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This report makes disturbing reading. It documents numerous breaches by Australia of both the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. As a nation that is understandably anxious that the rights of our own children should be respected when they come into contact with the authorities of other countries, it is troubling that between late…

An age of uncertainty Inquiry into the treatment of individuals suspected of people smuggling offences who say that they are children Glossary of Terms Abbreviation Term AFP Australian Federal Police AGD Attorney-General’s Department ALARA As Low As Reasonably Achievable ARPANSA Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency CDPP Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions CRC

Between late 2008 and late 2011, 180 young Indonesians who said that they were children arrived in Australia having worked as crew on boats bringing asylum seekers to Australia.

Between 1 September 2008 and 22 November 2011, 180 young Indonesians who said that they were children arrived in Australia, having worked as crew on boats bringing asylum seekers to Australia. These young people were often fishermen from impoverished communities in the south and east of Indonesia. Many of them have spent long periods of time in immigration detention without being charged, or…

Since 2001, the primary method of assessing whether an individual is under the age of 18 years in the context of criminal proceedings in Australia has been through the analysis of an x-ray of the young person’s wrist. As this Inquiry is considering the treatment of young Indonesian males suspected of people smuggling who say that they are children, it is important to consider the…

This chapter considers the Commonwealth’s approach to the use of biomedical markers to assess age since wrist x-rays became a prescribed procedure for the purpose of age determination following the enactment of the Crimes Amendment (Age Determination) Bill 2001 (Cth). It also considers what each relevant Commonwealth agency knew, or should have known, about the value of specific age…

This chapter considers some of the Commonwealth’s practices regarding the use of wrist x-ray analysis as a means of assessing chronological age for the purposes of criminal prosecution. It highlights situations where the reliance on wrist x-rays as evidence of age was contrary to stated Australian Government policy; or where it contributed to individuals who were in fact children, or who…

Focused age assessment interviews can be a useful technique for assessing age. Interviews of this kind have been used in Australia in a range of different ways since late 2010.

When it can be obtained, verified documentary evidence from a person’s country of origin can be reliable evidence of that person’s age. Consequently, the making of enquiries in Indonesia about whether such documentary evidence exists is an important means of age assessment. When they are made, such enquiries are ordinarily part of the investigation process conducted by the Australian…

As discussed in Chapter 1, Australia’s international human rights obligations require that individuals who say that they are children be given the benefit of the doubt and treated as minors unless there is proof to the contrary. In the case of unaccompanied children, this should lead to consideration by the State of what steps need to be taken to ensure their special protection and care.

The major finding of this Inquiry is that Australia’s treatment of individuals suspected of people smuggling offences who said that they were children has led to numerous breaches of both the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

Until December 2009, Ali Jasmin lived with his family in Bala Uring, a small village on the island of Flores, Indonesia. His family bought fish from the local fishermen and sold them at the market. Ali had completed seven years of schooling and worked as a fisherman in a little town not far from his home.

The table below contains information about each of the individuals of concern to the Inquiry. The data contained in this table was provided by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship and the Australian Federal Police.

An age of uncertainty Inquiry into the treatment of individuals suspected of people smuggling offences who say that they are children Appendix 3: Submissions The Inquiry received a total of 39 submissions, four of which remain confidential. Submission name Submission No. Amnesty International Australia 23 Australian Government 30 Australian Lawyers Alliance 21 Australian Society of Forensic …

On 26 and 27 April 2012, two members of the staff of the Australian Human Rights Commission visited Albany Regional Prison and Pardelup Prison Farm for the purposes of this Inquiry.

This short paper is concerned, first, to examine the significance in a particular case of statistical evidence; secondly, to examine what it means to prove a fact on ‘the balance of probabilities’; and finally to examine the significance of relying on statistical evidence to establish an accused person’s age in the context of s 236B of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth).

An age of uncertainty Inquiry into the treatment of individuals suspected of people smuggling offences who say that they are children Appendix 6: Responses to Inquiry report – Attorney-General’s Department, Australian Federal Police and Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (See PDF documents available for download from http://www.humanrights.gov.au/ageassessment/report/responses.html…

An age of uncertainty Inquiry into the treatment of individuals suspected of people smuggling offences who say that they are children Appendix 7: Acknowledgements President Catherine Branson QC Inquiry team Kate Temby, Danielle Noble, Freyana Irani, Vanessa Lesnie, Susan Newell, Amy Rogers Legal Graeme Edgerton, Michelle Lindley Communications Louise McDermott, Leon Wild Information…

This report is about two distinct subject matters. The first of these is the welcome move by the Australian Government to transfer increasing numbers of asylum seekers, refugees and stateless persons into community arrangements. The second is the situation of people who remain in immigration detention facilities with little or no prospect of being released.[1]

Recommendation 2: The need to detain should be assessed on a case-by-case basis taking into consideration individual circumstances. That assessment should be conducted when a person is taken into immigration detention or as soon as possible thereafter. A person should only be held in a closed immigration detention facility if they are individually assessed as posing an unacceptable risk to the…