A 10-year-old Iranian boy who says he suffers a psychological disorder after being detained for two years in immigration detention centres is suing the Australian government.
Shayan Badraie says he developed traumatic stress disorder while detained with his parents in the Woomera outback immigration centre in South Australia and Sydney's Villawood detention centre between 2000 and 2002.
"This case is not about the policy of mandatory detention," the child's lawyer Andrew Morrison told the New South Wales Supreme Court in Sydney on Monday at the start of his legal action.
"It is about the way in which it was carried out and the permanent injury inflicted on a young child by a regime which failed to provide for his medical needs," Mr Morrison said.
Mr Morrison said his client witnessed traumatic incidents in detention such as a riot and a detainee threatening to stab himself in the chest with a broken mirror, local media reported.
As a result of these traumas, Shayan suffered from anxiety, nightmares, was unable to eat and commonly drew detention centre fences, but did not gain adequate medical treatment, he said.
The child is seeking damages from the Australian government's immigration department and the company that then managed its immigration detention centres. Shayan and his family were granted refugee status in 2002.