Child Refugees Held In 'Dangerous and Harrowing' Conditions Across Southeast Asia

According to a recent report, child refugees in Southeast Asia are being detained in large numbers and kept in "dangerous and harrowing" conditions across the region. In 2016 alone, 2,290 asylum seekers and refugee children were detained in officially designated "immigration detention" centers in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

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After fleeing adverse conditions such as violence, conflict and poverty in their home countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, hundreds of thousands of these children are being detained on their transit routes to Australia, the joint report, which was published by Save the Children and the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network, found.

The detention of children based on their immigration status is a violation of international human rights law. According to the report, since the immigration detention centers are costly to run when compared to more humane and child-appropriate alternatives, many countries run uninhabitable alternatives that can cost up to 80 percent less.

Australia's legal framework allows it to transport asylum seekers to the Republic of Nauru for detention purposes and it has been doing so since 2001. According to the report, Australia has detained thousands of children in the detention centers of Nauru for several years now and they continue to live in excruciatingly poor circumstances.

The report also stated, "They are held 24 hours a day, seven days a week with overcrowding, inadequate hygiene and lack of access to adequate and timely medical treatment leading to a number of reports of children in detention dying from treatable illnesses in recent years," adding that these children are at risk of sexual and other forms of exploitation, and are held captive with unrelated adults, divided along gender and age lines.

In addition to those detained, tens of thousands of asylum-seeking and refugee children and their family members are living as undocumented migrants in Southeast Asia. They continue to live in detention-like conditions, compelled to stay close to their neighborhoods for fear of detention or deportation. The report stated these areas included “those confined to closed refugee camps, closed shelters, police holding cells and isolated or remote locations."

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The report, basing its analysis on the current immigration policies, found that these children are living in “cramped and substandard conditions," forced to sleep on the floor or on cardboard and given “unpalatable” food, according to the Guardian.

Mike Novell, Save the Children’s interim director for Asia, told the Guardian, "These children should not be treated like criminals. The impact this type of environment has on children is extremely damaging. It can lead to developmental delays and self-harm while putting children at the very real risk of violence, sexual abuse, and exploitation.”

In extreme cases, in overcrowded rooms, there was no space to lie down at night and fully extend their small legs, or it was too hot where children found it difficult to breathe. Children lacked privacy, were exposed to violence and were deprived of outside space as well.

The report also included interviews with child detainees. In one such testimony, Elijah, a child who was detained at the age 10, told the report's authors about the dire conditions at his detention center, “The toilets did not have any doors and in the shower they only had the tub, and where the tub was there were no walls," he said.

Another 14-year-old girl who was detained in a cell with 150 other people, said, "There's a lot of germs ... the weather was so hot ... we cannot breath ... easily because it's really hot inside."