By NICK SQUIRES in Sydney
Amnesty International representatives from around the Asia Pacific region condemned Australia's detention of refugee children on the island of Nauru as "shameful" yesterday.
Amnesty directors from 14 countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India, Malaysia, Mongolia and Thailand, called on the Government of Prime Minister John Howard
to release immediately the 112 children being held on the tiny South Pacific territory.
The group included the chair and director of Amnesty International in New Zealand, Susanne Blowers and Ced Simpson.
The representatives demonstrated outside Howard's official Sydney residence, Kirribili House.
The director of Amnesty in the Philippines, Jessica Soto, said that detaining children and dividing families was unacceptable.
"We have come to Prime Minister Howard's home to encourage him to reflect on the way his Government's policies are denying refugees a home and disrupting the families of asylum seekers," Soto said.
Amnesty's most senior representative in Thailand, Srirak Plipat, said the indefinite detention of children and asylum seekers under the so-called Pacific Solution was damaging Australia's reputation.
"Australia has traditionally set a good example to those countries in our region where human rights freedoms are denied. We urge the Australian Government to live up to this tradition and show leadership for the region on these human rights standards," Plipat said.
Last month, the Family Court in Canberra ruled that the detention of asylum seeker children in Australia's refugee camps was probably unlawful.
The president of Amnesty International in Australia, Russell Thirgood, said that decision should also apply to the children on Nauru.
"The children detained by Australia on Nauru are not covered by the courts," Thirgood said.
"This situation is both cruel and unfair.
"The only way to fix it is to bring Australian law and policies in line with the international standards relating to refugees and asylum seekers."
The group also urged the Government to release from detention on Nauru the wives and children of men who have already been granted residency in Australia.
Nine women and 14 children who were not recognised as refugees remain on Nauru, despite the fact that their husbands have been given three-year temporary protection visas.
Amnesty said its stance was supported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
