BY BRENDAN DOYLE, GLW travel writer
VILLAWOOD DETENTION CENTRE, SYDNEY — A little out of the way, but definitely worth a look!
How to get there
By train: Alight at Leightonfield Station and walk north for 15 minutes. Don't be daunted by the "private road" sign. It's commonwealth land from here on, but unless you have something to fear from ASIO, keep walking.
By car: Turn right off the Hume Highway at Miller Road, Chester Hill. Keep going until you feel distinctly uncomfortable. You're almost at the entrance.
By air: Only for extended visit (not recommended). Tell the immigration officer at Sydney airport that you are fleeing the murderous regime in Iraq or Afghanistan. You will be delivered to the centre in a commonwealth vehicle.
By boat: If you have travelled to Australia via Ashmore Reef or Christmas Island, Port Hedland detention centre may be a more realistic visit for you.
When to go
For the brief visit (recommended), try to arrive shortly before the advertised visiting hours. I made the mistake of arriving 30 minutes early. As I wandered along by the double six-metre-high fence, admiring the coils of razor wire at the top and bottom, all lit by searchlights with their own generators, I was followed by a utility with headlights on for several minutes. The driver finally introduced himself as an employee of Australasian Correctional Management and tried to divert me away from the actual visitors' entrance.
Formalities
You must be properly attired, and definitely leave the camera and recording devices at the hotel! You'll need the name of the person you want to visit, and the country they will probably be deported back to.
Surprisingly, there was no queue. You will be escorted through two locked gates and find yourself on the other side of the impressive towering fences. All personal items must be left in a locker, including any envelopes you may happen to have. They may contain "ID papers for detainees", ACM officer Cheryl told me.
A numbered plastic bracelet will be fitted to your wrist and your hand will be stamped. I requested a yellow star but Cheryl didn't get the joke.
The visit
Two more heavy metal doors later, you'll be accompanied by a cheerful ACM guard to the "Visiting Area" in the shape of a gigantic car port. The person you want to visit will then be paged, and if they are not comatose or too depressed, they will be let through a locked gate in another cyclone wire fence.
You'll be able to sit on plastic chairs and shudder together as a bitter southerly blows across the treeless expanse, and you can ask your detainee why he's still here after two and a half years.
As you sit there feeling ashamed to be Australian, your Iraqi doctor will tell you that Phillip Ruddock rejected his request for asylum after only 11 days, that a subsequent appeal to the Refugee Review Tribunal was knocked on the head by a woman who has rejected 99% of all appeals and that he stands to be deported to Iraq as soon as flights to Baghdad are resumed.
Upon arrival there, he will face imprisonment and torture as a former opponent of the dictator Saddam Hussein. But no need to feel too sympathetic because his treatment assisted Prime Minister John Howard's government hold onto power, and anyway it's all entirely legal. Ask Mr Ruddock.
From Green Left Weekly, November 28, 2001.
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