confined to wheelchairs.
NASRIN, MOTHER (voiceover translation): They don't have any adequate facility here for this type of children.
KRISTY O'BRIEN: Since being placed in detention in Australia, their mothers say their conditions have deteriorated rapidly and they blame inadequate medical care. Refugee advocates are now fighting on the family's behalf.
KATE GAUTHIER, CHILOUT: There are certain things they need, really basic functions like adequate food to be able to eat; relating to their disability, they don't have proper care and washing facilities, they don't have proper recreational facilities. And what's of critical important is they're not getting the physiotherapy that they need.
KRISTY O'BRIEN: The mothers say they were getting better health treatment for their children back in Iran.
FERNANDA DAHLSTROM, DARWIN ASYLUM SEEKER SUPPORT NETWORK: They are receiving some physiotherapy, but it's limited to one session a week, which is much less than they require. It's much less than they were receiving back home in Iran. And they have experienced a regression as a result of that lack of physical treatment.
ANGELA TILLMAN, CEREBRAL PALSY LEAGUE: The ideal treatment plan would combine physiotherapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy into a combined plan that's delivered every week by a therapist. So, that plan would also then be reinforced in community activities. So that might be a play school or preschool in the schoolyard.
KRISTY O'BRIEN: But getting help is no easy feat. The women say the detention service provider, Serco, has said it's not in their contract.
FERNANDA DAHLSTROM: Both the girls really need a carer to assist them with everyday tasks like going to the toilet, bathing and to assist the mothers with lifting them in and out of the wheelchairs. But Serco has refused to provide that assistance.
KRISTY O'BRIEN: The Immigration Department has responded by saying they are providing the relevant care and support for the children through excursions and special education at school. But the parents of disabled children are also expected to provide a level of primary care, as is the case in the community.
While conditions here may not be up to scratch, the families are worried it could soon get a whole lot worse with the possibility they'll be sent to one of the offshore processing centres. The department says, under the legislation, the family could be liable for transfer offshore and that has left the families extremely distressed.
NARGES, MOTHER (voiceover translation): She told me that, "What are you thinking about? Now you have to think about Nauru." I told her that with this situation I have with these kids, you're supposed to be sympathy with me and now you're scaring me of going to Nauru.
KRISTY O'BRIEN: Their ultimate wish is to released into the Australian community before any transfer can be arranged.
NASRIN (voiceover translation): Our request is that we like to come out of this place as soon as possible and live like a normal citizen.
ANGELA TILLMAN: At least in the community they will be able to have access to some of the aids and equipment that may make the job of the carers, parents, a lot easier.
KRISTY O'BRIEN: Advocates say this case is by no means isolated and highlights systemic problems in Australia's detention system which could be made a whole lot worse if disabled children aren't exempt from being sent offshore.
Kristy O'Brien, Lateline.
Captivity - contrary to the laws of nature
Captivity - contrary to the laws of nature. There is no slavery in the wild nature. Only the human egoism can dothat. We see that happens to animals in captivity. The same for man and even worse. There can‘t be no right decision, going against the laws of nature. Thats why captivity can not be of any re-education tool. On the contrary, a person can only rehabilitate the perception of freedom being free and taking care of others freedom. This requires an integral understanding of the world, the integral education.