After Three Years...

This past year particularly, my understanding of the clouded mess of refugee policy has deepened quite a lot. But I don't mean it's become any less clouded or messy. Actually, as I have got to know more people, learnt about the twists and turns of their cases and become more intimately involved in their lives, things have certainly become more complex, more difficult and a lot less clear-cut. I think an common trap for young players (by players I mean visitors / advocates etc) is to see an asylum seeker as 100% right at all times, and DIMIA or the centre guards or anyone else 100% wrong at all times. It's very easy to side with someone so categorically and so blindly that you can't really look at the picture objectively or with fresh eyes, so when something unexpected happens (a confrontation, an argument, a revelation of a side of a person which is not as pure & earnest as you'd thought it to be), often there'll be a sense of shock, followed (possibly!) by pretending it never happened! But this is crazy! Just because a person is a refugee or in detention doesn't wipe out everything they've done before. An important lesson to learn is to expect humanity. Fallibility, weakness, confusion and brokenness, as well as good hearts belonging to good people. Because aren't we ALL a mixture of those things...

I find it extremely difficult to watch people experiencing regret. Sometimes, when I'm at a detention centre and someone is talking about the choices they've made in their lives (be it someone who has escaped from a centre before, or not been completely honest, or something they've done to put themselves or their families at risk), they'll say things like "I wish i had done that differently" or "i wish i hadn't done that" or "if i had to do it again I would change everything..." But those words are empty and worthless, and the regrets they mask only serve to crucify them. The RRT LOVES to find a 2% discrepancy in an applicant's case. They absolutely go to town and back again on it, and suddenly an unwise decision, or a moment of bad judgement turns into the reason that someone won't be able to gain protection. Or they're accused of being a "LIAR!" in a public forum, in front of their friends and supporters, to their deep shame and chagrin. A moment of stupidity or momentary dishonesty - things that most of us can just deal with and move on from - become formative moments, points of public knowledge and irrevocable damage.

The Truth Behind the Baxter Fires

(courtesy of Pamela Curr)

*Since DIMIA have gone silent, we have collected the following
information and reports from witnesses. The facts are*

* No Asylum Seeker was involved in lighting the fires.
* Asylum seekers suffered loss of personal possessions and effects.
* One man, an artist with pictures in readiness for an exhibition in
Port Augusta lost his entire collection’.
* Some Chinese men lost their dearest possessions-photos of their
families.

*FACT: Three criminal deportees were involved in lighting the fires. *

This highlights an ongoing problem at Baxter where men transferred from
the prison system and awaiting deportation are placed throughout the
asylum seeker compounds.

There is no good reason to do this when there are nine compounds at
Baxter, a number of which remain unoccupied. Asylum seekers have always
expressed concern and fear that ex-prisoners were placed in their
compounds because they saw this as DIMIA attempting to confuse the
Australian people by mixing asylum seekers and ex-prisoners to present
asylum seekers as criminals.

While some ex-prisoners present few problems, others are angry and
violent after many years in the prison system and frighten asylum
seekers who have fled violence in their own countries. Asylum seekers
report being afraid to come out of their rooms when ex-prisoners are on
the rampage. They say that the ex-prisoners bait the guards poisoning
the atmosphere for everyone.

These are two different groups with very different needs. DIMIA should
immediately separate them. They have the space and facilities available
and should do so without delay.

Newly released and nowhere to go!

This weekend I spent some time house-hunting with a couple of guys who are newly released from detention. It's quite a sombre experience, actually, because it's just like house-hunting with anybody, but with the restrictions of money, communication, transport, and unawareness of other factors multiplied by ten. The equal first considerations are price, and proximity to a train station. Of course, they have no tenancy referees, so they have references and letters of support and guarantee from organisations like Melbourne City Mission. They have almost no choice but to accept charity and favours from their friends. They were looked at funny by receptionists in Real Estate agencies. I sort of felt like i was there so that my friends would be taken seriously and given the opportunity to look at houses. They were apologetic about asking me to drive them to houses in the pouring rain, and thanked me for my time over and over again. It must be very unempowering for them, but I'm not even sure if they feel it. I really hope they don't. They seem to approach the whole thing with an earnestness and honest attempt to make a go of it, and start their lives from today, leaving all their crap behind.

One of the guys I've hung out with a few times recently lives in housing commission flats near where I live. In my socio-economic milieu, housing commission flats are an horrific, mythological, fictitious notion - one with which we never have to engage or interact. So i find it annoying that 5 minutes down the road are hundreds and hundres of people living in tiny little fire-trap boxes stacked on top of one another. When I was little i used to comment to my mum as we drove past that the windows looked like microwaves. Apparently the suicide rate in housing commissions is astronomical, and I don't know how that statistic (and education / employment statistics??) stack up against the fact that the vast majority of inhabitants are non-white, but it can't be good.. Perhaps there is some degree of racial inequality so rusted on to our collective national psyche that we don't even notice it anymore. If you're an immigrant, stiff bickies, good luck getting your life off the ground now! Ha! You can start by living in a microwave-shaped flat somewhere in an otherwise affluent suburb like North Fitzroy or Richmond (bordering on Hawthorn...). Just don't look around you too much or you might start to notice what you're missing out on...

Please excuse me - I don't mean to sound bitter.

(artwork above courtesy of Kate Durham)

Fire at Baxter

So i just got off the phone from a couple of my friends who were sleeping in the White One compound at Baxter last night, and were woken by the fire alarm at 4am. They've had the fright of their lives! Apparently the compound is completely destroyed - which probably means their personal belongings, photos, CDs, letters, books, everything... It looks at this stage like the fires were deliberately lit, which is a real bummer, because whoever did it has just made life a lot harder for everyone else at Baxter. Hmm. And apparently there are 300 people detained there at the moment, so it'll be damn hard to try to find out what happened / who did it.

