'It’s a place where they try to destroy you': why concentration camps are still with us : The Guardian

"Mass internment camps did not begin or end with the Nazis – today they are everywhere from China to Europe to the US. How can we stop their spread?

 By Daniel Trilling"

.........

" One evening in February this year, I watched the Kurdish author Behrouz Boochani give a talk by video link to an audience at Birkbeck, University of London. Boochani, who currently lives in New Zealand, spent four years in Australia’s “regional offshore processing centre” for asylum-seekers on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. Australia has pioneered a type of long-term detention for unwanted migrants that is now becoming more common elsewhere in the world. Boochani and his fellow detainees were not merely being held for “processing”, but in harsh conditions intended to act as a deterrent to future travellers. The Australian government forbade journalists to report on the full extent of these conditions, which included the beating and abuse of detainees, and introduced a law threatening doctors and social workers with up to two years in prison if they spoke in public about what they had witnessed.

Boochani, however, smuggled out accounts of life in detention, via text messages sent to his translator by WhatsApp, that were turned into articles for the Guardian and other outlets – as well as a memoir, No Friend But the Mountains. Boochani explained to us how he saw his detention as part of Australia’s – and Britain’s – longer history of treating non-white people as disposable. “It’s worse than a prison,” he said of the Manus camp. “It’s a place where they take your identity and freedom from you, and try to destroy you.” Detainees were given numbers, he said, which the guards used instead of their names; his was MEG45.

The camp on Manus Island was eventually shut down by the Australian government, after widespread public criticism, although its broader asylum policies remain largely the same. For Boochani, writing was not simply a way to expose his conditions and link up with campaigners against detention on the outside, but to challenge the very basis on which the treatment of people like him was justified. “I never use the language and the words that the [Australian] government use,” he said. “I say ‘systematic torture’, I say ‘political prisoner.’” One of the things that gave him hope in confinement, he said, was the fact that animals could wander in and out of the spaces where human freedom was limited – a reminder that the structure which held him was built by people, and could therefore also be dismantled. “Nature,” he said, “always tried to reimpose itself on the prison.”

Read the original The Guardian article

More blood on Dutton and Morrison's hands:

Bangladeshi asylum seeker suicides in Lakemba


 

Manus refugee suicides in Brisbane,

Manus Island, offshore detention and Peter Dutton are responsible for yet another refugee death. A 32-year-old mentally-distressed Afghan refugee, Sayed Mirwais Rohani, committed suicide in Brisbane on 15 October. Mirwais was brought to Australia from Manus Island in 2017, as his mental health badly deteriorated following his detention on Manus Island in September 2013.
Mirwais had a medical degree from a Chinese university which is recognised by Australia. He completed his degree in English and spoke six languages. He offered to work in the Lorengau hospital for free and was moved out of the Lombrum detention centre on that basis. Despite being moved he was not allowed to work in the hospital.
Then on 20 October, Bangladeshi asylum seeker Mohammad Mohsin committed suicide at a mosque in Lakemba. Like so many others on a bridging visa, Mohammad had no income and did not have the right to work. He was destitute and had become homeless. His death is yet another tragedy that reveals the government’s failed asylum process.
Their tragic deaths show why we have to keep fighting to end the government's war on refugees.

Bello Nambucca RAR Newsletter 22nd October 2019

Roadside demonstration report

Lies, damn lies, and Minister Dutton

Senator Jacqui Lambie and the medevac legislation  

Another tragic death

 

Roadside demonstration report

It rained for the first twenty minutes of our roadside demonstration in Coffs Harbour last Thursday, but we stuck it out, and eventually the sun appeared. We had a pretty good turnout, and the response from passing motorists was both overwhelmingly positive, and at times enthusiastic! We all agreed that these events are a great way to keep reminding people that there is a better and more humane way to meet our responsibilities to asylum seekers and refugees.

Our next demonstration will be in Bellingen on Thursday 31^st October from 2.30 to 4.00 pm. You will find us at our usual location on Waterfall Way, opposite the entrance to the golf club, adjacent to the Yellow Shed. Please come and join us if you can.

Lies, damn lies, and Minister Dutton

Minister Dutton has taken every opportunity in recent months to try to convince Australians

that it is vitally important for our safety and security that the medevac legislation be repealed. He has repeatedly stated that the medevac law allows murderers, rapists and paedophiles to come to Australia and that the government is powerless to prevent these people arriving on our shores. He told Sky News some months ago that: “people of bad character can come, are able to come and, in fact, are required to come under Labor’s law that they passed. That’s the reality”. The medevac legislation was in fact introduced to parliament by the independent MPs Dr Kerryn Phelps and Andrew Wilkie. Dutton’s frequent statements on TV and radio about his powerlessness to intervene are simply untrue. Under the legislation, the minister can refuse to transfer someone if “the Minister reasonably believes that transferring the person would harm Australia’s security” or “the person has a substantial criminal record and the Minister reasonably believes that the person would expose the Australian community to a serious risk of criminal conduct.”

