BY SIMON BUTLER
It seems that for the federal Coalition government to even pretend to respect the human rights of refugees, women or Aborigines has become far too tedious and burdensome to bother with. On August 28, a desperate protest by asylum seekers in the Woomera Detention Centre in remote South Australia was harshly suppressed by camp security and Australian Federal Police with tear gas and water cannons. A day later the government announced that Australia would no longer cooperate with United Nations human rights committees.
At Woomera, John Howard's government once again proved that it will go to extraordinary lengths to detain people who have come to Australia fleeing persecution, war and torture. The desperation of the protesters there, who set fire to buildings and broke sections of the perimeter fence, is a clear indication of the inhumane conditions faced by people seeking refuge in Australia.
The protests inside the camp began on August 26. On the same day, more than 1000 people rallied at the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney in solidarity with asylum seekers and to demand that they be granted protection visas. The protest was organised by Sydney's Refugee Action Collective (RAC).
The 300 Woomera security guards, from Australian Correctional Management (ACM — a private firm contracted by the federal government to enforce the asylum seekers' imprisonment), responded to the initial unrest by firing tear gas. They then erected a second barbed wire fence inside the centre's perimeter fence to isolate the protesters from other asylum seekers.
This provoked a battle that began early on August 28. ACM was able to authorise the use of tear gas and water cannons under delegated powers to "maintain security" under the Migration Act.
Later that day, 15 asylum seekers were arrested and locked in Woomera's police station. Twenty-six protesters have been transported to Adelaide. Federal immigration minister Philip Ruddock has vowed to prosecute those arrested.
Demonstrating a now familiar contempt for the principles of democracy and justice, Ruddock has insisted that if the laws will not allow the conviction of these protesters then the government will simply change the law.
The federal Labor Party spokesperson for immigration, Con Sciacca, has offered his party's support for the government's actions. This is not surprising given that the original bill that codifies mandatory detention of asylum seekers was passed with the ALP's unconditional support.
'Ringleaders'
Many more than the 26 people who have been arrested were involved in the protest action; only a minority have been scapegoated as "ringleaders" and charged.
This approach mirrors how the government dealt with the mass detention centre breakouts in June, in which 700 asylum seekers broke out of the Woomera, Curtin and Port Hedland camps demanding an end to the inhumane conditions and that the processing of their applications for refugee visas be sped up. The government chose 41 of the most forthright refugees to be prosecuted and on August 15, most of them were found guilty of escaping from detention and face 11 months in jail.
Unable to convict every asylum seeker, the authorities select a few to break the refugees' solidarity and deceive the public with the claim that it is only a small number of "ungrateful" asylum seekers who are behind the protests.
Demonising refugees
The capitalist media have viciously attacked the asylum seekers' actions, focusing on the "violence" and destruction of property. Perhaps the most cynical and devious assertion was that the protesters were those who'd had their applications for refugee status refused. The implications were that the protesters were motivated by sour grapes and that they deserved no sympathy because their claims had been properly assessed and rejected.
In fact, according to lawyers representing the arrested asylum seekers, those involved in the protest had been screened out at their first interview, so have not even been allowed to apply for refugee status.
Most of the asylum seekers have been held in the camp since November or December. They have been denied access to legal advice because lawyers are being routinely refused permission to see their clients. Without knowledge of their rights, asylum seekers have no idea about what is going to happen to them.
Hypocrisy
Dissatisfied that it is still obligated to protect a small number of people from death and torture, the federal government will lobby the UN in October for a definition of "refugee" that will exclude those seeking asylum on the grounds of law and order concerns, such as a regime's failure to protect someone from domestic violence or because they are fleeing corruption.
Yet, in a mind boggling display of hypocrisy, the government announced on August 30 that it will now be pulling back from the UN international treaty system. The government also refused to sign a new protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women which enables individual women to present cases of discrimination to the UN. The government's refusal prevents Australian women from taking the Howard government's discriminatory in-vitro fertilisation legislation to the UN.
On September 1, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights presented yet another damning report of Australia's discriminatory practices towards Aborigines and migrants. The move away from the UN international treaty system is obviously a ploy to reduce international scrutiny of Australia's abuses of human rights, including the government's escalating repression of asylum seekers.
Ruddock has also moved to blackmail supporters of asylum seekers' rights. The August 30 Australian reported that Ruddock had claimed that refugee advocate organisations were partly responsible for the protest at Woomera. He threatened to cut funding to the Refugee Council of Australia because it was perpetuating myths about asylum seekers that sparked the Woomera protests! The Refugee Council of Australia had criticised the government's mandatory detention of asylum seekers.
Unfortunately, many refugee advocate groups have failed to support the Woomera asylum seekers. Kevin Liston from the Australian Refugee Association told the ABC-TV's 7.30 Report that the "rioting" at Woomera had damaged public support for refugees' rights.
For Liston, the protest was a "public relations disaster" for groups such as his that have patiently explained their views about refugee rights to the government and the media over the past three years. Liston's failure to condemn the inhumane conditions inside the detention centres, the mandatory detention policy or refugees' lack of legal access was conspicuous. The Australian Refugee Association's government funding may remain intact, but at the cost of much less solidarity for those asylum seekers who most need it.
Refugee solidarity
Paul Benedek, a RAC activist and the Democratic Socialist Party's western Sydney branch secretary, told Green Left Weekly that support for asylum seekers must not be conditional on their passive acceptance of detention. "Many refugee rights advocacy groups distanced themselves from the Woomera protesters because of the so-called rioting involved. Yet the riots show that the conditions and uncertainty the asylum seekers face are severe.
"In any case, the violence perpetrated by these desperate and frightened people pales into insignificance beside the tear gas and water cannons used by the security guards and police. When was the last time you heard of water cannons being used in Australia? This is a terrible precedent that will be cited by state and federal governments when they want to use such weapons in industrial disputes and other demonstrations in the future", Benedek warned.
Benedek argued that militant protests like that in Woomera are inevitable due to the government's unjust and racist policies on asylum seekers. "Australia is the only country in the Western world to mandatorily detain asylum seekers who are unable to obtain papers. These human beings, who Ruddock and the mass media try to dehumanise as 'illegals', often have no chance to obtain visas, yet they are left to rot in remote detention centres, sometimes for several years.
"Ruddock's threat of jail sentences for the protesting asylum seekers is heartless", continued Benedek. "These people, having fled war-torn countries, in some cases after losing relatives to brutal repression, face jail from the moment they arrive.
"It places the Australian government firmly in alliance with some of the world's most vicious human rights abusers. The government's nauseating policy amounts to not only arbitrary but indefinite detention."
Benedek declared, "All refugees must have the right to permanent residency. This is the only just solution."
The RAC is demanding that the federal government immediately free the refugees and increase funding for refugee settlement services, including counselling, language and employment programs, housing and health care.
The RAC held a demonstration outside the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs in Sydney on September 1 to protest against the government's suppression of the Woomera protests. There are plans to hold another protest action during the Sydney Olympic Games to highlight the government's record on asylum seekers.
[Visit Green Left Weekly's "Why we'll protest at the Olympics" web page at <http://www.greenleft.org.au/globalaction/olympics/index.shtml>.]