You think You're having a bad day?
May 6th 2005, 3:31 pm
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You think You're having a bad day?
Doctor concerned over detainee treatment
May 5, 2005
Staff at a Sydney immigration detention centre separated a detainee from her two-year-old daughter and later kept them in semi-isolation to punish the woman for talking to the media, a doctor said.
Leading psychiatrist Dr Michael Dudley - a senior lecturer in psychiatry at the University of NSW and a psychiatrist at the Sydney Children's Hospital - said he held grave concerns about the treatment of Virginia Leong and her daughter Naomi, who turned three on Thursday.
He said Ms Leong was separated from her child for more than a week in July last year, when she was sedated and sent to a psychiatric facility after participating in a protest at Villawood.
During the protest, Ms Leong climbed onto the roof of a building and was using a mobile phone to talk to reporters covering the protest against plans to move detainees to South Australia's Baxter centre.
"The mother was sedated and sent to a mental health facility outside of the centre. She was not told who had her baby or why she was taken," Dr Dudley said.
"The Department of Community Services (DOCS) took the baby and returned her seven to 10 days later grubby, bruised and highly distressed."
Dr Dudley said Ms Leong, after returning from the psych hospital, was subsequently moved to a restricted part of Villawood with her daughter.
The move was clearly intended as punishment for her participation in the protest, he said.
"In all that time they did not see other families, or play with other children," Dr Dudley said.
"This was a form of punishment, it was a retaliatory action, I think that's fairly straightforward.
"Children need stimulation, and they need to know about life ... They are both going to need quiet a bit of treatment, they're in a terrible state."
He said the mother and daughter had suffered from their time in semi-isolation, away from their support network.
He was extremely concerned about the mental wellbeing of Naomi, who was born in Villawood and had not known life on the outside.
She exhibited some disturbing behaviours including banging her head against the wall. She was also consciously anxious and was often mute and unresponsive, he said.
Her mother was also suffering severe depression, he said.
Dr Dudley said he hoped to hear soon if the federal government would grant his request to allow Naomi to leave the detention centre to attend a play group for two hours a week.
"She spent all her life in immigration detention, where there's traumas and losses, and I guess she's had very little opportunity to interact with peers and teachers and others on a regular basis and we therefore thought it was important that she had some chance to get into child care or something like that," he told ABC radio.
An spokesman for the Immigration Department said the proposal was being considered, and indicated Naomi would be allowed out for play group.
"Agreement has been reached for children from the centre to attend an early childhood centre nearby and we expect this to commence very soon," he said.
"We expect that this child will be involved in this."
The department would not comment on allegations the mother and daughter were punished because Ms Leong participated in the protest.
May 5, 2005
Staff at a Sydney immigration detention centre separated a detainee from her two-year-old daughter and later kept them in semi-isolation to punish the woman for talking to the media, a doctor said.
Leading psychiatrist Dr Michael Dudley - a senior lecturer in psychiatry at the University of NSW and a psychiatrist at the Sydney Children's Hospital - said he held grave concerns about the treatment of Virginia Leong and her daughter Naomi, who turned three on Thursday.
He said Ms Leong was separated from her child for more than a week in July last year, when she was sedated and sent to a psychiatric facility after participating in a protest at Villawood.
During the protest, Ms Leong climbed onto the roof of a building and was using a mobile phone to talk to reporters covering the protest against plans to move detainees to South Australia's Baxter centre.
"The mother was sedated and sent to a mental health facility outside of the centre. She was not told who had her baby or why she was taken," Dr Dudley said.
"The Department of Community Services (DOCS) took the baby and returned her seven to 10 days later grubby, bruised and highly distressed."
Dr Dudley said Ms Leong, after returning from the psych hospital, was subsequently moved to a restricted part of Villawood with her daughter.
The move was clearly intended as punishment for her participation in the protest, he said.
"In all that time they did not see other families, or play with other children," Dr Dudley said.
"This was a form of punishment, it was a retaliatory action, I think that's fairly straightforward.
"Children need stimulation, and they need to know about life ... They are both going to need quiet a bit of treatment, they're in a terrible state."
He said the mother and daughter had suffered from their time in semi-isolation, away from their support network.
He was extremely concerned about the mental wellbeing of Naomi, who was born in Villawood and had not known life on the outside.
She exhibited some disturbing behaviours including banging her head against the wall. She was also consciously anxious and was often mute and unresponsive, he said.
Her mother was also suffering severe depression, he said.
Dr Dudley said he hoped to hear soon if the federal government would grant his request to allow Naomi to leave the detention centre to attend a play group for two hours a week.
"She spent all her life in immigration detention, where there's traumas and losses, and I guess she's had very little opportunity to interact with peers and teachers and others on a regular basis and we therefore thought it was important that she had some chance to get into child care or something like that," he told ABC radio.
An spokesman for the Immigration Department said the proposal was being considered, and indicated Naomi would be allowed out for play group.
"Agreement has been reached for children from the centre to attend an early childhood centre nearby and we expect this to commence very soon," he said.
"We expect that this child will be involved in this."
The department would not comment on allegations the mother and daughter were punished because Ms Leong participated in the protest.
