Asylum, detention, and mental health in Australia

Refugee Survey Quarterly

Volumn 27, Issue 3, 2008, Pages 110-127

  Newman, Louise K ^a   Dudley, Michael ^b,c   Steel, Zachary ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE   (Australia)

^b UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES   (Australia)

^c SYDNEY CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ASYLUM SEEKER; HUMAN RIGHTS; IMMIGRATION POLICY; MENTAL HEALTH;

AUSTRALASIA; AUSTRALIA;

EID: 54949126712     PISSN: 10204067     EISSN: 1471695X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/rsq/hdn034     Document Type: Article

References (125)

1. P. Wilson, "The broken spirit: Posttraumatic damage to the self" in J. P. Wilson and B. Drozdek (eds.), Broken Spirits: The Treatment of Traumatised Asylum Seekers, Refugees, War and Torture Survivors, New York, Brunner-Routledge, 2004, 109-59, para. 109.
2. UNHCR, The State of the World's Refugees: Fifty Years of Humanitarian Intervention, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000, 17.
3. R. S. Murthy and R. Lakshminarayana, "Mental health consequences of war: A brief review of research findings", World Psychiatry, Vol. 5, 2006, 25-30;
4. J. Quiroga and J. M. Jaranson, "Politically-motivated torture and its survivors: A desk study review of the literature", Torture, Vol. 16, 2005, 1-111.
5. See for example, D. Silove, Z. Steel and C. Watters, "Policies of deterrence and the mental health of asylum seekers", Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 284, 2000, 604-11;
6. UNHCR, The State of the World's Refugees: A Humanitarian Agenda, New York, Oxford University Press, 1997.
7. For overseas comparisons, see for example, Amnesty International, "lost in the labyrinth: Detention of asylum seekers", 1999, available at: http://www.amnestyusa.org/rightsforall/asylum/index.html (last visited 2 May 2003)
8. M. Welch and L. Schuster, "Detention of asylum seekers in the UK and USA - deciphering noisy and quiet constructions", Punishment & Society: International Journal of Penology, Vol. 7, 2005, 397-417.
9. D. Silove, "The asylum debacle in Australia: A challenge for psychiatry", Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 36, 2002, 290-6;
10. B. Loff, "Detention of asylum seekers in Australia", Lancet, Vol. 359, 2002, 792-3.
11. See for example, UNHCR Statistical Yearbook 2006, "Trends in Displacement, Protection and Solutions", Dec. 2007, available at http://www.unhcr.org/statistics (last visited 1 May 2008)
12. UNHCR, The State of the World's Refugees: Human Displacement in the New Millennium. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006.
13. A. Millbank, "World's Worst or World's Best Practice? European Reactions to Australia's Refugee Policy", People and Place, Vol. 12, 2004, 28-37.
14. Although, amendments to the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) in 2006 state that mandatory detention should only be a measure of last resort where children are concerned: S. 4AA. The Australian government announced extensive changes to this policy on 29 July 2008. Although the term 'mandatory detention' will still be used, individuals will now only be detained for initial health, identity, and security checks, or if they present an unacceptable risk to the community or have repeatedly refused to comply with visa conditions. The Christmas Island processing facility will still be used for certain unauthorized arrivals. See Senator Chris Evans, "New Directions in Detention: Restoring Integrity to Australia's Immigration System" (Canberra, 29 July 2008) http://www.minister.immi.gov.au/media/speeches/2008/ce080729.htm (last visited 7 August 2008).
15. Al-Kateb v. Godwin [2004] HCA 37, (2004) 219 CLR 562.
16. B. and B. v. Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs [2003] Fam CA 451;
17. B. and B. v. Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs [2003] Fam CA 621.
18. Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), A Last Resort? National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention, Sydney, HREOC, 2004, 357-455.
19. Ibid., 68.
20. See Migration Amendment (Detention Arrangements) Bill 2005 (Cth).
21. Migration Amendment (Detention Arrangements) Bill 2005 (Cth); Migration Act 1958 (Cth), s. 4AA(1) detention of children as a matter of last resort; s. 197AB (1): Residence determination and community.
22. HREOC, A Last Resort? op. cit. 608.
