UNExtract Sayomi Ariyawansa From Future Leaders
Detention-centre advocates tell us that our tough attitude towards “boat people” is a deterrent for others who may consider seeking asylum here. They tell us these people are a burden that we don’t want, and the best way to stop them is to show them that Australia is not an open country and will not accept everyone. However, there is a line between tough and inhumane, a line that is blurred in terms of our refugee policy. Our current system humiliates and psychologically damages innocent people and goes against UN conventions.
There must be a better way to treat this issue, and we should consider the systems in place by other countries. The UN International Refugee Convention requires host countries to treat asylum seekers with dignity and respect while
Australia’s Treatment of Refugees is Unnecessarily Harsh
their claims for asylum are processed. There is increasingly more and more evidence that detention centres hold asylum seekers in conditions harsher than those felt by convicted criminals. After Baxter detention centre held a mentally ill Australia citizen for nine months, an investigation showed the harsh conditions within detention centres. There are beds without mattresses, toilets without doors and showers without curtains. Is this how Australia treats asylum seekers with dignity and respect?
The United Nations Human Rights Commission has said that conditions in Australia’s detention centres are “offensive to human dignity”. Not only are detention centres stripping innocent people of their dignity, there are increasing claims that the harsh condi- tions within the centres are psychologically damaging. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention have said that Australia’s detention centres are “worse than prisons” and saw “alarming levels of self-harm”.
Australia is not alone in using detention centres for processing refugees, but its callous treat- ment of refugees within the centres, their harsh conditions and the unnecessary time spent in detention have brought upon much criticism from multitudes of human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International. This criticism apparently has no effect on the Australian Government which continues its appalling treatment of people who seek refuge and acceptance here.
The spirit of the survivors of the most ruthless political regimes is often destroyed by the harsh environment they are placed in. Their resilience is tested, and the psychological damage done makes it extremely difficult for them to rejoin society as healthy, productive citizens. These people can enrich our community greatly, but in order to do so they deserve a fair go.
Detention-centre advocates tell us that detention is neces- sary in order to determine the asylum seeker’s identity. They also believe that detention centres are the best way to deter other arrivals. However, many countries need to deal with asylum seekers, and many of these countries do so with policies that are far more humane and concur with UN conventions.
Sweden is a country that has a policy that Australia should consider. If asylum seekers arrive in Sweden without appropriate documentation, they are placed in a detention centre. Their stay in the detention centre does not exceed six months and children may not be detained longer than six days. The detention centres in Sweden do not resort to barbed-wire fences, and all detainees have full access to legal advice, counselling and have the right to appeal their being held in detention. Asylum seekers are only required to remain in deten- tion centres for the time it takes to ascertain their identities and not the entire procedure.
Once their identities are confirmed they are released into Refugee Reception Housing or move in with friends whilst they await the decision. The Swedish system allows for all proper processing, ensuring national security as well as maintaining the asylum seeker’s right to being treated with dignity and respect. This is in comparison to many genuine refugees held in detentions centres for several years in Australia, regardless of their age. Asylum seekers are virtually stripped of their basic human rights, and do not have access to legal advice. Australia can learn from the Swedish policy.
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Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
Thank you for the post, Gez. It was soothing. One reference that will probably draw criticism is the link to Baxter Detention Centre (regarding beds with no mattresses etc para 3. I don’t know of that and not that I disbelieve it.). Last time I saw reference to Baxter DC was in a documentary that revealed an untidy sprawl of litter mostly as it has been closed for some time now. Whereas it is my understanding the conditions in contemporary camps have not been sufficient. How can any of it be seen as sufficient anyway when you get in close to the consequences of detention as it is has been administered.
There are consequences on all of us whatever our viewpoint of the administrative shortfalls.
