Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
Volume 62, Issue 6, 2008, Pages 480-483
Preventive detention: The ethical ground where politics and health meet. Focus on asylum seekers in Australia (Review)
Sheikh M.* ,
MacIntyre C.R. ,
Perera S.
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a
School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
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b
School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
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c
Faculty of Arts, Department of Media and Information, Curtin University, WA, Australia
Abstract
Australia has a history of migration, especially during the wars in Europe, but many have forgotten the difficulties underlying asylum and wars endured by their forefathers. Preventive, indefinite detention of asylum seekers, most of whom are found to be genuine refugees, impinges on their human rights. The mental and physical health consequences of detention in this already traumatised group are significant, particularly in children. There are abundant studies to support this but, even as these studies continue to be done, asylum seekers languish in detention centres. To be fully addressed, the health implications of detention cannot be considered in isolation, but must be considered frankly and openly by health professionals in the broader historical and political context within which they occur. If we do not do this, we risk turning a blind eye to, or even condoning, human rights abuses.
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Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-44349182192&doi=10.1136%2fjech.2007.061028&partnerID=40&md5=271a4da8cd9424581bb1a0ef7a17ab69
DOI: 10.1136/jech.2007.061028
ISSN: 0143005X
Cited by: 1
Original Language: English