MOSCOW, September 11 (RIA Novosti) - The Australian government ignores the cases of child abuse in offshore detention centers for asylum seekers, The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Thursday citing Anglican Bishop of Canberra-Goulburn Stuart Robinson.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Robinson said the government should pay more attention to people, "especially to little ones", detained offshore in pursuit of asylum.
The Bishop's statement comes after immigration psychiatrist Dr. Peter Young had related the treatment of children in detention centers to torture.
"If we take the definition of torture to be the deliberate harming of people in order to coerce them into a desired outcome, I think it does fulfil that definition," Young, a former chief psychiatrist to Australia's detention centers was quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald as saying in August.
In a July interview with The Guardian, another child psychiatrist, Professor Louise Newman, said that many of the Australian children she treated had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and were stuttering. Newman also stated that children were also constantly exposed to suicidal behavior, including that of their parents.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Robinson will further elaborate on the government's attitude to children in offshore detention on Friday when addressing the diocese's annual "parliament", or synod, in Goulburn.
