BRISBANE archdiocesan Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (CJPC) called on the Federal Government to release children from detention centres after the Baktigari brothers were returned to Woomera.
CJPC executive officer Peter Arndt said holding minors in the detention centres was ‘untenable, intolerable and disgusting’.
‘The commission has been calling for the release of children since December,’ he said. ‘The mounting evidence of abuse, neglect and inhumane conditions supports what we have been saying for more than six months.
‘One of the Baktigari boys has scarred arms from apparent suicide attempts and I don’t think Minister Ruddock’s attempts to say that the boy’s condition is not necessarily the result of detention are credible.’
The return of the boys to Woomera followed reports that a 10-year-old boy attempted to hang himself at the centre on July 18 and Jesuit Fr Frank Brennan’s report of bruises on a seven-year-old at the centre which were consistent with a baton attack.
