freediver wrote on Oct 30
th, 2011 at 10:20pm:
Quote:If we believe that the special rights of children exist, then we must be vigilant in ensuring that a greater injustice is not committed against a child by presuming them to be adults because we do not have immediate access to their legal guardians.
So anyone who can successfully hide their identity while committing crimes accross multiple countries should get off scott free if they can't figure out who he is quick enough?
So anyway, back to the point... Indonesian minors in Australian adult prisons...
There are two problems here...
The first is the process by which we determine the age of an Indonesian offender (wrist X-rays) is clearly flawed and, if its true that up to 40 of 500 Indonesians in adult prisons are minors, then its seriously flawed... What, do you imagine, we would be saying to Indonesia if it was they who were imprisoning Australian children at that rate? Can you imagine the headlines and talkback radio comments?
The second is that it appears we're almost criminally slow to do the right thing when its clear we've made a mistake :
Quote:One of the longest detentions involves a 16-year-old boy named Ardi.
He spent one and a half years in custody before his lawyer managed to obtain enough evidence to prove Ardi was a minor.
He was then transferred from an adult prison to an immigration detention centre in Darwin, and from there he was supposed to be sent home.
But Radio National's Background Briefing program has discovered that almost two months later, Ardi was still in detention, despite having no charges against him.
Ardi's lawyer David Svoboda says he demanded the immediate release of his client.
He says the next day, a Department of Immigration official told him Ardi would be on a plane to Indonesia the same day.
Mr Svoboda says he believes that if he had not made those inquiries, Ardi may have remained in detention indefinitely.
Justice delayed is ........ ?