Last week, Minister Dutton used his powers for the first time to override doctors’ recommendations to transfer an individual, exactly as the law allows. His decision is final and cannot be reviewed.

In the recent Senate review of the legislation, only Dutton’s department put forward a submission in favour of repealing the medevac law.

Senator Jacqui Lambie and the medevac legislation

It is now very clear that Senator Lambie’s vote on the possible repeal of the medevac legislation will be crucial. She is under enormous pressure from government ministers to back the repeal of the legislation, but to her great credit, she has consistently maintained that she will read all the submissions to the Senate enquiry, together with the enquiry reports, and that she will not enter into any deals for Tasmania on this issue. In a recent interview, she stated: “I think any decision over humanity is probably one of the biggest decisions you’ll make.” She is, of course, right, and it is therefore critically important that we, and others, convince her that the only humane response to the government’s push to repeal the legislation is to refuse to support it. The legislation, by all accounts, is helping to save lives, is ensuring that sick people access the treatment that they need, and ensures that decisions about treatment are in the hands of doctors and not bureaucrats. There are sufficient checks and balances in the current law to ensure that requests for medical transfers are properly assessed and, if necessary, reviewed. As we have seen in recent days, the Minister does have the power to intervene on character or security grounds.

If you have not already done so, could you please email Senator Lambie at: senator.lambie@aph.gov.au. to urge her to resist the government’s bid to repeal the medevac legislation. Alternatively, you could phone her office on: 03 6431 3112. You can find a sample letter to Senator Lambie by clicking on the link to our blog at the bottom of this newsletter. 

Another tragic death

Last week, an Afghan asylum seeker, who was a qualified doctor, died in Brisbane. It is

believed that he took his own life. Sayed Mirwais Rohani had been held for four years on Manus Island before being transferred to Australia for medical treatment. He was just 32 years old. His is the 13^th death of a person sent to Manus island or Nauru by our government. We keep on saying: “how many more deaths will it take before our government brings to an end the cruel policy of indefinite offshore detention?” But our government does not listen, and seems not to care.

 

Check out the index of subjects on our blog http://bellorar.blogspot.com.au

It includes articles from many sources and letters to politicians and newspapers.

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Smoke and Mirrors:Harvard Political Review

“An excellent and well-researched article about Australia’s  punitive and unlawful asylum policies. Well worth a read.”

Smoke and Mirrors

Australia claims that its refugee policies are consistent with human rights standards, but a closer examination reveals that a secretive, abusive system is at work.

By Jack Taylor | October 2, 2019

On June 26, President Trump tweeted that “much can be learned” from Australia’s refugee policies. Other leaders, including Italy’s Matteo Salvini and The Netherlands’ Geert Wilders, have also expressed admiration for Australia’s deterrence-based refugee policies. The numbers are convincing. In the seven years before the Liberal government’s Operation Sovereign Borders took effect, approximately 50,000 asylum seekers sought to enter Australia by boat and approximately 1,100 died at sea. Since Sovereign Borders, only two boats have reached mainland Australia, and there have been no known deaths at sea. So, is President Trump right? Does Australia provide the answer for countries wishing to deter asylum seekers, who risk their lives and the lives of their children to reach safer shores?

Closing the Back Door

Go to complete Harvard Political Review article

Australia says that asylum seekers are welcome by the front door but not the back. Operation Sovereign Borders, the highly politicized, catch-all name attached to Australian border policy, ensures it. Operation Sovereign Borders is actually a package of legislation, featuring bills introduced by lawmakers from across the political spectrum. Most notably, it mandates that boats be turned back, and that asylum seekers undergo mandatory offshore detention until those who receive refugee status can be relocated to a third country and those who do not can be sent back home. Asylum seekers arriving by boat are met at sea by the Australian Border Force Unit, which streams video interviews of the asylum seekers back to mainland border officials who attempt to determine whether the migrants are technically refugees. If the officials conducting the interviews determine the arrivals are in fact genuine refugees, the boat is brought to a processing center — which, importantly, is not on Australian soil. Australia has opened multiple offshore processing centers in nearby territories as well as countries like Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

If none of the asylum seekers are found to be genuine refugees, the boats are turned back. And the Border Force Unit has turned back every boat it has come across in the past two years, suggesting that there has not been a single genuine refugee among the asylum seekers arriving by sea in that time. Amnesty International, which has been highly critical of Australia’s refugee policy, notes that few asylum seekers fleeing by boat will have the documentation they need to prove their case while at sea, and reports that there have been multiple accounts of poor connectivity in the video links.

