Asylum teens in dark over prison shift

The two teenage Afghan boat people detained at Mt Eden jail are being fed halal food and are able to practise their religion - but they have not been told why they have been singled out for imprisonment, says their lawyer.

Immigration law specialist David Ryken said yesterday that he also did not know the alleged "security reasons" and would apply under the Privacy Act today for his clients' files.

He was concerned that the rights of the pair, aged 16 and 17, were being breached under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which applies to young people aged 18 and under and of which New Zealand is a signatory.

Their age meant they should have been billeted with a family in the community, they should have had a guardian appointed, and they should not have to undergo long interview sessions, he said.

If they were not released from Mt Eden's remand wing soon, he would make an official complaint to the Commissioner for Children.

A senior member of the Auckland Refugee Council also said he had serious concerns about the teenagers' detention.

Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel said yesterday that she would gladly receive Mr Ryken's representations, but would say nothing about the security reasons for the detention.

She said that if concerns which arose during interviews on their arrival at the airport were allayed, the teenagers would be moved to the Mangere resettlement centre with the other 139 asylum seekers.

Both she and Mr Ryken were critical of the Greens' immigration spokesman, Keith Locke, who visited the teenagers on Saturday and revealed to the media details of their personal lives and trauma, including that one had been jailed by the Taleban.

"I think it is highly inappropriate for anyone to make comments about anything that might form the basis of a refugee claim," said Ms Dalziel.

"We have an absolute obligation to protect privacy in these sorts of matters."

Mr Ryken said the teenagers had given him a full account of what had happened to them and they knew they were being detained for security reasons, "but what it is about them that has made them a security concern, and not the others, they've got no idea."

They were being treated well in Mt Eden's remand wing and were in isolation from other prisoners. If that changed he would be alarmed.

"There is no place for rapists or anyone on remand to be pushed up alongside boys who have been traumatised, who have fled from a war zone, who have been shoved on a plane by their family to save them from the Taleban."

They had been given some money and newspapers in their own language, and one had been able to buy some cigarettes.

"They're very happy. They've been given halal food. They have a prayer mat there. I was there at one of the normal prayer times and one of them did his prayers."

They seemed in good health but one was thin. "He said he was naturally thin but he'd got thinner during the trip."