BY SIMON BUTLER
Perhaps most people would like to believe that state-sanctioned abuses of human rights occur only in Third World dictatorships. The reality, shamefully, is far different. The human rights of refugees in Australia are consciously and systematically violated — and the government is now desperate to stamp out many refugees' growing resistance to this.
Since the break-out of 700 asylum seekers from three detention camps in June, the government has launched a wave of repression inside the camps, targeting the "ringleaders" for prosecution and possible deportation. It has even stooped to trying to bribe other detainees to inform on their fellows.
A similar fate may await those who staged a hunger strike at the Villawood Detention Centre in Sydney. On July 29, the camp was stormed by riot police and the strikers were arrested, sedated and bussed to more remote camps.
Unwilling to passively accept what the government dished up to them, asylum seekers have been staging protest after protest for months. Those who broke out of the Woomera, Port Hedland and Curtin detention centres on June 7 sought to bring public attention to their plight. They demanded a speed up in the processing of their protection visa applications and called for an end to the appalling conditions inside the camps.
Most had been detained in the remote camps for months without been fully informed of their rights. Escapees said that they had been denied access to television, newspapers and radio, and had frequently suffered violence and intimidation from detention centre security guards.
In February, asylum seekers in the Curtin Detention Centre went on a hunger strike to demand that they be moved to a major population centre where they could make contact with relatives and supporters. A number of the hunger strikers sewed their lips together, others threatened suicide.
Revenge
Already facing international condemnation for its mandatory detention policy, the break-outs and protests have become a major issue for the federal government. Australia is the only Western country to imprison asylum seekers prior to their cases being heard in court; others only hold them until their identities are established.
To mitigate domestic condemnation of its inhumane treatment of asylum seekers, the government has worked hard to restrict information flowing to the public. Its damage control agenda is clear — the most forthright campaigners for human rights among the refugees must be singled out for punishment.
More than 30 refugees from Port Hedland and Curtin will face court on August 15 on the charge of escaping from detention. Unable to charge all 700 escapees, the government is intent on making an example of some of them.
Almost all of those charged would have qualified for refugee status if not for the inexplicable delays in processing their applications by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. But if convicted, their chances of securing a protection visa are virtually nil. All asylum seekers must pass a character assessment to obtain a visa. A criminal conviction would almost certainly ensure rejection and deportation back to the country the asylum seeker had fled.
One Iraqi refugee involved in the break-out from Curtin has been charged with inciting other refugees to escape. His lawyer, Dr Mohamed Al-Jabiri, told Green Left Weekly that three other refugees were offered promises of leniency by high-ranking Curtin officials in return for testifying that they overheard Al-Jabiri and his client plan the break-out on the telephone.
The three refused and Al-Jabiri's client was acquitted on June 30. However, the magistrate said he had found no evidence of attempted bribery or intimidation.
Al-Jabiri maintains that asylum seekers are being pressured to either give evidence against other refugees or to plead guilty to the charges. He also told Green Left Weekly that his client is now interned in the Curtin Detention Centre prison, despite having been acquitted.
Isolation
Increased intimidation is only one part of the government's overall strategy: the key is to enforce isolation. If the Australian people can be prevented from knowing the truth, the government's public relations problem evaporates.
The largest detention centres are hidden away in some of the remotest regions of Australia. Curtin and Port Hedland detention centres are situated in the far north and north-west of Western Australia. Woomera Detention Centre is in the South Australian desert.
On June 30, after a hunger strike in the Villawood Detention Centre in suburban Sydney attracted numerous solidarity protests and some media coverage (see accompanying article), the Department for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs responded by packing the offending refugees onto a bus to Woomera and Port Hedland, out of public view.
Camp detainees are routinely refused access to telephones and fax machines. Even when they are permitted to use the telephone, the cost of long-distance calls to legal representatives or relatives is often prohibitive.
Visitors, including legal representatives, are commonly refused admission to the camps. Al-Jabiri has twice made the long journey from Sydney to Curtin, but has not yet been allowed to see the actual detention centre.
The detention centres' management have also sought to restrict the use of interpreters. There have even been reports of bilingual asylum seekers being prevented from interpreting for other detainees who are meeting their English-speaking lawyers.
Upon release
The final weapon in the government's bureaucratic arsenal is to ensure that those released on protection visas are left alone and unsupported. The government is attempting to generate anti-refugee sentiment, and refugees who successfully integrate into the general population will counter this aim.
Government policy now favours releasing refugees far away from Sydney and Melbourne, where they are more likely to find members of their community and social support networks.
In May, a group of Afghani refugees released from Woomera Detention Centre were bussed to Adelaide and dropped off with only $239 each. In July, another group were dumped in Melbourne with $50 each. Immigration minister Philip Ruddock has written to local welfare agencies urging them to withhold assistance to these refugees.
Margaret Piper from the Refugee Council of Australia explained in an interview on the August 2 ABC AM program that released detainees receive very limited access to any federal government services and are not provided with any English-language instruction.
The government's regulations barring those who arrive without papers from gaining permanent protection visas, and limiting them to three-year temporary visas, provides the ultimate guarantee that few of the released refugees can pursue a new life in Australia. Regardless of their proven legitimacy, refugees on temporary protection visas will be deported sooner or later.
Enforcement
In a speech presented at a international meeting of the European Union in Paris on July 20, Ruddock estimated the world's refugee population at 23 million. Australia, despite its relative wealth, gives refuge to less than 0.2% of these people.
In the same speech, Ruddock boasted, "We have developed a strong whole-of-government approach involving a range of law enforcement agencies" for dealing with asylum seekers. This is certainly true. The Howard government has devoted an inordinate amount of resources to detaining asylum seekers, frustrating their attempts to win freedom and obscuring the extent to which refugees' human rights are being ignored.
Al-Jabiri said, "In Curtin, department officials tell refugees that they are hated by Australians. They tell the refugees that Australians believe they are all fundamentalist Muslims and don't want them here."
The onus is on all of us who oppose the federal government's anti-refugee policy to prove this wrong, to demonstrate our solidarity with asylum seekers and help them to gain their freedom.