JOINT PRESS CONFERENCE - INTERNATIONAL MISSING CHILDREN'S DAY
25 May 2010
Minister for Home Affairs
Hon Brendan O'Connor MP
Attorney-General
Hon Robert McClelland MP
AFP Commissioner
Tony Negus
National Museum, Canberra
Subject: International Missing Children's Day; Vessel last October
BRENDAN O'CONNOR: I'm here with the Attorney-General and the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police and others to launch Missing Children's Day.
This is an internationally recognised day ensuring that we do more to assist families where children have been abducted, particularly when the abduction has occurred by a family member or a parent.
The reason we wanted to emphasise and focus upon missing children, in particular, the complex issue of abduction by a parent or family member, is because there is an increasing likelihood of that occurring not only in this country but overseas. And for that reason, we want to do everything we can to help those families dealing with the grief and the trauma associated with such difficult challenges that they confront.
Today we heard a first-hand account by a parent of the difficulties he's having in tracing his two young children.
This underlines the importance of this matter and I'd like to thank in particular the Australian Federal Police and the Attorney-General's Department and all agencies involved in this country and agencies overseas and those countries, those other eight countries, that are signatories to this very important initiative.
ROBERT McCLELLAND: Fortunately, as a result of the cooperation between law enforcement agencies, government departments and central agencies, we are successful in recovering most children who are abducted by a parent either to or from Australia, and that's in the order of 200 children a year. But there are, regrettably, a number obviously who aren't recovered and that is something we work on closely.
We've outlined today a number of measures and services that can provide assistance to parents who may be in this situation, together with preventative measures that can be taken, such as placing the child's name on an airport movement alert list which can be a very strong and effective way of preventing a child from being abducted overseas.
So today gives us a good opportunity to not only advise and provide support to those parents whose children have been abducted, but also to indicate some preventative measures that are available.
TONY NEGUS: I'd just like to say that whilst this year's focus is on parental abduction, around 20,000 young people under the age of 18 go missing every year. This is something that law enforcement and families are dealing with every day of every week of every year.
So thankfully most of those people are actually found in a relatively quick time, but there are children who remain missing for long periods of time and we have some parents of those children here today.
So it's an important issue. We use today to highlight these issues and ask people to go to the website www.helpbringthemhome.org.au to look at the profiles of the young people on those websites and make sure that if they can actually provide some information they do so and help the police and the families to reunite them with their children. Thank you.
JOURNALIST: I don't know which one of you can best cover this, but what do you say to parents who are forced, or they feel they've been forced into a situation where they effectively re-abduct their child from parent who's taken them overseas? Is that something that - do you think that situation means that law enforcement isn't doing enough when parents get so desperate that they feel they have to hire out external contractors to do that?
ROBERT McCLELLAND: The advice to parents, and we understand the desperation, is that the rule of law has to be complied with. There are courts, there are central authorities, there are police agencies. We heard from one parent today where the courts of the United States directed that the issues come back to Australia to be dealt with in Australian courts, so their respective merits could be heard. Regrettably, that wasn't followed through.
But if we don't have the rule of law respected by both sides, then the system breaks down. The operation of the Hague Convention, and there are some 81 countries that are a party to that, is based on all parties complying with the rule of law. So while we can understand the frustration and frustration giving rise to desperate measures, our advice is always that parents should abide by the rule of law.
JOURNALIST: Is there an increase in parental abductions in Australia?
BRENDAN O'CONNOR: As I'm advised, there has been an increase in missing persons. There's an increase therefore, unfortunately, in missing children and there has been a rise both here and overseas on the abduction of children, including the parental abduction of children.
JOURNALIST: What sort of figures are we looking at and how many...
BRENDAN O'CONNOR: I might need to provide that information later. But clearly, today points to a need for all agencies to work together, and indeed all countries, given that the abductions occur quite often taking the child not only from the home, but overseas. Therefore, the cooperation required internationally is great. We've seen already some success with the efforts undertaken internationally, but we do need to do more.
Today is underlining the importance of our agencies in this country, the police both at a federal and state and territory level, working together with the Attorney-General's Department and other organisations to provide assistance to families that are confronting such a difficult challenge.
The fact that there are, as the Attorney said, more than 80 countries signatory to the Hague Convention, is also important. And today we are launching, of course, a website which will hopefully encourage people to provide information on any missing children and provide that information to the appropriate authorities in order for people to be recovered, that is children to be recovered, after what has been an unlawful abduction.
JOURNALIST: On another issue with respect to parents, there's a boat that's apparently been missing for seven months, one that Australian authorities were aware of seven months ago.
Can you confirm that this boat is missing or what the situation is with it?
BRENDAN O'CONNOR: I was advised in October last year by Customs that there was - and indeed by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority - that there were reports of a vessel that may have been missing in the Indonesian Search and Rescue Area.
As I'm advised, at the time we provided aircraft surveillance to see whether we could detect or discover the vessel that was allegedly in distress.
That did not detect a vessel, and for that reason, as I understand it, the rescue was called off. But again, can I just say this example is another one that underlines the dangers of people embarking on perilous journeys, being lured by people smugglers, to take a risky passage, in many cases on unseaworthy vessels.
And I say to those who consider embarking on such ventures, please do not do so, it is dangerous. And for those who encourage people to get on such unseaworthy vessels, they must desist from encouraging people to do so.
The Australian Search and Rescue Area is a vast area and we do everything we can. And the first priority of this government is to protect the interests of people's lives at sea in these circumstances. But people must not be lured, must not be encouraged and certainly must not be tempted to embark on such dangerous journeys.
JOURNALIST: Can you just clarify though what's the fate of the boat?
BRENDAN O'CONNOR: Well, as I've said to you, that there was advice - that there was a vessel in October, seven months ago, we did not detect the vessel. So in other words, there'd been some contact with our agency.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority therefore assisted the Indonesian Government in looking for the vessel. That vessel was not detected.
That's the information that I've received, and therefore there was no conclusive result of that investigation.
But again, it just underlines the dangers of people embarking on such ventures. We know that there are dangerous ventures and these ventures must be avoided.
But of course, what we do know is people smugglers will continue to attempt to lure people onto these ventures, and I say to those people who are tempted, please do not embark on such dangerous perilous journeys.
JOURNALIST: So this boat wasn't in...
JOURNALIST: …could the boat of sunk, or could it possibly have made landfall?
BRENDAN O'CONNOR: Well as I say, firstly, I'm advised that the vessel was in the Indonesian Search and Rescue Zone. But of course, Australia wherever possible provides assistance if there's a vessel in distress. We provided aircraft surveillance to see whether we could assist in the detection of the location of the vessel, and that was not successful. That was seven months ago and I've seen reports in the papers today about that matter, but that was the last that I'd heard of the issue.
But again, it just underlines the dangers of these vessels and these ventures and underlines the real nature of people smuggling and the fact that they're willing to endanger the lives of people by luring them onto unseaworthy vessels. I think it's important therefore that people do not embark on such ventures because of the danger to them and others.
JOURNALIST: Do you think though that the boat sank or is there a possibility that it was misidentified and never actually…
BRENDAN O'CONNOR: Well as I've said, we were given advice there may have been a vessel that left an Indonesian port. We assisted at the time, seven months ago. That was not detected by our aircraft surveillance. It was not in our search and rescue zone. That wouldn't stop us from assisting, but there was no detection of a vessel, and therefore, again, I think it's important; it brings home to all of us the potential dangers of such ventures, and that's why people should desist on embarking on them.
[Ends]