23. See for example, Justice P. N. Bhagwati (Regional Advisor for Asia and the Pacific of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights), Mission to Australia 24 May to 2 June 2002: Human Rights and Immigration Detention in Australia, Geneva, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2002.
24. See for example, A. v. Australia, Comm. No. 560/1993 (30 Apr. 1997);
25. C. v. Australia, Comm. No. 900/1999 (13 Nov. 2002);
26. Baban v. Australia, Comm. No. 1014/2002 (12 Aug. 2003);
27. Bakhtiyari v. Australia, Comm. No. 1069/2002 (29 Oct. 2003);
28. D. and E. v. Australia, Comm. No. 1050/2002 (11 Jul. 2006).
29. United Nations Committee Against Torture, "Concluding Observations of the Committee against Torture: Australia", 40th Session, UN Doc. CAT/C/AUS/CO/1, 15 May 2008, paras 11, 12, 25, 26.
30. Australian Medical Association, "Media Release: Asylum Seekers Should Have Access to Quality Health Services Under Medicare", 21 May 2001, available at: http://www.ama.com.au/web.nsf/doc/WEEN-5GB46R (last visited 6 Jun. 2008)
31. P. M. McNeill, "Public health ethics: Asylum seekers and the case for political action", Bioethics, Vol. 17, 2003, 487-501;
32. Public Health Association of Australia, "Submission to the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention", 2002, available at: http://www.hreoc.gov.au/human_rights/children_detention/submissions/ index.html (last visited 6 Jun. 2008);
33. Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, "RANZCP Airs Deep Concern at the Mandatory Detention of Child Asylum Seekers", 2003, available at: http://www.ranzcp.org/pdffiles/ mediarel/2003/Media%20Release%20-%20Forgotten%20Rights.pdf (last visited 13 May 2005).
34. Oxfam, "Adrift in the Pacific: The implications of Australia's Pacific refugee solution", Melbourne, 2002;
35. Human Rights Watch, "By Invitation Only: Australian Asylum Policy", New York, Human Rights Watch, 2002, available at: http://hrw.org/reports/2002/australia (last visited 11 Apr. 2008);
36. Amnesty International, "Mandatory Detention of Asylum Seekers", 2003, available at: http://www.amnesty.org.au/refugees/reffact09.html (last visited 6 Jun. 2008);
37. Refugee Council of Australia, "Frequently Asked Questions", 2000, available at www.refugeecouncil.org.au/html/facts∠d a§ts/facts.html (Sep. 2003).
38. P. Gale, "The refugee crisis and fear - populist politics and media discourse", Journal of Sociology, Vol. 40, 2004, 321-40;
39. N. Klocker and K. M. Dunn, "Who's driving the asylum debate? Newspaper and government representations of asylum seekers", Media International Australia incorporating Culture and Policy, Vol. 109, 2003, 71-92.
40. K. Slattery, "Drowning not waving: The 'Children Overboard' event and Australia's fear of the other", Media International Australia incorporating Culture and Policy, Vol. 109, 2003, 93-107.
41. Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (adopted 28 Jul. 1951, entered into force 22 Apr. 1954) 189 UNTS 137.
42. S. Kneebone, "Believable tales: Credibility and proving a 'well-founded fear of persecution'", presented at Migration, Mental Health & Human Rights Conference, Sydney, 20 Jul. 2003;
43. A. Macklin, "Truth and Consequences: Credibility Determination in the Refugee Context", presented at International Association of Refugee Judges conference, Ottawa, 14-16 Oct. 1998.
44. A. Millbank, "Australia and the 1951 refugee convention", People and Place, Vol. 9, 2001, 1-13.
45. Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, "Transcript of the Prime Minister the Hen John Howard MP Address at the Federal Liberal Party Launch, Sydney", 28 Oct. 2001.
46. R. Becker and D. Silove, "Psychological and psychosocial effects of prolonged detention", in M. Crock (ed.), Protection or Punishment: The Detention of Asylum-seekers in Australia. Sydney, The Federation Press, 1993, 81-91;
47. D. Silove, P. McIntosh, and R. Becker, "Risk of retraumatisation of asylum-seekers in Australia", Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 27, 1993, 606-12;
48. D. Silove, P. Austin, and Z. Steel, "No refuge from terror: The impact of detention on the mental health of trauma-affected refugees seeking asylum in Australia", Transcultural Psychiatry, Vol. 44, 2007, 359-93.
49. Silove, Austin, and Steel, "No Refuge from Terror", op. cit. 27;
50. Z. Steel and D. Silove, "The mental health implications of detaining asylum seekers", Medical Journal of Australia, Vol. 175, 2001, 596-99.
51. Professional Alliance for the Health of Asylum Seekers and their Children, "Submission to the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention", 2002, available at: http://www.hreoc.gov.au/ human_rights/children_detention/submissions/index.html (last visited 6 Jun. 2008).
