24 January 2002

The Federal Conference of the 155,000 member Australian Education Union has called for children in immigrant detention camps to be allowed to go to Australian schools.

"The denial of educational provision to these children highlights the injustice of current government policy and constitutes a violation of their human rights," said AEU Federal Secretary, Rob Durbridge today.

"The AEU wants detained children to be released into the community to live with their parents until their refugee status has been resolved. The denial of educational opportunities for the 1100 children held in detention in Australia last year is a blot on our national reputation. We would welcome these children into the multicultural educational environment which our public schools and colleges provide," said Mr Durbridge.

"Media publicity has suggested that the children in Woomera are attending school. This is misleading. The "school" the children are being sent to is in fact a closed Catholic school apparently now operated by the Immigration Department," said Mr Durbridge. "There appears to be no provision for secondary school children at all."

"The AEU calls on education departments, state and federal, to provide resources to schools so they may accommodate the refugee children in a supportive educational environment and deal effectively with the extraordinary problems faced by them," said Mr Durbridge.

"The AEU will seek to make links between refugees and local public schools and colleges so that programs can be provided and children and their parents can be supported while they live in the community peacefully with their families," said Mr Durbridge.