Anyway, everyone's ok. A few people were treated for smoke inhalation but nobody was injured.

It's hard to justify behaviour like that. Of course nothing will excuse arson, but knowing a few of the people who have been there for a long, long time, and a few who have recently got out, they are NOT psychos or criminals. The levels of desperation and anxiety reach titanic proportions and just get way out of hand. I'm not purporting to make excuses for setting fire to stuff, but just think about how you'd feel if you'd been locked in the desert for 4 years... Geez. You might want somehow to draw attention to what was happening to you...

A few guys who have been released have spoken to me about the overwhelming feeling of not being remembered by people. They speak of the fear that grips them, they're sitting in a prison, everyone in Australia (erroneously) believes them to be illegal, they can't go home without very serious risk to their lives, and they have no idea when they'll be getting out of detention. These lovely, rational, intelligent, funny, gentle people are the same people who have been reduced to lip-sewing, to cutting themselves, to hunger striking, to blowing their tops and smashing a window... Sometimes good people just flip out... :(

Little bit of a catch-up

The photo above this post is a picture of some of the people who have been on nauru for the past 4 years, since the Tampa steamed into Australian waters and the you-know-what hit the you-know-which. This past week, all but two of the Nauru detainees have been brought to Australia and given visas - yay! This is wonderful news. But the two guys who are left on Nauru are not happy chaps. They are young Iraqi guys who have been informed months after their interviews with DIMIA that they were "unco-operative" during their interviews. Unfortunately nobody deigned to tell them that DURING the interviews! So it is with heavy hearts that they are now sitting on their bums in the Central pacific wondering what went wrong. I have recently come to have an email address by which the two guys can be contacted, so if you're interested in emailing them for some support, drop me a line and i'll hook you up.

I've been thinking a lot lately about what the refugee issue looks like these days. I spoke at a church in Heidelberg on Sunday night, it is a little house church with about 15 people, and it was so good. I haven't spoken about the issue for a few months, and it was so good to get back on the horse, to think about some of it almost in retrospect. There are no more kids in detention. The centres are emptying, thank GOD. Cornelia rau is the best thing that's ever happened to facilitate public awareness of issues of human rights in Australia! It's just crazy. But something i've particularly realised is that the laws which provide for mandatory indefinite detention are still there. Things have not changed because the law has changed - the law has in fact become MORE draconian over the past few years. The only reason things have changed is because of public pressure and a slow groundwell of public opinion... Which is great. But leaves me very very afraid that the next time a few boatloads of asylum seekers arrive (as is their right under Art 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), the same stuff is going to happen all over again. Why would it not? The only way we can prevent Episode 2 of Tampa and Children Overboard is by not standing for it as a nation. Which is why i'm convinced that public education on this and similar issues will never, ever be obsolete or past its use-by date.

It would also be fascinating to think about how this issue would change in the context of the enactment of a Bill of Rights. Obviously the Federal government would do almost anything to subordinate any prospective Human Rights instrument to pre-existing laws (Migration Act, the anti-sedition legislation etc), but the safeguards that a Bill or Charter of rights may represent would likely colour the Government's treatment of the issue... I'll write a bit more about BoR stuff soon.

Having been bled completely dry by two Baxter visits in quick succession, tonight I have renewed fire in my belly and it's great! Let's get out there.

Seeking Asylum in Australia 1995-2005: Experiences and Policies

I'm on the organising committee of this Conference being held on 27-28 November at Monash Uni in Caulfield. It's going to be GREAT! We have some amazing speakers - refugees are going to speak, we've got Julian Burnside QC, Spencer Zifcak, Dave Corlett, Arnold Zable, and heaps of others. It should be a fantastic couple of days.

http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/historical-studies/news-and-events/seeking-asylum-2005/index.html

Contact me on jessie@thejusticeproject.com.au for registrations. And spread the word!

Morning and afternoon tea and lunch provided. Refreshments provided Sunday evening for the performance.

This conference will explore the motivation and experiences of people seeking asylum in Australia and the responses of various sectors of the Australian community. Refugees will give their first-hand accounts of what it is like to be an asylum seeker. Members of the Australian community working with asylum seekers as members of support groups, as well as academics, public servants and legal and medical professionals will discuss the development and implementation of Australia’s refugee policy and consider how it has impacted upon the lives it directly affects, and on Australia as a nation.

Sponsored by the Australian Centre for the Study of Jewish Civilisation and the Institute for Public History, and supported by the Faculties of Arts, Medicine, Law, and Education and the Monash Institute for the Study of Global Movements.

Have you ever heard Julian Burnside QC talk about refugees...?

If not, you're missing out on something. Follow this link to download a talk he did recently at St Hilary's Church in Kew. You can right click and save it as an mp3 or you can just open in to play in your browser. I think. Anyway, it's worth doing.
http://www.shack.org.au/sermons/Special%20serms.htm

Hello!

Whoa... big hiatus. I'm sorry. I'm back. My procrastinatory techniques are now soaring to all-time highs, so of course I've decided that updating this blog is a pressing matter that can't possibly wait. Haha. Actually I have an exam tomorrow so i'll probably just make a promise to update more regularly (at LEAST once a week. COME ON), and go to bed to read a bit before I go to sleep. I'm reading 'The Joke' by Milan Kundera and it's absolutely amazing. I've read 3 of his books this year and they knock my socks off. Anyway I have some exciting news - I'm going to Geneva as an intern at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which is really bloody exciting! I'll write more as soon as I get around to it (ie after my vomity exam tomorrow), and I hope to keep this blog all friendly and warm and updated from now on. So read me! Please :)