52. Silove and Steel, "No Refuge from Terror", op. cit. The Australian statutory authorities include HREOC, and the Commonwealth Ombudsman.
53. See for example, HREOC, A Last Resort? op. cit.;
54. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Report of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Visit to Australia Geneva, E/CN.4/2003/8/Add.2, 25 Oct. 2002;
55. Human Rights Watch, "By Invitation Only", op. cit.
56. HREOC, A Last Resort? op. cit. 429-32.
57. Al-Kateb, op. cit.
58. Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade, A report on visits to immigration detention centres: Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Human Rights SubCommittee Canberra, Commonwealth of Australia, 2001, 104.
59. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Report of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Visit to Australia, op. cit. 2.
60. See for example, A. Sultan and K. O'Sullivan, "Psychological disturbances in asylum seekers held in long-term detention: A participant-observer account", Medical Journal of Australia, Vol. 175, 2001, 593-6;
61. Z. Steel et al., "Psychiatric status ofasylurn seeker families held for a protracted period in a remote detention centre in Australia", Australian & New Zealand Journal of Public Health, Vol. 28, 2004, 527-36.
62. M. Dudley, "Contradictory Australian National Policies on self-harm and suicide: The case of asylum seekers in mandatory detention", Australasian Psychiatry, Vol. 11, (suppl.), 2003, S102-8.
63. See for example, ibid;
64. HREOC, A Last Resort? 404-10.
65. HREOC, A Last Resort? op. cit. 299.
66. Ibid., 397.
67. C. Moorehead, Human Cargo: A Journey amongst Refugees, London, Vintage, 2006, 95-128;
68. K. Zwi et al., "A child in detention: Dilemmas faced by health professionals", Medical Journal of Australia, Vol. 179, 2003, 319-22.
69. S. Mares et al., "Seeking refuge, losing hope: Parents and children in immigration detention", Australasian Psychiatry, Vol. 10, 2003, 91-6.
70. Ibid.
71. HREOC, A Last Resort? op. cit. 394.
72. P. Flood, The Flood Report Inquiry into Immigration Detention Procedures, Canberra, Commonwealth of Australia, 2001, 28.
73. Commonwealth Ombudsman, Report of an Own Motion Investigation into the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs' Immigration Detention Centres, Canberra, Commonwealth of Australia, 2001, 26.
74. HREOC, A Last Resort? op. cit, 510;
75. Commonwealth Ombudsman, Report of an Own Motion Investigation, op. cit.;
76. HREOC, Those Who've Come Across the Seas: The Report of the Commission's Inquiry into the Detention of Unauthorised Arrivals, Canberra, HREOC, 1998, 156;
77. HREOC, Report on the Human Rights Commissioner's Visit to Curtin IRPC in July 2000, Canberra, HREOC, 2000, 87.
78. HREOC, A Last Resort? op. cit. 485-90;
79. Joint Standing Committee on Migration, Not the Hilton. Immigration Detention Centres: Inspection Report, Canberra, Commonwealth of Australia, 2000.
80. HREOC, A Last Resort? op. cit. 414.
81. Dudley, "Contradictory Australian national policies on self-harm and suicide", op. cit.
82. HREOC, Report of an Inquiry into a Complaint by Mr Mohammed Badraie on Behalf of his Son Shayan Regarding Acts or Practices of the Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, HREOC, 2002, 30.
83. HREOC, Those Who've Come Across the Seas, op. cit.
84. Ibid., 121.
85. M. J. Palmer, Inquiry into the Circumstances of the Immigration Detention of Cornelia Rau: Report, Canberra, Commonwealth of Australia, 2005.
86. Commonwealth Ombudsman, Inquiry into the Circumstances of the Vivian Alvarez Matter, Canberra, Commonwealth of Australia, 2005.
87. See P. Prince, "The Detention of Cornelia Rau: Legal Issues", Parliamentary Library Research Brief No. 14 (31 Mar. 2005), available at: www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs (last visited 6 Jun. 2008).
88. Migration Amendment (Detention Arrangements) Bill 2005 (Cth).
89. Z. Steel et al., "The politics of asylum and immigration detention: advocacy, ethics and the professional role of the therapist", in Wilson and Drozdek (eds.), Broken Spirits, op. cit. 659-87.
90. Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture, "The east timorese: clinical and social assessments of applicants for asylum", in D. Silove and Z. Steel (eds.), The Mental Health and Well-Being of On-Shore Asylum Seekers in Australia, Sydney, Psychiatry Research and Teaching Unit, 1998, 23-6.
91. M. Thompson et al., "Maribyrnong detention centre Tamil survey" in Silove and Steel (eds.), The Mental Health and Well-Being of On-Shore Asylum Seekers in Australia, op. cit. 27-31.
