Reforming Australia's Age Determination Procedures

UNICEF, ‘Every Child's Birth Right: Inequities and trends in birth registration’ (12 December 2013) UNICEF website <data.unicef.org/resources>.

Crawley Heaven , ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Negotiating age and identity in the UK asylum system’ in Thomas Nigel (ed), Children, Politics and Communication: Participation at the Margins (Policy Press, 2009) 92.

Ibid 96.

Procedures Advice Manual, PAM3: Act – Identity, biometrics and immigration status, Age determination – IMAs and SIEV crew (1 September 2015) 8.

Hjern Anders Brendler-Lindqvist Maria Norredam Marie , ‘Age assessment of young asylum seekers’ (2012) 101(1) Acta Paediatrica 4, 5–6.

Bassed Richard Ranson David , ‘Age determination of asylum seekers and alleged people smugglers’ (2012) 20(2) Journal of Law and Medicine 261, 262–3.

UNHCR, ‘UNHCR monitoring visit to Manus Island, Papua New Guinea 23 to 25 October 2013’ (26 November 2013) <unhcr.org.au>.

Commonwealth, Estimates Hansard, 24 February 2014, 31 (Martin Bowles, Secretary of the Department, PSM).

Buckmaster Luke , ‘Australian Government Assistance to refugees: Fact versus fiction’ (Background Note, 28 September 2012) <http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BN/2012-2013/AustGovAssistRefugees>. Luke Buckmaster and Jonathon Guppy, Australian Government Assistance to refugees: Fact versus fiction' (Research Paper Series 2014–15, Parliamentary Library, Parliament of Australia, 11 November 2014).

General Comment No 6 (2005), United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, Thirty-ninth session, held 17 May to 3 June 2005 – Treatment of unaccompanied and separated children outside their country of origin, CRC/GC/2005/6, (1 September 2005) [31].

Bhabha Jacqueline Crock Mary , Seeking Asylum Alone: A Comparative Study (Themis Press, 2007) 10.

PAM3, above n 4, 9.

Aynsley-Green AI , ‘The Assessment of Age in Undocumented Migrants’, A report for the Office of the Defensor del Pueblo, Madrid (March 2011) 15; Hjern Brendler-Lindqvist Norredam , above n 5, 6.

Ibid. See also the Standard Operating Procedures: Age Determination for IMAs and SIEV Crew – Version 6.4 (10 October 2014) 6.

The Department's Position Description for Age Determination Triaging and Assessing Officer (obtained via Freedom of Information request). This is publicly available via the Department's website <www.border.gov.au/about/access-accountability/freedom-of-information-foi/log/2014>.

Ibid. The Department's training materials on ‘Age Assessment’.

Aynsley-Green , above n 13, 11. See generally guidance made available to social workers making age determinations in the United Kingdom <adcs.org.uk>.

Interview with Taylor Jesse , Barrister (Melbourne, 14 July 2014).

PAM3, above n 4, 10.

See generally Benson Jill Williams Jan , ‘Age determination in refugee children’ (October 2008) 37 Australian Family Physician 10.

Amnesty International, ‘This is breaking the people – Human Rights Violations at Australia's Asylum Seeker Processing Centre on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea’ (December 2013) 76; Opray Max , ‘How Immigration Decides Asylum Seekers’ Age', The Saturday Paper, 6 September 2014.

Amnesty International, above n 21, 80.

PAM3, above n 4, 9; Standard Operating Procedures: Age Determination for IMAs and SIEV Crew – Version 6.4 (10 October 2014) 20.

Interview with Bennett Elizabeth , Barrister (Melbourne, 31 July 2014).

PAM3, above n 4, 10.