The Uniting Church in Australia is calling for the immediate release of all children and their families from Australian-run immigration detention centres, after the publication today of a shocking report by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC).

On the 25th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Australian Coalition to End Immigration Detention of Children is calling on the Australian Government to immediately release all children from detention.

The Uniting Church in Australia has welcomed an announcement by the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection that some children in detention will be released into the community, and asked for reassurances on the conditions of their care.

The Uniting Church in Australia has today strongly condemned the continuing and systematic abuse of asylum seekers trying to reach Australia by boat and those being held indefinitely in unsuitable offshore detention centres.

Rev. Elenie Poulos, National Director, UnitingJustice Australia was one of the participants at a high-level roundtable at Parliament House, Canberra on 11 July to discuss the options for a more humane long-term framework for Australia’s refugee and asylum seeker policies, including the need to take account of the global context when thinking about Australian responses, a genuine regional plan focussed on protection not deterrence and work rights for asylum seekers in the community. 

The Uniting Church in Australia has written to the Australian Government to offer sanctuary for all children without parents currently held on Christmas Island.

The Uniting Church in Australia has expressed sorrow over the tragic loss of life on Manus Island

The Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia has written to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection to seek intervention in the planned deportation of a Hazara man.

UnitingJustice Australia is deeply concerned for the safety of asylum seekers given the current crisis in the Nauruan legal system.

UnitingJustice Australia, the social justice policy and advocacy unit of the Uniting Church, is deeply concerned at the reports of shots being fired at a boat carrying 25 asylum seekers off the coast of Indonesia.