U.N. to inspect Woomera

Pressure continues to mount on the government over its detention policies

CANBERRA, Australia (CNN) -- The Australian Government will allow a United Nations Human Rights Commission representative to visit the controversial Woomera detention center in remote South Australia.

In announcing the decision Monday, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer issued a statement reiterating "that Australia has nothing to hide from scrutiny of its immigration detention and processing centres".

The Woomera center, about 500 kilometers (300 miles) north of the city of Adelaide, was the scene of a 16-day hunger strike last month by more than 300 inmates protesting against the conditions of their detention.

The protest action, which also included suicide attempts and more than 50 inmates stitching their lips together with cotton, drew international attention to Australia's policy of mandatory detention for all illegal immigrants, including women and children.

The Government will allow a representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, to visit Australia as part of a planned visit by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

VIDEO Suicide threats from protesting asylum seekers behind barbed wire raise concerns. Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   AUDIO CNN interviews Treasurer Peter Costello on the conditions of refugees 3.6MB / 5min. 36sec. WAV sound   PICTURES GALLERY: Fierce protests    EXTRA INFORMATION Analysis: Spotlight on refugees     CNN.com Asia More news from our Asia edition

The visit is expected to take place between May and August.

Prime Minister John Howard said the detention centers were already open to visits by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and Australia's Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.

Robinson last week asked Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer for permission for a special envoy -- former Indian chief justice Rajendra Bhagwati -- to make a "first-hand appraisal" of Woomera.

"There are certainly human rights concerns. Very serious human rights concerns that I would like to have fully clarified," Robinson said after meeting Downer in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Woomera hunger strike followed months of riots and protest actions at detention facilities across Australia by aggrieved detainees.

While the hunger strike and self-harm attempts at Woomera have subsided, pressure on the government to review its asylum seeker policy has not.

On Sunday, more than 550 detainees in Woomera sent a petition to Robinson inviting her to personally hear their stories and discuss their conditions.

The inmates are particularly concerned about the amount of time it takes for their applications for refugee protection visas to be processed - often more than 12 months - and the impact this has on the detainees, particularly children.

At the beginning of this month, there were 365 children and 384 women being held in detention camps on mainland Australia, according to Department of Immigration figures.

In Woomera alone, there are approximately 200 children being held.

About 1,000 more asylum seekers have been transported to Australian-run and maintained detention camps on the Pacific island of Nauru and on the island of Manus in Papua New Guinea.

Education

"The people in Woomera are concerned that children spend six months or more in the center with inadequate education, with some receiving virtually no education at all, " a statement released by lawyers representing the asylum seekers says.

A report by inspectors from Australia's Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission into the treatment of children in Woomera was released last week.

It concluded that conditions in the center placed Australia in breach of its obligations under the international Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The officers reported that Woomera was "now enveloped in a self- reinforcing miasma of despair and desperation".

The report said the widespread sense of despair was "due to the length of time in detention and the concomitant uncertainty over status," the asylum seekers endured.

"It is this uncertainty that asylum seekers have indicated is at the root cause of fire and property destruction in November and hunger strikes and incidents of self-harm in late January.

Family

"This is not an appropriate environment for children," the report said.

In response, the Department of Immigration said that in its view it was in the best interests of the children for them to remain with their parents, family or fellow country persons.

"The department is committed to ensuring that children held in immigration detention receive appropriate care.

"A permanent working party of senior departmental officers meets on a fortnightly basis to review all detention cases and, in particular, cases of concern such as children.

"All efforts are made to ensure detention of children is a last resort and for the shortest possible period."

During the past two years, about 8,000 asylum seekers -- mainly from the Middle East and Afghanistan -- have arrived on Australian shores, usually after using a hazardous people-smuggling network.