Rights watchdog criticises Woomera camp

Conditions at an Australian detention centre for asylum seekers broke international conventions governing the welfare of children, the country’s human rights watchdog said today.

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission said there was a culture of despair at the Woomera facility, especially among children who were exposed to high levels of violence among adult detainees in the camp.

The HREOC report comes two days after UN human rights commissioner Mary Robinson asked Australia to let a special envoy inspect conditions at the centre.

Prime Minister John Howard has said he will consider the request, but today made it clear he was not pleased.

‘‘I am not particularly bowled over by a request from Mary Robinson,’’ he said.

Howard said Australia had complied with all UN obligations in its treatment of asylum seekers, and had ‘‘from time to time’’ allowed the UN access to the detention centres.

Woomera, a former missile testing base 1,120 miles from Sydney, made headlines around the world last month when more than 200 Afghan asylum seekers went on a two-week hunger strike to protest against conditions at the camp and delays in processing their asylum applications.

The process can take up to three years.

Dozens of the hunger strikers, including children, sewed their lips shut as part of the protest and one man was seriously injured when he jumped from the roof of a building onto razor wire that surrounds the compound.

Human rights commissioner Sev Ozdowski said it was clear the conditions at Woomera breached the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Australia has signed up to.

Ozdowski said two commission officers who visited Woomera for five days at the height of last month’s crisis had found five children with their lips sewn together, while three others had slashed themselves with razor blades - including one who had cut the word ‘‘freedom’’ into his arm.

Two children had tried to drink shampoo, one had attempted suicide and 13 had made threats to hurt themselves, he added.

Ozdowski said nine children had spent more than a year in Woomera, and more than 70 had been there for longer than six months.

The report from the two officers found only children under 12 were given schooling, which consisted of four, two-hour lessons a week held in a single classroom.

Ozdowski said families in Woomera were becoming dysfunctional because of the violence and length of time they spent in the facility.

‘‘You had riots, you had buildings burned, you had a hunger strike - and kids are living in that environment,’’ he said. ‘‘The culture of despair rasps on them.’’