AUSTRALIA’S Catholic bishops have called on the Federal Government to act immediately on a Family Court ruling that the detention of children in migration centres is unlawful.
Commenting on the court decision made on June 19, chairman of the Bishops’ Committee for Migrants and Refugees, Bishop Joseph Grech of Sandhurst and Australian Catholic Social Justice Council chairman, Bishop Christopher Saunders of Broome, both said they hoped the Government would start releasing unaccompanied minors from detention centres.
They said the children should be released into the care of appropriate families.
The bishops said the Government should also ensure that families with children in detention were united and released into the community.
A majority decision of the full Family Court upheld the appeal of two boys and their sisters against an earlier ruling that the court had no jurisdiction over children in detention.
The court ordered that the case of the children ‘ boys aged 14 and 12, and girls 11, nine and six ‘ be retried urgently.
There was an expectation among refugee advocates the decision that the detention of children under immigration laws was illegal could affect 108 children in custody.
Brisbane Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Oudeman and other Church organisations also welcomed the court decision.
Bishop Oudeman lauded the decision while speaking on World Refugee Day on June 20 at the Woolloongabba headquarters of Australians Caring for Refugees (Austcare).
Bishop Oudeman said it was particularly pleasing to welcome this decision on World Refugee Day.
The Sydney-based Uniya Jesuit Social Justice Centre welcomed the court decision in its World Refugee Day statement.
Uniya director, Good Samaritan Sister Patty Fawkner, said the court correctly drew on international law in handing down its decision.
Executive officer of Melbourne’s Catholic Commission for Justice, Development and Peace (CCJDP), Marc Purcell, said the main issue to be resolved in 2003-4 was the fate of more than 8500 refugees who had been placed on temporary protection visas and faced continued uncertainty about their future.
