Release of all kids in jails: rights group

23 May 2012, 6:02 pm   -   Source: AAP

Indonesian children detained in Australian adult prisons should be released immediately and an inquiry should be conducted, the Human Rights Alliance says.

A human rights group has renewed its call for the immediate release of Indonesian children detained in Australian adult prisons, including a 17-year-old at Albany Prison.

The call comes amid revelations the Asian nation expects its clemency for Australian prisoners in Indonesian jails, including drug smuggler Schapelle Corby, to be reciprocated.

The Human Rights Alliance says at least 22 children - and possibly up to 60 - languish in Australian prisons.

Many were deckhands or cooks on Indonesian people smuggling vessels and should never have been detained in adult prisons when there was any doubt about their age, it said.

But under Australian law, the offence of people smuggling applies to both adults and minors.

Three young detainees were released from Albany Prison in Western Australia on Friday, including 16-year-old Ali Jasmin, a deckhand on an asylum seeker boat who was arrested at age 13.

However 17-year-old Hadi Kurniawan, who was 15 when he was arrested, remains in the facility and should be immediately released, Human Rights Alliance researcher Gerry Georgatos says.

"The other boy needs to be released, all of them need to be released ... if there is any doubt about their age," Mr Georgatos told AAP.

"They are often presented to court as `age unknown'."

Foreign Minister Bob Carr has rejected suggestions of a connection between the Australian releases and Indonesian clemency, which has seen Corby's 20-year sentence slashed by five years.

Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said the releases were based on the merits of each case in question and not influenced by other matters.

However, Indonesia's minister of state secretariat Sudi Silalahi said president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had signed Corby's clemency decision in the hope Australia would reciprocate with Indonesian prisoners.

Ms Roxon last week said minors did not belong in adult jails, which was why the federal government had committed to reviewing the cases of the three Albany juveniles who were released "as quickly as possible".

Fresh information had raised enough doubt about their age, she said, but their release from the prison was not a pardon.

"These three individuals crewed people smuggling vessels that came to Australia, all three pleaded guilty to that, and they were convicted of that offence," Ms Roxon said in a statement.

Mr Georgatos urged WA's Attorney-General Christian Porter to take action.

"The state needs to pressure the federal government to expedite the release of these children or move them from an adult prison to the care of the consulate," he said.

"They need an inquiry."

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