The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has urged Australia and other countries to end their detention of children, pleading with the community to provide housing options for underage asylum seekers.
It is believed there is more than 600 children currently in detention after arriving in Australia via boat, with UNHCR representative Thomas Vargas telling ABC Radio on Friday that Australia's treatment of underage refugees is inhumane.
"We would urge any government in the world, not to use children as pawns to solve a problem that is, by the way, not going to be solved by a unilateral approach," Vargas said.
"Children do not belong in detention and it is clear under international law that states should not detain them," he said.
"Not only is it not humanitarian, but it's illegal under international law," he added.
However, Australia's immigration minister Scott Morrison believes the country is doing its utmost to protect children in detention.
Morrison also revealed that the federal government is in the midst of a long-term plan that would see all underage refugees out of detention centers imminently.
"There is now an almost 50 percent reduction across all centers, including offshore processing centers," he said.
"We will be able to get the remaining children out of detention in Australia when legislation currently before the parliament is passed," he said.
Meanwhile a group of popular Australian identities, led by actor Bryan Brown and including high profile journalist Ita Buttrose, former Australian cricket captain Ian Chappell, actor Claudia Karvan and former Wallabies captain George Gregan, have joined together to end the practice of holding children in detention.
Their campaign, entitled "We're Better Than This," hopes to raise awareness and hold the federal government accountable for how underage refugees are being treated.
"These children are self-harming," Brown said earlier in the week. "They're in there for 400 days on average and we've got to treat them better than this."
[english.cntv.cn]
28/11/14
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