Go to complete Harvard Political Review article 

Abrogating Responsibility

Under international law, though, it is not an option for Australia to assist asylum seekers arriving on its borders — it is an obligation. Australia, like most other countries, is a party to the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention, its Protocol, and multiple other human rights treaties. Australia also has a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, and is one of five countries making up the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. These international treaties and the multilateral institutions they emanate from seek to protect refugees from arbitrary detention, refoulement — repatriation to a country where refugees could be in danger of persecution — and physical and psychological torture.

In an interview with the HPR, Josh Watkins, a professor of global studies at the National University of Singapore who specializes in borders and border security, noted: “From the advent of the Pacific Solution in 2001, through its reincarnation in Operation Sovereign Borders, Australia’s asylum seeker policies have been condemned by UNHCR, Amnesty International, and scores of other commentators as being unnecessarily draconian.”

Erika Feller, assistant high commissioner to the UNHCR from 2006 to 2013 and a professor of government at Melbourne University, expressed that concern in an interview with the HPR. She explained that Australia’s deterrence-based asylum seeker policy “flies in the face of international treaties. Deterrence is not a mechanism that is envisaged in the 1951 Refugee Convention and it runs counter to it.”

 Even after ratifying international non-refoulement agreements, Australia has turned boats back to countries where their passengers might face harm, such as Sri Lanka and Vietnam, where asylum seekers have been arrested, interrogated, tortured, and jailed. Many of the other Asia-Pacific transit countries which receive these turnbacks are not party to refugee and human rights treaties and do not have the legal or financial capacity to protect asylum seekers. As a consequence, asylum seekers find themselves in regions where they have no rights and may face persecution and imprisonment. Meanwhile, the Australian government does not document the asylum seekers sent away in these boat turnbacks; as a result, it remains impossible to hold Australia accountable for the plight of those refugees who are persecuted upon return to their home countries. 

 Australia’s system of mandatory and indefinite detention blatantly violates its obligations to protect asylum seekers. Australia has been condemned by a working group of the U.N.’s Human Rights Council for 51 counts of illegally holding refugees in indefinite detention, some for as long as nine years. The average length of arbitrary detention for a refugee who arrived in Australia by boat was 511 days. Australia’s policy of holding refugees in indefinite detention breaks international human rights law, taints its international standing, and undermines its credibility when denouncing other nations for the same crimes.

 In an interview with the HPR, Mary Crock, a professor of law at the University of Sydney and the author of nine books on refugees, noted that “from the time mandatory detention became law in 1992 there was increased dissonance between Australia’s international legal obligations and our domestic law and practice … Our relationship with international human rights law became increasingly fractured and problematic.”

 Refugees have undergone significant human rights abuses in Australia’s offshore detention centers. Human rights organizations report the absence of physical liberty, medical attention, and proper security on Manus and Nauru islands. Twelve men have died while in detention — one of them immolated himself during a U.N. monitoring visit. Since the Australian election in May, there have also been at least 26 cases of self-harm or attempted suicide on Nauru and Manus — in desperation, asylum seekers have cut themselves, gone on hunger strikes, swallowed rocks, and even sown their own lips shut. These cases were not recorded by any Australian institution until Monash University created a database of border-related deaths in 2010. To this day, no government authority collects any information on asylum seekers who have died while attempting to enter Australia, while in detention, or shortly after their release.

Go to complete Harvard Political Review article

About No Friend but the Mountains. Pan Macmillan

"The book begins with Boochani boarding a boat somewhere on Java, hoping to reach Australia. In elegant prose, he brings to life the refugee journey through detailed observations of his fellow travellers. He describes a rapid collapse of order: 

Men lie in the arms of another’s wife, children lie on the bellies of strangers. It seems they have all forgotten … the energy spent establishing a gender-based order. 

