Senator Nick McKim's treatment during his recent visit to Manus Island points out clearly what we already know; that the treatment of detainees there is too bad to be made public and is embarrassing to PNG, while our government thinks it can get away with "deterrent" abuse because the camps are far away over the horizon where we might with luck forget about them.
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But the past three weeks have made clear what some of us may not have known, that systematic mistreatment exists in detention centres here in our own capital cities.
As has been reported, at the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation two children who were healthy on being detained were recently found to be seriously vitamin deficient, one with teeth so rotten she needed dental surgery at the age of two.
In the past three weeks in MITA two small children have required hospital attention, one with an entirely preventable head injury, the other with flu. In both cases it's claimed the parents had to call outside advocates to ring an ambulance because management had refused.
An adult who had been complaining of chest pain fell dead. Another man was desperate enough to try to set himself on fire. Another is so ill he has sewn his lips together.
All this in Broadmeadows. In an Australian government facility. In our midst. Why is there not an outcry? Why do we not treat people seeking asylum like people?
Janet Gaden, Daylesford
