On Friday 29th October at 1pm, paediatricians and other health workers and researchers from Darwin will meet at the front of the Menzies Building on the Royal Darwin Hospital campus to make a public statement that Detention Harms Children.
This will follow the weekly Paediatric Grand Round meeting which this week will focus on the impact of trauma on refugee and asylum seeker children.
Like other health professionals around the country, we are deeply concerned about the devastating effects that the detention centre environment is having on children who are being detained by Australia. Staff from Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in Brisbane have already made a stand, and tomorrow we will be joined by others in Sydney and Adelaide, all calling for the release of children and their families.
We believe that Australians need to know about the harms caused by detention, to children and to families who have in many cases already had to flee significant hardship and persecution. We welcome media attention to the issue, and invite you to attend tomorrow at 1pm.
Tomorrow’s event is being coordinated by concerned individuals, with support from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. The views expressed do not represent the views of the Royal Darwin Hospital.
For comment: Dr Joshua Francis, Paediatrician & Paediatric Infectious Diseases Specialist, 0423 528 381
