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Summary: Two of Australia's child commissioners have backed criticism of the Gillard government's use of wrist X-rays to determine the ages of Indonesian crew members of asylum seeker boats. Crew members face five years' mandatory jail sentences under harsh people smuggling laws.
[28 June 2011] - Victoria's Bernie Geary and Queensland's Elizabeth Fraser called for the appointment of a national child commissioner to help protect the rights of children facing long jail sentences in adult jails. They made the call after Sir Al Aynsley-Green, Britain's founding children's commissioner, told The Age that using X-rays to assess more than 60 Indonesians in custody who claimed to be under 18 was ''unethical, inaccurate, not fit for purpose proposed and potentially unlawful''. Sir Al, a world expert on determining the ages of children, warned that the current process of assessing age in Australia was a matter of grave concern. Mr Geary said X-rays were a ''bizarre'' way to find out the ages of vulnerable children. ''I think it shows a distinct lack of respect for their rights and I wonder how we would cope with that in the wider community,'' he told ABC radio. ''I think people would probably be up in arms, so I think it's actually pretty disrespectful.'' Ms Fraser said there was a role for a national commissioner to focus on Commonwealth policy and legislation and promotion and protection of children's rights. ''The incarceration of children under 18 years of age in adult correctional facilities would be a matter of concern to me,'' she said. Gerry Georgatos, convener of the Human Rights Alliance, said he pleaded with Prime Minister Julia Gillard in a conversation last weekend to immediately release on bail 25 children who were being held in adult jails in Western Australia. ''Australia has not just breached the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it has shattered it,'' he said. ''We have fallen in a heap on racism that we thought we were long removed from. ''It is disturbing the Prime Minister is aware of minors in our prisons and has done nothing to avoid or remedy the situation.'' Among the Indonesians facing long prison sentences in adult jails with hardened criminals are three Indonesian boys snatched by people smugglers from their impoverished village. The Age revealed earlier this month that lawyers had obtained overwhelming evidence the boys were 15 and 16. But federal police continue to rely on X-rays to assert they are 19 years or older. The boys are being held at a Brisbane motel pending a trial scheduled for later this year. Mr Georgatos called for the immediate release of a boy who has been working alongside paedophiles in Perth's Hakea jail. The Age has established that the boy who arrived on an asylum seeker boat in April last year turned 16 on March 16. Federal government policy is to fly home without charge Indonesian crew members who are under 18.