ABSTRACT
Australia has undertaken international obligations to take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect children from sexual abuse and other forms of abuse, including measures for the prevention, identification, reporting, referral, investigation, treatment and follow up of incidents of child abuse. This chapter discusses the systemic abuse of children within Australia’s immigration detention regime identified by the AHRC National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention. The Australian government’s commitment to a criminogenic immigration detention underscores a deep contradiction at the heart of Australian public policy. Immigration Department officials made the decision to have the staff removed from Nauru without undertaking any follow-up investigation or providing any opportunity for staff to see or respond to the allegations. The deviance and criminality associated with Australian border policing arises from state policy and practice, rather than the often desperate attempts by refugees to attempt unauthorized entry into Australia.
