Dr. John Lannon:

If I could come in while Ms Vuma is thinking about the other parts, another area about which we have a concern is in relation to the screening process and cases where age is disputed. Due to the manner in which the very short seven-day screening is being done now, the fact that it is a vulnerability check rather than a vulnerability assessment means we could potentially have children entering into the border procedures, where they are extremely vulnerable, ending up in reception conditions being shared with adults and in situations and environments where they should not be. Again, we must bear in mind that no provision is made here for ongoing vulnerability assessment. Therefore, if that is not caught at the initial seven-day screening, it will not be caught later. Even worse, the legislation would allow for people to proceed into the border procedures after seven days even if a vulnerability or health check had not been done.