92. Steel et al., "Psychiatric status of asylum seeker families held for a protracted period in a remote detention centre in Australia", op. cit.
93. S. Mares and J. Jureidini, "Psychiatric assessment of children and families in immigration detention: Clinical, administrative and ethical issues", Australian & New Zealand Journal of Public Health, Vol. 28, 520-6.
94. Sultan and O'Sullivan, "Psychological Disturbances in asylum seekers held in long-term detention", op. cit.
95. Z. Steel et al., "Impact of immigration detention and temporary protection on the mental health of refugees", British Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 188, 2006, 58-64.
96. Palmer, Inquiry, op. cit. 140.
97. Dudley, "Contradictory Australian National Policies on self-harm and suicide", op. cit. S106.
98. Harold Bilboe, Transcript of Evidence, Sydney, 16 Jul. 2002, cited in HRFOC, A Last Resort? op. cit. 423.
99. M. Dudley and F. Gale, "Psychiatrists as a moral community? Psychiatry under the Nazis and its contemporary relevance", Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 36, 2002, 585-94.
100. L. K. Newman, "No justifying detainees' plight", Australian Doctor 2003, 69.
101. Steel et al., "The politics of asylum and immigration detention", op. cit. 666;
102. S. Mares and L. Newman (eds.), Acting from the Heart: Australian Advocates for Asylum Seekers tell their Stories, Sydney, Finch Publishing, 2007.
103. P. Ruddock, "Information sheet: Mental health of detainees. The Government's response", 24 May 2003, available at: www.minister.immi.gov.au/borders/detention/mentalhealth.htm.
104. I. H. Minas, "Detention and deception: Limits of ethical acceptability in detention research", Monash Bioethics Review, Vol. 23, 2004, 69-77;
105. Z. Steel and D. Silove, "Science and the common good: Indefinite, non-reviewable mandatory detention of asylum seekers and the research imperative", Monash Bioethics Review, Vol. 23, 2004, 93-103.
106. Steel and Silove, "Science and the common good", op. cit.
107. Steel et al., "Psychiatric status of asylum seeker families held for a protracted period in a remote detention centre in Australia", op. cit.;
108. Steel et al, "Impact of immigration detention and temporary protection on the mental health of refugees", op. cit.
109. "Vanstone in new mental health row", Sydney Morning Herald, 11 Feb. 2005.
110. Canberra paid $30000 for Report to Discredit Studies", The Age, 12 Feb. 2005.
111. P. Ruddock, "Asylum seekers and healthcare", Medical Journal of Australia, Vol. 176, 2002, 85;
112. see also author's reply at 85-7.
113. K. E. Miller, M. Kulkarni, and H. Kushner, "Beyond trauma-focused psychiatric epidemiology: Bridging research and practice with war-affected populations", American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Vol. 76, 2006, 409-22;
114. K. E. Miller and L. M. Rasco (eds.), The Mental Health of Refugees: Ecological Approaches to Healing and Adaptation, Mahwah, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004;
115. J. Breslau, "Cultures of trauma: Anthropological views of posttraumatic stress disorder in international health", Culture, Medicine & Pychiatry, Vol. 28, 2004, 113-26.
116. C. Eyber and A. Ager, "Conselho: Psychological healing in displaced communities in Angola", Lancet, Vol. 360, 2002, 871.
117. D. Silove and Z. Steel, "Understanding community psychosocial needs after disasters: Implications for mental health services", Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, Vol. 52, 2006, 121-5;
118. D. Silove, "The psychosocial effects of torture, mass human rights violations, and refugee trauma: Toward an integrated conceptual framework", Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease, Vol. 187, 1999, 200-7.
119. C. Pourgourides, S. Sashidharan, and P. Bracken, A Second Exile: The Mental Health Implications of Detention of Asylum Seekers in the United Kingdom, Birmingham, North Birmingham Mental Health NHS Trust, 1995;
120. Silove, Steel, and Watters, "Policies of deterrence and the mental health of asylum seekers", op. cit.
121. Silove, McIntosh, and Becker, "Risk of retraumatisation of asylum-seekers in Australia", op. cit.;
122. S. Mares et al., "Seeking refuge, losing hope: Parents and children in immigration detention", Australasian Psychiatry, Vol. 10, 2002, 91-6, 93.
123. HREOC, A Last Resort? op. cit. 66.
124. Palmer, Inquiry, op. cit.
125. Commonwealth Ombudsman, Inquiry into the Circumstances of the Vivian Alvarez Matter, op. cit.