Newsletter for 7 August 2018 Rural Australians for Refugees Bellingen and Nambucca Districts

_{Valla Beach market report} 

_{Next roadside demonstration: Thursday 9th August from 2.30 to 4.00 pm}

_{The inquest into the death of Hamid Kehazaei}

_{Yet more critical medical cases ignored}

_{Fundraising effort by one of our supporters}

_{Valla Beach market report}

_{We had a very successful market under beautiful sunny skies at Valla Beach on Saturday. There were lots of supporters  handing out leaflets, collecting signatures on our open letter, selling our merchandise and of course  enjoying one another's company. We received lots of support from market-goers, who continually reminded us about how ashamed they feel about what the government is doing in our name. A number of people signed up to join our group, which means that we now have more than 600 people who receive this newsletter every week. That's a lot of people who are prepared to stand up for refugees and asylum seekers, and who are part of our campaign to bring this cruel and inhumane asylum policy to an end. A big thank you to the twenty people who have joined us during the past two weeks.}

_{Our next market stall will be at Bellingen market on Saturday 15th September from 9.00 am until 1.30 pm. If you can join us for an hour or two on the day, then please email Mike at: mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com.}

_{Next roadside demonstration: Thursday 9th August from 2.30 to 4.00 pm}

_{A reminder that our next roadside demonstration is this Thursday  by the Pacific Highway, next the the Big Banana in Coffs Harbour, from 2.30 until 4.00 pm. These demonstrations are an excellent way to bring the cruelty of indefinite offshore detention to the attention of the Australian people, and they undoubtedly have an impact. We have lots of banners and placards to share, and we would urge supporters to come and join us if you can.}

_{The inquest into the death of Hamid Kehazaei}

_{The tragedy of the avoidable death of Iranian asylum seeker Hamid Kehazaei was laid bare in the coroner's court in Brisbane last week. The coroner made it absolutely clear that the Australian government is responsible for the care and welfare of the asylum seekers that have been sent to offshore detention, and that the government had failed in its responsibility to provide Hamid with care comparable to Australian standards. Hamid died after a series of clinical errors and delays, including a lack of antibiotics and the overruling of a doctor's request for an urgent transfer by a Canberra bureaucrat, which follows a familiar pattern. The president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Bastian Seidel was scathing in his condemnation of the government's stance . He stated: "Bureaucrats should never ever be allowed to override a clinical decision made by a medical doctor.... There comes a point when Minister Peter Dutton needs to be asked to take responsibility for the actions of his department." Dr David Berger, an executive member with Doctors for Refugees, stated that the continued medical neglect of people in offshore detention to whom Australia owes a legal duty of care is "scandalous".}

_{He added: "It is safe to say there is no functioning healthcare in any form that an Australian would recognise and no way to escalate concerns in any manner, let alone a timely manner. These cases are not isolated ones."} 

_{Yet more critical medical cases ignored}

_{In spite of the clear findings by the coroner in the case of Hamid Kehazaei, our government continues to resist the requests of doctors to transfer patients to Australia for urgent medical treat In recent days, details of  two critical cases have emerged. The first concerns former Iraq policeman Mohammed Hamza Hussein, who lost his sight in one eye when he was beaten with a post during the attack on the Manus detention centre in 2014, and who is now going blind in his other eye. Ophthalmologists report that he requires urgent intervention- including treatments not available on Manus Island- in order to save his sight.. Mohammed says: "I'm the father of four girls, but I've been locked up here for five years.. I want to be able to see my family again."}

_{The other case concerns Somalian refugee Abdisalam, who has been on Manus for five years. Doctors say that he is at risk of losing his leg, or dying from compartment syndrome if his suspected broken femur continues to be left untreated. Amazingly, there is currently no working X-ray machine on Manus Island to determine the extent of his injuries. Abdisalam says:" I cannot sleep day or night because of this horrible pain that none of you can ever imagine. The pain kills me every minute....all I see is just pain. The leg is broken, and the fracture in the bone is not yet medically dealt with. Please, I need desperately emergency medical assistance." Dr David Berger commented: "This is a case where somebody with an urgent condition does not have their case escalated. And as we have seen, delays in treatment are threatening to life."}

_{The contract for medical services with the Australian government is provided by Pacific International Hospital. Their latest government contract with PIH costs the Australian taxpayer more than $110,000 a day for this appalling level of service.}

_{Our government's response for information about these cases was, as always, that it does not comment on individual medical cases.}

_{If you would like to contact Minister Dutton's department to demand that doctors' request for urgent medical transfer of patients must never be overridden by Canberra bureaucrats, and that these, and other patients must be transferred immediately, then you can phone his office on: 07 3205 9977, or email him at: minister@border.gov.au.}

_{Fundraising effort by one of our supporters}

_{Many of you will know that all the money that we raise from sales and other fundraising events is donated to the Asylum Seekers Centre in Newtown. The ASC does fantastic work supporting asylum seekers in and around Sydney as they wait to have their claims for protection finalised,  a process that now drags on for years under the government's "fast track" processing policy. The need for funding has increased dramatically over the past month, as government support for this cohort of up to 12,000 asylum seekers is gradually withdrawn.}