My recurrent image in mind is of a young mother telling me at a get-together of detainees and their Australian friends about the psychological impact on her of lengthy detention, feeling somehow soiled, but confused by that emotion. She described her upbringing in Iran regards the concept of ‘a prison’ (somewhere no-one was going if the family could morally make sure otherwise) so she felt deeply troubled by a weight of self conscious guilt about ‘imprisonment’, the effect on one of her older children in particular. I haven’t cited her story before. The length of her imprisonment defeated my imagination as we need dentists. She was a qualified dentist with practice experience. Her husband as well. The now situation we are negotiating after the event seems to be going from bad to worse in expenses and witness the shortcomings Indonesia faces in their services. Witness one of the Indonesian Government representing last night the problem vis-a-vis the recent sinking and loss of life off the Indonesian coast 😦
I don’t pretend to have any conclusive answers but I understand the difference between rational discussion and expressions of brutality and ignorance of the day-to-day cost to refugees …and those who have survived these systematic brutalities to tell their stories. It is as distressing that the current argument is couched as ‘People are drowning!’ as if individuals have finite answers to people not drowning, a simplification,a bouncy spring board to launch abuse from of others.
Bullying does that, creates simplification, isolates characteristics all the better to beat at someone and wish them ultimate and personal ill will.
People are hurting deeply across a range of international crises. The reduction of this specific problem to incessant cries about left and right wing divisions included is too ridiculous when we are facing a human behaviour crisis basically that we have to manage so as to arrive at some solutions.
The young lass who wrote the above piece is an inspiration. ( I put up a piece here called The Wedding based on experience of Baxter as a visitor with friends who were seeking refugee status and granted it after lengthy imprisonment. Here is the link for persons who might come by here and derive some knowledge from it https://pigsarms.com.au/2011/05/24/the-wedding-party-baxter-october-2004/.)
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Thanks shoe. I looked at the link from a few years ago and found it as relevant now as it was then. If anything their plight is worse. Punishment and the whip back at the beginning and still now in use. This article is also already old news but I thought it worthwhile to re-post it.
On my own blog it has been re-blogged on other people’s sites as well. Change will now come about through the internet phenomena of the social media. Rock throwing is passé and street protests are on-line now.
Here was my reply to your article of 2011.
Well done Shoe,
A story that eventually will expose us for what we really are. Hopelessly xenophobic and almost mind-bogglingly unable to cope with tolerance and benevolence and world and a people that might be different from our staid and coagulated mind sets.
With the story of Australia’s imported child labour as exposed by David Hill and now through the film of Oranges and Sun-shine, one would hope things might change.
Of course, we might intrinsically be tolerant and forgiving but with leaders such as J.Howard and his disciples Abbott , Scott Morris and Pyne we slipped back to the age of endless punishment and retribution to others. We can only give back what was given to us, a truism if ever there was
Again, well done Shoe. Thank you.
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Hello Gez. That was rapid response. Yes, I see it as relevant and I then re-read my post and the comments. Your comment was generous and picking up so accurately on the meaning of the telling of the story of a different culture. So many of us have experienced disillusion our leaders have not been able to effect better outcomes within legal realities and humanitarian ends. We are in a sad way.
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Naturally I agree with the sentiments of the article and with your words Shoe (and Gerard). Not all Australians agree with or like what is happening. We do know that. When Keating first introduced a detention centre (in WA) I recall it was because the number of people had increased to some few hundred and quick health checks etc became impossible. The detention centres and the whole process became such a horror under John Howard who built the isolated ‘concentration camps’ with barbed wire – where we saw people and children with their lips sewn together. The various changes and then the retreat to Howard’s Nauru and Manus Island centres has been and is awful. To some of us it is incomprehensible.
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I am not happy Vivienne with the lack of vocal definition by the Labor Party of the problems of these Centres. If the previous Government was not in a position to do something about the horrendous conditions that these people have been living in for protracted lengths of time, it is sad and shocking nevertheless that individuals in Labor’s ranks have not spoken out loudly about their abhorrence to the situation eg as Sarah Hanson Young did of the Greens. 😦
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