BY SARAH STEPHEN
Immigration minister Philip Ruddock lied when he said that processing of Woomera detainees' asylum claims was halted due to changed conditions in Afghanistan.
On February 4, Marc Purcell, the executive director of the Catholic Commission for Justice, Development and Peace in Melbourne, revealed that a letter had been sent to Woomera detainees from the immigration department on December 19, the second day of a fire and riot at the centre, which made it clear that processing of their asylum claims was halted as a punishment for their protests.
The letter said: "Because of the disturbances and extensive damage that has been caused and the need to manage the current situation, there can be no processing of visas at this stage. We will not be able to start processing again until the situation is under control."
The government's offer to return asylum seekers to Afghanistan with a cash incentive has been overwhelmingly rejected by detainees. The plan has also been widely criticised by human rights organisations, which have pointed out that most are from the minority Hazara ethnic and religious group, which has faced persecution over many decades, and not just under the Taliban.
Fahim Fayazi, spokesperson for a newly formed association of temporary protection visa-holders, told the February 5 Sydney Morning Herald: "In 1991 there was ethnic cleansing in Afghanistan and 60% of the Hazara were killed or fled. We cannot go back to Afghanistan because we would be instantly recognised as Hazara." At least 200 of the Woomera detainees are Hazara.
In an internet posting, Hekmat Sadat, a student at the University of California Los Angeles, criticising Australia's policy toward Afghan asylum seekers, wrote: "In 1945, when the Allies destroyed the Nazi regime and Germany was liberated, the world did not stop processing the asylum claims of the German refugees who fled Hitler. In addition, no country forcibly repatriated any Germans."
Despite criticism, Australia's high commissioner in Pakistan, Howard Brown, negotiated with the Afghan government for a delegation to travel to Australia to oversee the return of detainees.
Spokesperson for Woomera detainees Hassan Varasi dismissed the plan, telling the February 8 Australian: "This invitation is only for show for the rest of the world."
Varasi said most of the detainees want a visa, not a ticket home. "We don't come to Australia to find money to go back as beggars to Afghanistan."
Renewed criticism has also been levelled at the government's so-called Pacific solution.
Oxfam Community Aid Abroad released a report on February 4, in which it quoted Nauruan MP Anthony Audoa's comparison of the policy with prostitution. "A country that is desperate with its economy, and you try to dangle a carrot in front of them, of course, just like a prostitute, if you dangle money in front of her, you think she will not accept it? Of course she will, because she's desperate."
The report argues that the "Pacific solution" is "distorting and politicising the aid program, damaging Australia's reputation and adding to regional instability".
In the Australian aid budget for 2001-2, Nauru was scheduled to receive just $3.4 million. Instead it has received $30 million, more than 18% of the total AusAID budget for the Pacific islands.
The Oxfam-CAA report calls on the government to increase aid, especially to countries hosting large numbers of refugees such as Pakistan and Iran; to increase Australia's refugee intake and to detain asylum seekers only for short periods to allow health, security and identity checks.
Greg Roberts, the first journalist to get access to the Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea, wrote in the February 5 Sydney Morning Herald that the 216 asylum seekers who were first taken there were lied to. They were falsely told they were on their way to Australia. Roberts described signs hanging from detention centre fences saying "Our children going to die here" and "We refuse to live here".
On instruction from the Australian government, the 446 mostly Iraqi asylum seekers held on Manus Island have been denied access to independent legal advice.
Despite Ruddock's denials, doctors have confirmed that at least 15 of the detainees, including young children, have contracted malaria. Others are suspected of having tuberculosis and typhoid fever. An X-ray machine to screen for contagious diseases arrived on January 31, three months after the first boat-load arrived.
Pressure for a change of policy continues to mount as the Howard government faces criticism from every quarter.
When approached by the media for a response to the Pope's reported criticism, Howard replied that the Pope should make his thoughts known through the "correct channels". He added: "I've thought deeply and carefully, as a person of conscience, about the policy and I defend it."
At a meeting between UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson and foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer in Geneva on February 5, Robinson asked that former Indian chief justice Rajendra Bhagwait be allowed to inspect Woomera.
Downer dismissed the request, saying it came only after representation from "raging and ranting" church and human rights groups. Howard added that the visit was unnecessary, given that "we have fully complied with all of our UN obligations".
The former immigration department secretary under prime ministers Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, John Menadue, pointed out a sad irony: "In Guantanamo they have imprisoned the Taliban. In Woomera they have imprisoned the victims of the Taliban." He called for detention of asylum seekers to be limited to a maximum of three months. He said women and children should be released into the community immediately and Woomera closed as soon as possible.
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Tasmanian Liberal Party member Greg Barns told the January 29 Hobart Mercury: "We are becoming an international pariah. It's time for people of goodwill to stand up."
In the same article, Brighton mayor Tony Foster was quoted as saying he and his municipality would support the move to place refugees in the former army barracks, as it was used for Kosovar refugees in 1999. The site could house 700 people. "It is certainly a better place to house people than a cage in the middle of the South Australian desert", Foster said.
"The people would be able to come and go, assimilate with the community and feel human again."
Foster labelled the federal government's stance on refugees abhorrent, intolerable and belligerent. "There's 22 million displaced people around the world... We take a few thousand every year and we whinge about it. We've become a really selfish society."
The editorial in the February 7 British Independent said Australia's condemnation of human rights abuses in countries like Zimbabwe rang hollow in light of its own treatment of asylum seekers. It called for Britain to "exert pressure and raise the issue at next month's Commonwealth summit ... coincidentally, in Australia", referring to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting being held near Brisbane from March 2-5.
Lisa Macdonald from Sydney's Free the Refugees Campaign spoke to Green Left Weekly about the growing momentum of the refugee rights campaign. "Since the Woomera hunger strikes, there has been a real sea-change in people's response to the refugee situation. Previously you would encounter people who felt a basic human sympathy with refugees, who were prepared to discuss the issue. This has now been transformed into a real sense of responsibility among people. Now the more common response is 'What can I do to help?'
"People are no longer content to simply discuss the issues. They want to talk about what we need to do to free the refugees. It is reflected in things like the increasing preparedness to attend protest actions, which in the past they might have thought was a 'last resort' response, but it is also reflected in things like public meetings, where discussion has quickly moved to organising the campaign, how to get more people involved, how to get information out to more people.
"That's a qualitative change. It means that the number of people prepared to take action has swelled and now includes many previously unorganised people. That makes the difference between a more marginalised campaign which the government can dismiss and what can be a truly mass campaign."
From Green Left Weekly, February 13, 2002.
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