Australia must end its detention centre shame

Date
May 27, 2014


Trevor Grant
The federal Attorney-General, Senator George Brandis, has the power to release Asio-rejected refugees, under some form of control order.

Amid the gloomy confines of the Broadmeadows detention centre in Melbourne, there was a rare outbreak of joy last week. One of the ASIO-rejected refugees, 'Sasi', had been told that after being incarcerated for four and a half years, his assessment had suddenly been overturned and he was to be released.

Before he left the centre last Wednesday, they gave him a bouquet of flowers and held a going-away party. Inmates, guards and visiting friends joined the celebration. Everyone was happy for Sasi, who had been one of the first Tamil refugee victims of a negative ASIO assessment and a government policy of indefinite detention that has been condemned by the UN as cruel, inhumane, degrading and illegal.

Another victim of this policy, 42-year-old Deva, was as pleased for Sasi as the other 44 ASIO-rejected refugees detained indefinitely in Australian detention camps. However, the moment the fun had died down, he soon drifted back into despair as he contemplated his own miserable situation, locked away since he arrived by boat on Christmas Island on November 1, 2009 and holding little hope of ever seeing his wife and three daughters again.

It was April 28. Dark clouds always hover over him on this day, the anniversary of the day he received, in 2011, notification of his ASIO assessment. His depressive state of mind had been exacerbated by a row with a Serco guard over a $30 phone card, which he'd purchased by mistake and now couldn't exchange. "I was really upset about this. It then triggered all those thoughts about my life now, about my ASIO rejection and my family," he told me through a Tamil interpreter.

It was 10.30am. He went to his room and closed the door. He went to his shaving gear and took out a razor blade. He sat on his bed and began cutting himself. He sliced into his stomach, his neck, his chest and both hands. By the time he'd finished he estimates there were at least 25 deep cuts and scores of other cuts.

As he was cutting himself, a Serco guard knocked on his door. "I threw the blade away, put a blanket around my body and lay on my bed," he said. "The guard came in and asked me what I was doing. He touched me and saw my body was bleeding. They were going to get medical help but I said I didn't want any. Instead, they put two guards outside my room to watch me. At the time there wasn't much pain. Now my whole body is in pain and I am receiving treatment and medication.

"I don't know what to say. I can't really believe I have done this. I was trying to make a point by cutting all over my body. I was angry and now I'm suffering for it. I feel my life is doomed. I have been trying to control myself for a long time. But things are getting out of my control. I can't bear the pain of being locked away anymore."

Deva, a fisherman from a coastal village in the north of Sri Lanka, says he fled to India in 2006 because his family faced persecution due to his brother's membership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which fought a civil war against government forces for almost 30 years and was wiped out in the final months of the war in 2009. He says by then India had also become unsafe for Tamils who had any links to LTTE, family or otherwise. That's when he took a boat to Australia.

ASIO judged him to be a security threat, stating, in an unclassified document, he was "likely an active member of the LTTE" and that he has "significant familial links to the LTTE". He admits his brother’s membership but has denied to ASIO he was ever a member.

Sasi's release highlights the travesty of these secret ASIO assessments. He was also accused of being a member of the LTTE, which he always insisted was false. Despite many inconsistencies being revealed in his case, the independent reviewer, Margaret Stone, confirmed the ASIO judgment last June and was due to review his case again next month. Now ASIO has changed its mind. It has provided no proper reason, no apology, and, most importantly, no compensation.

The end result is that an innocent man has lost four and half years of his life, during which time he has suffered psychological trauma. He is not the first. At least three other Tamils have had their negative security assessments lifted after long periods of detention.

Medical experts have long concluded that indefinite detention is the most damaging form of incarceration. These people have not been charged with any crime, yet they are treated worse than murderers and rapists, who at least know the length of their sentences. They also have no idea of the full reasons behind the assessments. Australian citizens can challenge negative security assessments in a court and see the evidence. Refugees cannot.

It's little wonder that self-harm, suicide attempts and hunger strikes are regular occurrences among the ASIO-rejected refugees. This is our Guantanamo, bringing international shame upon Australia, especially when a federal government that likes to boast about its presidency of the Security Council openly defies a UN Human Rights Committee’s directive to release, rehabilitate and compensate these people. Indeed, Australia's reputation as a human rights defender, already in tatters because of its cruel asylum-seeker policy, is under much greater threat than our security from these people.

There is a simple solution. The federal Attorney-General, Senator George Brandis, has the power to release them today, under some form of control order, if he must.

Meanwhile, another victim, Deva, sits in his room, waiting for his wounds to heal and fearing that he is losing his mind.

Trevor Grant is a former Age journalist who works with the Tamil Refugee Council.