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Asylum-seeker children 'self-harming'
Asylum-seeker children are attempting self-harm and even suicide in a Darwin immigration detention centre, a key medical group representative says.
Although the government is attempting to place all asylum-seeking children and families in community housing some are still held in detention centres.
And in Darwin, this has resulted in young children presenting to doctors after trying to hurt themselves, the Australian Medical Association's Northern Territory president Paul Bauert said.
"We have had children under the age of 10 attempting self-harm," Dr Bauert said today.
"There's definitely been cases of attempted suicide and even cases of some young children taking up hunger strikes. There's been some close calls."
The government has pledged to move all children out of detention by the end of next month, but Dr Bauert said the transfer was not happening fast enough.
Children who experienced hardship and stress in their first years often carried it with them for the rest of their lives, said Dr Bauert, who urged the government to release all children from detention immediately.
"We know that 95 per cent of these kids are going to end up Australian citizens and what we are doing is damaging them," he said.
"It's just not the Australian way."
Rights groups have criticised Australia's system of mandatory detention for asylum-seekers awaiting processing, with the nation's Human Rights Commission last week warning suicide and depression were major concerns in the centres.
Dr Bauert's comments are also backed by those of former Australian human rights commissioner Sev Ozdowski, who has described the impact of detention on children as tragic, saying some had developed mental illness from the experience.
More than 6800 asylum seekers - mostly from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq - arrived in Australia in 2010 and hundreds more have arrived this year. (AFP)
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