Was Norfolk Island a Gaol or a Detention Centre?

How odd that it is now acceptable in Australia to run detention centres that are so bad that it is hoped that the news of their existence will deter others from coming here. This is precisely the reasoning behind the British Government's establishment of horror gaols on Norfolk Island and elsewhere in the early part of the 19th century. It was hoped that news of the appalling conditions would trickle back to London and serve to end criminality there - it didn't.

Nor does the Australian Government's attempts to deter refugees work either. However, the news of our behaviour has trickled back to London and elsewhere around the world.

Two recent publications are relevant here. One is the Human Rights Watch: World Report, 2015. It reports on events and conditions in 2014. It can be downloaded as a PDF file from here: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2015

You can read the entry on Australian on pages 75 to 79.

The other is the Australian Human Rights Commission's report The Forgotten Children: National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention (2014). It can be downloaded as a PDF file from here: https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/asylum-seekers-and-refugees?source=our-work

There are a few other reports available on the same page of the site:

• National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention 2014: Discussion Paper 2014
• Tell Me About: Temporary Protection Visas 2013
• Asylum seekers, refugees and human rights - Snapshot Report