{"id":14809,"date":"2014-04-12T18:00:10","date_gmt":"2014-04-12T07:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/?p=14809"},"modified":"2014-04-12T18:00:10","modified_gmt":"2014-04-12T07:00:10","slug":"at-easter-1000-children-in-detention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2014\/04\/12\/at-easter-1000-children-in-detention\/","title":{"rendered":"At Easter: 1000 Children in Detention!"},"content":{"rendered":"

MEDIA RELEASE\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>11 April 2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s Anglican Archbishops express \u2018profound disquiet\u2019 about children held in detention this Easter<\/span><\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The Anglican Archbishops in Australia will commence Holy Week with a call for more humane treatment of refugees, particularly children in detention.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The Archbishops have released the following statement deploring the fact that recent figures suggest that around a thousand children will spend Easter in Australian sponsored detention.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cAs leaders of the Anglican Church of Australia we wish to put on record our profound disquiet that at the end of February this year there were <\/span>more than 950 children in detention facilities and alternative places of detention in Australia, and a further 177 children in offshore detention in Nauru.\u00a0 The average time people spend in detention is more than eight months.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cWhile our Federal Government has been drawing attention to the number of days without boat arrivals, this is another set of numbers that needs close scrutiny.\u00a0 These children are innocent victims of tragic circumstances.\u00a0 To use the words of the UN Charter on the rights of the child, detention of children should be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cAs church leaders, we are not seeking to express a party political opinion on this matter.\u00a0 Within our Church there is grave disquiet about the asylum seeker policies of both major parties.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cIt is our view that those who flee from desperate circumstances by boat should not be punished by prolonged detention whether in Australia, Nauru or Manus Island. They are not the people smugglers. They are people made in the image of God, who deserve respect from all Australians, but especially our Government and its agencies. \u00a0They come to Australia out of desperation, fleeing religious, ethnic or economic persecution. They seek asylum under the Refugee Convention that as a nation we have signed. Many will be found to be refugees, as the Government\u2019s own statistics demonstrate.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cWe call on the Australian Government to ensure that asylum seekers are treated humanely and respectfully by those charged with their care and protection, and that they are <\/span>attended to in a timely manner.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Most Reverend Dr Phillip Aspinall,\u00a0 <\/span>Primate and Metropolitan of Queensland<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The Most Reverend Dr Glenn Davies,\u00a0 <\/span>Metropolitan of New South Wales<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The Most Reverend Dr Jeffrey Driver,\u00a0 <\/span>Metropolitan of South Australia<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The Most Reverend Dr Philip Freier,\u00a0 <\/span>Metropolitan of Victoria<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The Right Reverend John Harrower OAM,\u00a0 <\/span>Bishop of Tasmania<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The Most Reverend Roger Herft AM,\u00a0 <\/span>Metropolitan of Western Australia<\/span><\/p>\n

For further queries or requests contact Archbishop Driver\u2019s Media Advisor on 0414972537 or E: <\/strong><\/span><\/b>kmclachlan@adelaide.anglican.com.au<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MEDIA RELEASE\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a011 April 2014 Australia\u2019s Anglican Archbishops express \u2018profound disquiet\u2019 about children held in detention this Easter \u00a0The Anglican Archbishops in Australia will commence Holy Week with a call for more humane treatment of refugees, particularly children in detention. \u00a0The … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14809"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14809"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14819,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14809\/revisions\/14819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}