ASCI News
Download a complete copy of our April newsletter here!
An Address from ASCI Director, Michelle Dimasi 26 April 2010
Hello friends,
Welcome to the latest update from Asylum Seekers Christmas Island (ASCI). As I am sure you are all aware, Christmas Island continues to be in the headlines. I am still visiting all three centres on the island regularly: North West Point (male camp), Phosphate Hill (male camp) and Construction Camp (families, women and unaccompanied minors).
Some of my recent concerns have been the obvious overcrowding, which is particularly bad at Phosphate Hill. In a recent visit, asylum seekers complained that there are half hour waits to use showers, in the last week at least two days, no hot water was available, the toilets do not always have toilet paper and there are not enough recreation facilities. When I spoke with a group of Afghan women, they explained that there are no headscarves available nor is there suitable clothing from Serco. One Afghan woman, who arrived on her own, under the suspension policies was given a short sleeve top much to her embarrassment but no other clothing was available. Finally, some children are not going to school, as there is simply no room available at the school.
ASCI still needs your help. We are under staffed and rely purely on donations that people send us. In this update you will see we urgently still need letter writers and donations of books, dvds, and dictionaries.
Professor Linda Briskman from Curtin’s Centre for Human Rights Education and ASCI committee member has written a short article for this ASCI update.
Incase you did not see or listen in the last few weeks:
Read:
Savitri Taylors's "The asylum freeze and international law"
Linda Briskman and Lucy Fiske’s commentary in The Drum
Listen:
William Maley on Radio National speaking about Afghan Hazaras
Thanks to everyone who has provided support to ASCI!
Warm wishes,
Michelle Dimasi
ASCI Director
michelle@asylumseekerschristmasisland.com
A place of shame: Asylum seeker detention on Christmas Island
Linda Briskman, Professor of Human Rights Education, Curtin University
My third research visit to Christmas Island in April 2010 was the most confronting as it was a time of severe overcrowding and the announcement of harsh policy changes. As in past stays, I was enchanted by the stunning beauty of the island and shocked by asylum seeker detention. The announcements of the suspension of claims for newly arriving Sri Lankans and Afghans and the proposed relocation of men from these groups to the soon to be re-opened Curtin Detention Centre in remote Derby, has sent shockwaves through the refugee advocacy community.
Overcrowding in all the Christmas Island detention sites is clearly evident. To ease the overcrowding, in the last few days of my visit a large number of men were relocated to the Darwin detention facility and some unaccompanied minors (known as UAMs) were transferred to Port Augusta. a town that was once home to the Baxter detention facility. In the island’s maximum security Immigration Detention Centre (IDC) the overflow has resulted in people living in demountables, tents and a commandeered education complex. The tents house forty men; the education complex rooms twenty-four.
The overcrowding extends to the two other sites of detention on the island – Phosphate Hill (housing almost 200 men) and Construction Camp (housing families, children and unaccompanied minors). Although numbers change almost daily, at one stage during my visit the Construction Camp housed 450 people including more than 100 children, including infants, a number that has increased with the boat arrivals of recent days. Bed space is not the only concern. Access to resources and activities is limited.
The detention of children is a national scandal. The Construction Camp was designed as temporary accommodation for the men who built the IDC. Now this ghetto-like, squalid collection of demountable buildings is perhaps akin to the conditions of a third world refugee camp. Calling this facility an alternative place of detention masks the fact that it is a detention environment where people do not have freedom of movement and where children are denied access to playthings and the taken-for-granted joys of childhood. Although most children and UAMs thankfully attend the local school, this cannot compensate for the loss of liberty and uncertain futures.
The Rudd government’s increasingly tough policies represent political opportunism at its worst. The experiences of those detained rebound to their extended families and communities including family members who have already been granted visas, families in home countries and family members in Indonesia who have not made the journey. Although the government generally endeavours to ensure that processing is as fast as possible on this isolated island where the ‘processors’ are flown in and out, some people have been detained for periods nearing a year, which will increase with the suspension policies now in place.
Linda Briskman and colleague Lucy Fiske were on Christmas Island conducting research on how excision impacts on the human rights of asylum seekers and Christmas Islanders.
For more commentary, see our Resources and Links page