_{One of our supporters, Marlene Griffin, is currently "artist of the month" for August at the Stringer Gallery on Ridge Street in Nambucca Heads, run by the Nambucca Valley Arts Council. The gallery is located between the post office and the library. Marlene has paintings large and small on sale, ranging in price from $20 to $250. All proceeds from any sales will be donated, via our RAR group, to the ASC. Please therefore consider paying a visit to the gallery, and help us to support ASC's work by purchasing a work of art. The gallery is open from 10.00 am until 3.00 pm from Wednesday to Friday, and from 9.30 am until 12.00 noon on Saturday.}

_{Check out the index of subjects on our blog  http://bellorar.blogspot.com.au} 

_{It includes articles from many sources and letters to politicians and newspapers.}

_{This newsletter is sent to >620 recipients}

_{Our Face book is at https://www.facebook.com/Rural-Australians-for-Refugees-Bellingen-and-Nambucca-Districts-269696303205083/timeline/}

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_{Twitter Account @RARBellingenNam}

_{Email address bellingen.rar@gmail.com}

_{The National RAR web site is at  www.ruralaustraliansforrefugees.org.au} 

_{The National RAR facebook site is at  RAR Facebook}

Newsletter for 31 July 2018 Rural Australians for Refugees Bellingen and Nambucca Districts

_{Roadside demonstration report}

_{Next market stall: Valla Beach, Saturday 4th August}

_{Five myth-busting facts about refugees}

_{Deaths in detention}

_{Roadside demonstration report}

_{We had a great turnout for our roadside demonstration in Toormina last week, with supporters old and new putting on a colourful display of banners and placards. We attracted overwhelming support from passing motorists, which perhaps gives the lie to the assertion by the main political parties that there is no appetite for compassion in the Australian community.}

_{Our next demonstration will be on Thursday 9}^th _{August from 2.30 to 4.00 pm next to the Big Banana in Coffs Harbour. We hope that we will again have a good turnout to help us get our message across about the urgent need to end the cruel policy of indefinite offshore detention. Please put the date in your diary and join us if you can.}

_{Next market stall: Valla Beach, Saturday 4}^th _August

_{Our next market stall will be at Valla Beach market this coming Saturday from 9.00 am until 1.30 pm. As usual, we’ll be talking to market-goers, handing out leaflets, selling our merchandise on behalf of the Asylum Seekers Centre and collecting final signatures on our open letter. If you are able to join us for an hour or two, then please let Mike know by emailing him at: mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com.}

_{Five myth-busting facts about refugees}

_{Fact 1. 85% of refugees are hosted in the developing world.}

_{There is a perception that most refugees are making their way into the global north. The data tells us that the opposite is the case – with 85% of refugees stuck in developing countries, many of which are desperately poor and receive little support to care for these populations.}

_{Fact 2. More than two-thirds (68%) of all refugees come from just five countries, namely:}

_{1              Syrian Arab Republic. (6.3 million).}

_{2              Afghanistan (2.6 million).}

_{3              South Sudan (2.4 million).}

_{4              Myanmar (1.2 million).}

_{5              Somalia (986,400).}

_{Fact 3. Four out of five refugees remain in countries next door to their own. Sub-Saharan Africa is now home to 31% of the global refugee population.}

_{Fact 4. 52% of the world’s refugees are children. Children under 18 represented over half the world’s refugees in 2017. A total of 138,700 unaccompanied and separated child refugees and asylum seekers were reported.}

_{Fact 5. 61.4% of the refugees live outside of refugee camps. In urban locations 95% of refugees were living in individual accommodation with very few in camp locations.}

_{By the end of 2017, 68.5 million individuals (including 25.4 million refugees), were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict or violence.}

_{Source: UNHCR}

_{Deaths in detention}

_{Given the secrecy surrounding all aspects of the government’s offshore detention regime, the photograph below is perhaps a timely reminder of the true horror of indefinite offshore detention, which has destroyed so many lives.}

_{Check out the index of subjects on our blog  http://bellorar.blogspot.com.au} 

_{It includes articles from many sources and letters to politicians and newspapers.}

_{This newsletter is sent to >580 recipients}

_{Our Face book is at https://www.facebook.com/Rural-Australians-for-Refugees-Bellingen-and-Nambucca-Districts-269696303205083/timeline/}

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_{Email address bellingen.rar@gmail.com}

_{The National RAR web site is at  www.ruralaustraliansforrefugees.org.au} 

_{The National RAR facebook site is at  RAR Facebook}