http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/A-prisoner-all-her-life-this-girl-bears-the-scars/2005/05/06/1115092692388.html
A prisoner all her life, this girl bears the scars
By Lee Glendinning and Joseph Kerr
May 7, 2005
Three-year-old Naomi Leong was born into detention and has known no other life but still asks her mother when they are going home. She started off warm and engaging but became increasingly disconnected as she grew. Now she is listless, will not play with other children and wants only constant nursing by her mother.
"Every time she sees me upset and feeling sad she bangs her head against the wall," her 31-year-old Malaysian mother, Virginia Leong, told the Herald from Villawood Detention Centre yesterday. "But there's nowhere I can hide. I am unstable and screaming all the time. I cannot help it."
Of the 74 child detainees in Australia, Naomi has been in detention longer than any of them.
Ms Leong says she lives only for her daughter, and has told a psychiatrist she is "exhausting" herself trying to look happy even though she "feels dead".
"She seems very weird," she said yesterday of her daughter. "She is never playing around children her own age and she will never talk much, but she always says to me, 'When can we go home?' and I say we can't and she says, 'No, let's go go home?' What can I say to that?"
Psychiatrists have said detention is indelibly damaging Naomi. According to one psychiatrist's report obtained by the Herald, Ms Leong was said to be apparently suffering severe major depression and psychotic features.
"She and Naomi are both potentially at risk of their safety if this condition is allowed to continue without adequate treatment, as it has been so far," said Michael Dudley. He also recommended removing Ms Leong and Naomi to a psychiatric unit.
It is understood Ms Leong entered Australia on a valid visa, but overstayed.
She was two months pregnant with Naomi when she was detained for trying to travel to Hong Kong on a false passport.
Naomi's case is just the latest to raise concerns about how immigration authorities are managing detainees' mental health. A Federal Court judge this week said the Government had failed in its duty of care to two long-term Iranian detainees who are now in a psychiatric hospital. The inquiry into Cornelia Rau's detention has also been widened to include 33 other people wrongly detained.
AN Immigration Department spokesman said Naomi was not an Australian citizen and that Ms Leong was free to leave Australia.
So disturbing has been Naomi's behaviour - she has stopped eating and drinks only juice - that a psychiatrist asked the department in March to let her visit a children's play group centre for two hours a week.
Ms Leong said: "My brain has already been destroyed but I am trying to stop hers from being destroyed. Her life is so unfair."
The Prime Minister has apologised for the wrongful deportation of Australian Vivian Alvarez to the Philippines. Ms Alvarez, who went missing in 2001, has a nine-year-old son in foster care in Brisbane.
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What do you guys think?
There's been a lot on the news about refugees, asylum seekers that I think a lot of people have become desenstised to the issue. I for one have been.
But then i saw this article and was shocked at it. Most people seem to think ok, this person's an asylum seeker, or is refugee and has tried to come into Australia illegally.
Fair enough but do they really deserve these consequences? A friend of mine visted silverwater prison (one which houses people who are low risk, women who have children) and in her words it was like a "motel". So it would seem that even people who have committed low grade crime (don't know the legal term) receive better treatment. My point is these refugee/asylum seekers or those who have stayed in Australia haven't been charged with a crime and yet in some cases they're being treated as though they are.
My concern is for the child in the story. If you go to the above link, there's a photo which accompanies the story. That photo and article is a more poignant reminder of the government's neglect in the psychological health of people in detention centres and in particular children.
A prisoner all her life, this girl bears the scars
By Lee Glendinning and Joseph Kerr
May 7, 2005
Three-year-old Naomi Leong was born into detention and has known no other life but still asks her mother when they are going home. She started off warm and engaging but became increasingly disconnected as she grew. Now she is listless, will not play with other children and wants only constant nursing by her mother.
"Every time she sees me upset and feeling sad she bangs her head against the wall," her 31-year-old Malaysian mother, Virginia Leong, told the Herald from Villawood Detention Centre yesterday. "But there's nowhere I can hide. I am unstable and screaming all the time. I cannot help it."
Of the 74 child detainees in Australia, Naomi has been in detention longer than any of them.
Ms Leong says she lives only for her daughter, and has told a psychiatrist she is "exhausting" herself trying to look happy even though she "feels dead".
"She seems very weird," she said yesterday of her daughter. "She is never playing around children her own age and she will never talk much, but she always says to me, 'When can we go home?' and I say we can't and she says, 'No, let's go go home?' What can I say to that?"
Psychiatrists have said detention is indelibly damaging Naomi. According to one psychiatrist's report obtained by the Herald, Ms Leong was said to be apparently suffering severe major depression and psychotic features.
"She and Naomi are both potentially at risk of their safety if this condition is allowed to continue without adequate treatment, as it has been so far," said Michael Dudley. He also recommended removing Ms Leong and Naomi to a psychiatric unit.
It is understood Ms Leong entered Australia on a valid visa, but overstayed.
She was two months pregnant with Naomi when she was detained for trying to travel to Hong Kong on a false passport.
Naomi's case is just the latest to raise concerns about how immigration authorities are managing detainees' mental health. A Federal Court judge this week said the Government had failed in its duty of care to two long-term Iranian detainees who are now in a psychiatric hospital. The inquiry into Cornelia Rau's detention has also been widened to include 33 other people wrongly detained.
AN Immigration Department spokesman said Naomi was not an Australian citizen and that Ms Leong was free to leave Australia.
So disturbing has been Naomi's behaviour - she has stopped eating and drinks only juice - that a psychiatrist asked the department in March to let her visit a children's play group centre for two hours a week.
Ms Leong said: "My brain has already been destroyed but I am trying to stop hers from being destroyed. Her life is so unfair."
The Prime Minister has apologised for the wrongful deportation of Australian Vivian Alvarez to the Philippines. Ms Alvarez, who went missing in 2001, has a nine-year-old son in foster care in Brisbane.
---------------------------------------------------------
What do you guys think?
There's been a lot on the news about refugees, asylum seekers that I think a lot of people have become desenstised to the issue. I for one have been.
But then i saw this article and was shocked at it. Most people seem to think ok, this person's an asylum seeker, or is refugee and has tried to come into Australia illegally.
Fair enough but do they really deserve these consequences? A friend of mine visted silverwater prison (one which houses people who are low risk, women who have children) and in her words it was like a "motel". So it would seem that even people who have committed low grade crime (don't know the legal term) receive better treatment. My point is these refugee/asylum seekers or those who have stayed in Australia haven't been charged with a crime and yet in some cases they're being treated as though they are.
My concern is for the child in the story. If you go to the above link, there's a photo which accompanies the story. That photo and article is a more poignant reminder of the government's neglect in the psychological health of people in detention centres and in particular children.
