Fresh probe into Australian refugee camps

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- The treatment of children in Australia's controversial immigration detention camps will be investigated, following repeated complaints about poor conditions and human rights violations.

The inquiry will be run by Australia's Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, and follows an earlier damning report on childrens' conditions in the camps released in February.

Human rights commissioner Dr Sev Ozdowski said Australia had obligations to children under an international convention on children's rights.

"We are required to treat all children the same irrespective of how they come to Australia," Ozdowski said Wednesday.

The inquiry will be conducted throughout next year, with public hearings across the country.

The inquiry will visit Australian detention centers such as the Woomera camp in South Australia, as well as new facilities on the Australian territorial outpost of Christmas Island.

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Many detention camps have been the scene of ongoing riots, fires, breakouts and hunger strikes over the past few years.

Ozdowski said he was particularly concerned about children who arrive in Australia without parents "who then face the prospect of being in a detention center alone".

Many complaints

The commission has received many complaints about the treatment of children in detention centers, he said.

Currently there are about 580 children in immigration detention centers, of which more than 50 are not with their parents.

The inquiry will consider the health and education of the children and the impact of detention conditions on their well-being.

Earlier this year, a prison watchdog described conditions in the detention centers as being "unacceptably overcrowded" and described medical services as "disgracefully inadequate".

Ruddock says it is unlikey the inquiry will uncover anything new

Western Australian Inspector of Custodial Services Professor Richard Harding said education services at the camps were "largely a charade" and there was little opportunity for detainees to do anything useful.

In February, an independent inquiry called the Flood Report criticized the management of detention facilities, saying inmates were humiliated and abused by staff and children were treated like criminals.

Federal Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Wednesday the government would co-operate with the inquiry, but did not believe it would uncover new information.

"I suspect it will be canvassing a great deal of the grounds that have been canvassed before," he said.

Ruddock said he suspected many submissions would come from people who held a sympathetic view towards asylum seekers.

Ozdowski said Australia prided itself on being the nation of a fair go.

"Our international obligations to children demand a fair go for all children in Australia, irrespective of how they got here," he said.

Australia has made some alternative detention arrangements for women and children asylum seekers, but so far only 25 volunteers have been able to live in family-style housing away from the camps.