Capacity Building Workshop on Alternatives to Detention
On 29th to 30th August, IDC and the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APPRN) co-organized a successful capacity building workshop on Alternatives to Detention in Jakarta, Indonesia. The workshop was attended by 30 participants from 20 organizations from Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, Philippines, Nepal, and Hong Kong who are actively seeking to establish or expand alternatives to immigration detention (ATD) projects in countries in their respective countries.
The workshop focused on practical skills-based training and included sessions on screening and assessing vulnerability of refugees and asylum seekers, principles to consider when working with traumatised persons, case management and referral systems and minimum standards for running an ATD shelter. Some participants were also invited by Church World Service to visit their alternative to detention project in Jakarta, a shelter for unaccompanied and separated refugee and asylum seeking minors.
IDC Asia Pacific members attend NGO Consultations in Geneva
IDC's Asia Pacific members were out in full force in Geneva. It was fantastic to be at the NGO Consultations with a number of our members from Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Nepal and the Philippines.
We were able to hear about the latest positive developments in their respective countries around immigration detention and discuss opportunities for further collaboration this year. The IDC also had successful meetings with UNHCR's Bureau staff for Asia and the Pacific.
IDC members from Malaysia and Japan met with the IDC's regional coordinators and programme officer from Malaysia and Mexico City to discuss the status of ATD pilot projects that have either been implemented or are being proposed in each of the three countries.
The purpose of this meeting was to begin a process of encouraging the sharing of knowledge, good practices and lessons learned around developing ATD pilot projects. The IDC Secretariat is now seeking to form a small working group around ATD implementation, and is currently strategizing on ways to best structure this. More details to follow in the upcoming months.
Human Rights Watch Indonesia release report
Human Rights Watch Indonesia: On 24th June 2013, Human Rights Watch released its report “Barely Surviving: Detention, Abuse, Neglect of Migrant Children in Indonesia,” detailing Indonesia's treatment of migrant children - both accompanied and unaccompanied.
The report describes how Indonesian authorities frequently and arbitrarily detain migrant and asylum-seeking children in sordid conditions for months or years (Indonesian law permits up to 10 years of immigration detention), without access to lawyers or a way to challenge their detention.
Violence is reportedly common in Indonesian immigration detention centres, with children either subject to, or forced to witness such violence.
Unaccompanied children (of which more than 1,000 arrived in Indonesia in 2012) can be especially vulnerable due to the absence of a government agency responsible for their guardianship; they either languish in detention or are left to fend for themselves, without any assistance with food or shelter. Full report.
See also this op-ed by Alice Farmer of Human Rights Watch (one of the authors of the report) highlighting that immigration detention of children is a regional problem
Asia Regional Detention News
Criticism over Australia's immigration detention policies have continued to mount, particularly in light of reports of self-harming by children detained at detention centres in Darwin.
Rights groups and legal experts have called upon Australia to fulfil its international legal obligations and protect the rights of close to 2,000 children now held in immigration detention throughout the country.
There remains significant concern over the thousands of Rohingya embarking on perilous boat journeys from Rakhine State or Bangladesh's refugee camps and makeshift sites southwards towards Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Reports of Rohingya men, women and children dying at sea, being pushed back out to sea or detained in overcrowded facilities have prompted UNHCR to make a call for urgent action.
Amnesty International: Refugee deal takes New Zealand down the wrong path (AI Australia)
Amnesty International has published a briefing stating its concern for the recently announced refugee deal between Australia and New Zealand, claiming it does not address refugee protection in the region, and may in fact undermine a regional approach.
Asia: Australia's policy of offshore processing causing mental illness in detainees
The use of immigration detention continued to escalate as an issue of concern in the region, including amongst NGOs and medical professionals in Australia who have been vocal in criticising the impact of the Australian government's policy of offshore processing on asylum seekers.
This can be noted in a number of media reports regarding the detention facility on Nauru.
NGO work on the issue of immigration detention has been extensive and a report of the IDC's Regional Workshop on Immigration Detention in partnership with the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APPRN), held in Bangkok in late October 2012, is now available online, where NGOs from 14 countries in the region have developed two year project plans to address this growing trend.
Asia Pacific: Inquiry's findings conclude immigration detention causes mental illness
A parliamentary investigation into immigration detention in Australia has found that conditions in Australian detention centres are causing endemic mental illness and violence for those detained.
The report goes further, stating that acute mental illness is widespread across the detention network and that almost all (90 per cent) detainees suffer clinically significant depression.
Amnesty International: New Report: Trapped: The exploitation of migrant worker
Amnesty International has released a report documenting the exploitation of migrant workers in Malaysia and making recommendations to the government.
The Arakan Project; Tens of thousands of Rohingyas from Burma at risk of starvation in an unprecedented crackdown in Bangladesh
Chris Lewa has released a report titled The Arakan Project, detailing the treatment and living conditions faced by unregistered Rohingya refugees living outside the two official refugee camps in Cox's Bazaar District, Bangladesh.
Workshop on strengthening capacity to implement alternatives to immigration detention
The workshop report is available here.