freedom is a gradual process

hi there.

i've just got back from speaking at Carey Grammar on the topic of "Be the change you want to see in the world" (Gandhi). It was fun, good, the kids asked good questions etc. But it made me reflect on something. I've written before about the tendency to oversimplify issues surrounding refugee policy. If you tell a story about a person or a family in detention, kids will say, "where are they now?", and then if I say they've been released into the community, you can see the relief on the kids' faces, as if to say "oh, then why are you telling us that?? it's over now, if they're free". But it's really not so. The conditions of the visas that people get released onto are - frankly - the polar opposite of freedom. Temporary Protection Visas, Bridging Visas E and Return Pending Bridging Visas are basically DESIGNED to keep people from feeling comfortable, relaxed, or - God forbid - at home in Australia. I'll write more about these soon, hopefully.

And that's just the visas. There is no prison more secure than the human mind. Some ex-detainees are so completely traumatised by their experiences in and before detention that they have lost the capacity to behave normally. They are strange in social situations, many abuse alcohol, most are chain smokers, and don't even TALK to me about dependence on sleeping tablets and anti-depressants. One friend of mine has become LESS good at speaking English since he was released from detention. He is LESS coherent now than he was three years ago. I don't know if that means he gave up the will to learn, or whether his brain is working against him, but it's symptomatic that somethin' ain't right.

And then there are the people who really can't cope, to the extent that they are requesting to be put back in detention because they don't know what to do with themselves in the community. What madness would drive them to do such a thing?! This should *NOT* be seen as a reason for the government to be smug about how great and "safe" its detention centre are. It should be a searing indictment against their policy of fairly actively causing people to become emotionally and socially handicapped through their long periods of incarceration.

It's terrible :(

Something Lovely Happened Yesterday...

It was Bahram's birthday yesterday, and he had a party at his place. It was so much fun! There were heaps of people, more food than you could possibly imagine, the music was pumping persian techno (haha... oh dear) and a good time was had by all. I met a friend of B's, an Iranian woman named N, who had two beautiful little children with her. Her two sons are named M & R and they are absolutely gorgeous- black hair and chocolate eyes and they're both cheeky and mischievous and sweet. When I was talking to N, she told me that she thinks she remembers me from the detention centre. I didn't remember meeting her at Maribyrnong, but she said no, not Maribyrnong, but Baxter! And in a moment I had a flashback to a woman at Baxter, pale, drawn and anxious, and her two little boys in blue and red tracksuits slumped listlessly on the ground in the outdoor visit area. They were both very very sick, the littlest one coughing so much that he was vomiting phlegm. Their state of illness and depression made a sardonic joke of the play equipment standing a few metres away from where they were. To be honest, theirs is the picture I get in my mind every time I think of the horror of children in immigration detention.

Anyway, yesterday I met those two children and their mother again, in my friend's living room in Footscray. We blew up balloons together, scratched the dog's tummy, and when nobody was looking I snuck spoonfuls of leftover cake from the fridge and gave them to the boys who were beside themselves with conspiratorial glee!

It was so beautiful to see them free and happy and carefree, running around a party terrorising the guests with the energy, vitality and giggles that kids that age should have every day.

As I was leaving the party, N said to me, "since the day I met you at Baxter, I always hoped that one day I would meet this beautiful girl again, and now here we meet again". We hugged, and I flat-out nearly cried in the kitchen.

x

Get informed & Get involved!

Today I spoke at Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar School (my old stomping ground!) to a group of Year 11 students. I spoke a bit about Australia's obligations under international law, the fact that ARRIVING IN AUSTRALIA AND SEEKING ASYLUM IS NOT A CRIME (UNDERLINE!), conditions in detention, children in detention, the asylum seekers still on Lombok, and the fact that it falls to these guys and other young people to get moving, make some noise, call their pollies to account, and make sure this stuff can't happen again in the future. It was great - they responded very well and were really keen to get informed. I love seeing people get fired up! LOVE IT! So I put my email address on the whiteboard in their centre, and I really hope to get some emails with their questions etc! I think the best way to answer those is to post the Q&As on this site so they're readily available.... So, girls, if you're reading this... hit me!

For anyone who wants to get some more info / read some more stories etc, I'd recommend getting your hands on these books:

Freeing Ali : The Human Face of the Pacific Solution (Michael Gordon - $16.95)
From Nothing to Zero : Letters from Refugees in Australia's Detention Centres (Julian Burnside QC (ed.) - Lonely Planet)

You can also get on all sorts of websites:

The Justice Project: http://www.thejusticeproject.com.au
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre: http://www.asrc.org.au/
Fitzroy Learning Network: http://www.fitzroylearningnetwork.org.au/
A Just Australia: http://www.ajustaustralia.com/home.php
ChilOut: http://www.chilout.org/
Hotham Mission Asylum Seeker Project: http://www.hothammission.org.au/

That should keep you busy!

Cheers

Jess

Important sections of the Migration Act (woohoo!!)

Thought it might be handy to put up a little summary of some of the important sections of the Migration Act. I'll put up sections which are important to refugees, sections which point out Australia's acceptance of the fact that it should take refugees, as well as the rather controversial provisions that make detention mandatory etc...

s36 - Protection Visas (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ma1958118/s36.html)
This is fairly self-explanatory, and adopts part of the refugee convention into Australian law. You will notice that NOWHERE in this provision does it make it even REMOTELY illegal to come to Australia on a boat or without a passport to seek refugee status!

s189 - Detention of Unlawful Non-Citizens (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ma1958118/s189.html)
Gee this provision is nasty, because it uses the term 'unlawful'. This basically just means people who are not Australian citizens, who are in the country in a way that doesn't recognise them as having any legal 'status'. They're not on a legal visa at the time, so they're unlawful. But they're not illegal. See how it splits hairs?? This is the provision that constitutes Australia's mandatory detention policy, because it says that an officer of the Commonwealth MUST detain an unlawful non-citizen - there's no room to move here, no wiggle-space, even if that person is half dead, an unaccompanied child, in a coma and / or 8.5 months pregnant. Very, very bad.

s198 - Removal from Australia of unlawful non-citizens (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ma1958118/s198.html)
This is the provision that governs the deportation of people once their visa applications have been rejected. Fair enough I suppose. But this provision strikes terror into the hearts of lots of people, and according to Dave Corlett in his book 'Following them Home: The Fate of Returned Asylum Seekers', many people who shouldn't have been deported have been, sometimes with dire consequences.

s417 - Minister may substitute more favourable decision (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ma1958118/s417.html)
This provision is unfortunately rather underused. It says that any time during the refugee determination process, the Minister for Immigration can say "OK, let the poor blighter out". It's amazing that one person should hold all that power over all those lives, and yet exercise it so seldom!

Anyway that'll do for today I think!

J x