%0 Journal Article
%T Offshore detention: cross-sectional analysis of the health of children and young people seeking asylum in Australia
%J Archives of disease in childhood
%D 2022
%A Amarasena, Lahiru
%A Samir, Nora
%A Sealy, Louise
%A Hu, Nan
%A Rostami, Mohammad Reza
%A Isaacs, David
%A Gunasekera, Hasantha
%A Young, Helen
%A Agrawal, Rishi
%A Levitt, David
%A Francis, Joshua R.
%A Coleman, Jacinta
%A Mares, Sarah
%A Larcombe, Penny
%A Cherian, Sarah
%A Raman, Shanti
%A Lingam, Raghu
%A Zwi, Karen
%V ePub
%N ePub
%P ePub-ePub
%X OBJECTIVE: To describe the health and well-being of children and young people (CYP) seeking asylum subjected to Australia's immigration policy of indefinite mandatory detention on Nauru. <br><br>DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis of a cohort of CYP seeking asylum.   SETTING: Australian paediatric clinicians from 10 health services completed detailed health assessments around the time of transfer from Nauru, mostly to Australia.   PARTICIPANTS: Sixty-two CYP who were ≤18 years on entry into offshore immigration detention on Nauru between 2013 and 2019. Mean age at health assessment was 9 years.   MAIN MEASURES: Health outcomes were categorised as physical, mental or neurodevelopmental concerns/conditions. Risk and protective factor data were collected using the adverse childhood experiences and refugee-specific adverse childhood experiences tools. <br><br>RESULTS: Over half of the CYP (n=32, 52%) were held on Nauru for ≥4 years. The vast majority of CYP had physical health (n=55, 89%) and mental health (n=49, 79%) concerns including self-harm or suicidal ideation/attempt (n=28, 45%). Mental health concerns were more likely in CYP who were school-aged (p=0.001), had been held on Nauru for ≥1 year (p=0.01); originated from the Eastern Mediterranean region (p<0.05); witnessed trauma (p<0.05) or had exposure to ≥4 refugee-specific adverse childhood experiences (p<0.05). Neurodevelopmental concerns were seen in eight children (13%). <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the almost universal physical and mental health difficulties in a sample of CYP who experienced forced migration and were subjected to Australia's offshore immigration detention policy. Immigration detention in recipient countries, a known adverse childhood experience, may contribute to or exacerbate harmful outcomes in CYP seeking asylum.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
%G en
%I BMJ Publishing Group
%@ 0003-9888
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2022-324442