The Real Problem
by Dave McKay, at the Refugee Embassy, Woomera
Reports on refugee detention centres have focussed on material
issues--whether or not they have air conditioning, sufficient food,
blankets, and beds, the presence or absence of razor wire, and the
stark landscape and dust in many outback locations.
But the Government could improve all of these things -- and
apparently it is -- without ever once dealing with the real problem.
In fact, the more millions it spends on so-called improved
conditions, the worse the problem gets.
For the real problem is hatred. The locals here in Woomera resent
every penny that is spent on the refugees, and their resentment is
not unlike that of the rest of Australia.
"We never had air conditioning when we first came here," they shout.
"What do they expect? They're refugees, for Christ's sake! Refugees
are supposed to have it rough."
A shearer leaned across the roadhouse picnic table, and pointed his
steak knife at me as he said, "If I came across one of them wandering
out there in the outback, I wouldn't care if he was eight years old.
I'd slit his throat as soon as look at him, and I wouldn't miss a
moment's sleep over it either."
I turned to his mate to see if he felt the same horror that I had
just felt at such a naked expression of hatred.
"Yup. I'd do the same meself," he echoed. "Why should we work our
asses off to pay for them, while the bloody mongrels sit out there
and do nothing all day but complain?"
I suggested that maybe we would all be better off if the refugees
were just let out.
"Don't you get smart with me, you f...ing c...t!" the first one
shouted. "I'd slit your throat too if I could get away with it."
And this is what we encounter daily, in one form or another. The
cat-calls, rude gestures, and abuse that we get is the voice of a
majority that is no longer silent. "Shoot the bastards!" people
shout in anger. And this is happening in a country that once sang,
"Tell those who've sailed across the seas, we've boundless plains to
share."
Pauline Hanson discovered the latent hatred and racism and she ran
with it. John Howard grabbed the hate baton and effectively kicked
her out of the race. Then Kim Beazley did what he could to wrest the
baton from Little Johnny. While some of us reel with shock at what
our country is becoming, our so-called leaders see only political
opportunity in it. In fact, the more hatred they can stir up, the
more votes they can get.
Staff at the detention centres have been clearly instructed to convey
that hatred to the unfortunate people under their control, and they
are doing their job well. Centre Management sent a letter in Arabic
and Parsi to the detainees before the Easter demonstrations, telling
them that they would punish the detainees for anything that happened
outside. "When it's all over, the demonstrators go home, but we
still have you here under our control," it warned.
We all know that tear gas is traditionally used to dispel crowds or
to flush people out of hiding. But when you have a crowd already
trapped in a cage and you hit them with tear gas, it can only be for
one reason... torture. And to a lesser degree, the same is true of
the use of batons and pepper spray on women and children who sought
only to protect their husbands and fathers from the beatings that
followed the Easter demonstrations.
No one is accountable. No cameras or cassette recorders are allowed
inside, and especially not the media. No messages are to be taken
out, and none delivered during visits. Prisoners are not allowed to
have mobile phones. Visitors are almost non-existent. And now we
are discovering that mail is routinely discarded, whether going in or
coming out. Every possible effort is being made to isolate and
intimidate the detainees. Even lawyers have had to threaten court
action just to gain access to clients.
We asked the CERTS Supervisor (whatever that is) why there is so much
secrecy. "You wouldn't imagine the sort of people who try to get
access to them," he said conspiratorily.
I opened my eyes wide, feigning shock. "Tell me," I said.
He moved closer. "We have lawyers coming up here and trying to
pressure them into becoming their clients," he said. What he failed
to say was that the lawyers are working for free.
Inside they are told that demonstrators are only impoverished street
people who can offer no hope at all, that decent Australians do not
want them here, that the few visitors they get will never return; and
outside we are told that they don't want visitors, don't want mail,
don't want lawyers. Over time some of the declarations will become
true. Because of present policy, the visitors will not return and
their letters will not be delivered. The prisoners, as a result,
will come to see visits as false hopes, raised by people who will
never return.
We have been writing dozens of letters to inmates since being denied
the right to visit them, and to our knowledge, not one of those
letters has been delivered. Of course they are not returned either.
They are simply thrown in the rubbish. People inside promised to
send us dozens of letters requesting visitors too; but not one of
those has reached us.
Why is this happening? Because of hate.
Every time someone like ourselves comes along and tries to instil
some hope into the lives of these poor people, or tries to express
some love and support, we are labelled trouble-makers, or a security
risk, and we are isolated from contact.
There are no written guidelines with regard to either visitors or
mail. Everything is done arbitrarily. And no one is accountable.
We tried to send a registered letter, but the local post office tells
us that it cannot be done. There is, at this stage, no possible way
to make anyone at the Woomera Detention Centre (and probably every
other detention centre in Australia) accountable to the public for
much of anything. They are the Gestapo of Australia, acting on
orders from the Fuerher and no one else. Every effort to interfere
with that set-up is branded a "security threat" and it is beaten down.
Sensitive, loving, thinking Australians have only one hope, and that
is that the media will confront the powers that be with the cameras
and cassette recorders that are not allowed at Woomera, and demand
answers. We must make the Government and the guards at Woomera
accountable.
How many visitors (apart from lawyers and other officials) have there
been at Woomera over the past twelve months? How many letters going
in and coming out have been destroyed? Why aren't letters at least
returned to the senders? Why is mail censored anyway? (Prison mail
is not censored.) Why aren't there official guidelines for
determining who can and cannot visit prisoners? Who makes the final
decision on these matters? Are written records kept of those
decisions? If it really is a reception centre, then why can't
detainees have mobile phones? Why is the media banned from going
inside? What does the Government have to hide?
The Jews will lament forever the fact that they went quietly to the
death camps in Nazi Germany, thinking that if they behaved themselves
and co-operated, all would be well. Australia must not make the same
mistake with regard to the detention centres. For if we can allow a
government to imprison one minority without making it accountable, it
will soon imprison others. And the hate-mongers are the first to
tell us that we who support the refugees (You know, the bleeding
hearts... the do-gooders.) are a minority ourselves.
Dave McKay, Phone 0407-238805
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