CATH NEWS REPORT:
The Australian Government must stop punishing asylum seekers and detaining children, the St Vincent de Paul Society's National Council of Australia said in a media release.
"We appreciate that the Australian Government has a responsibility to protect our borders," said Chief Executive, Dr John Falzon.
"But this does not give it the license to punish innocent people who are legitimately seeking a place of safety in our country. The members of the St Vincent de Paul Society have a long history of welcoming and assisting asylum seekers.
"We are deeply troubled both by the Government's Malaysian Solution as well as by the continued detention of children. There is no place for such punitive treatment, especially of children, in a progressive society.
"We call on the Government to live up to its international obligations and to observe its own 2008 commitment to use detention in an Immigration Detention Centre only as a last resort and for the shortest practicable time and to end the detention of children."Both Government and Opposition persist in treating asylum seekers as if they are to be blamed for needing to flee their countries.
The statement said that of 6730 people currently in immigration detention, 1083 are children.
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