Sharon Keogan: Harrowing Reality of Children in Detention
Sharon Keogan addresses the Minister about the treatment of unaccompanied minors in detention centres, drawing on her personal experience as a foster carer. She asks what proposed detention arrangements will look like and stresses the need for safe, loving environments for traumatised children.
Summary of remarks
Sharon Keogan speaks from direct foster-care experience of unaccompanied minors arriving through airports and raises questions for the Minister about detention centres for children. She did not table amendments but seeks clarity on what detention for children would actually look like in practice.
Firsthand foster experience
Keogan describes the difficulty of bringing an unaccompanied child into a home after arrival, noting many of the children she cared for were under the age of 12. She emphasises how harrowing it is for a child to be alone in a strange country and the lasting trauma that can follow.
Questions and consequences
Keogan presses the Minister on what proposals will do to ease transitions, prevent trafficking, and ensure children without documentation or in transition periods find safe alternatives to detention. She warns that the wrong approach risks long-term harm for vulnerable children.
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I didn't put down any amendments on the prohibition of children being in detention but Minister I'd like to know what you think that should look like when it comes to the detention centres for children. I probably might be the only person in here that has ever fostered children who have come in through the airports unaccompanied minors and I can tell you it is the hardest thing you'll ever do as a foster parent to bring in a child into your home that is after coming off a plane that possibly most kids I had were under the age of 12 and I can tell you it is harrowing to deal with those children that have been left to fend for themselves in a country and in a strange place where they know nobody and the howls and the cries of those children no person should have to hear. So I don't know what it is that you're going to propose to make that an easier transition for those unaccompanied minors that do come here that find themselves either being trafficked into this country or find themselves being without documentation when they come in here maybe they're in a transition period to find somebody that could be already in direct provision in this country and related to that individual but having a safe and loving environment for that child to come into is really really important for that child because that child will be traumatised for years to come and so I just like to know what you what does that look like to you what are these detention centres what does it look like because I can tell you it's from a child's perspective it is a hard place to be.
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