The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper
of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday,
June 4th, 2003. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills.
Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795.
CPA Central Committee: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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DETENTION CENTRES
Time for accountability, humanity and change
There has been a flood of calls for a judicial inquiry into conditions
in Australia's system of immigration detention centres since the ABC's
Four Corners program dealing with the Woomera centre went to air a
fortnight ago. At the same time, hardly a day goes by without some new
scandal to do with official treatment of asylum seekers coming to light.
It is now patently clear that, for humanity to be served, such an
inquiry must also recommend ways to bring to justice those responsible
for the systematic mistreatment of the detainees. Further, it must come
up with alternatives to the current regime of mandatory detention as a
matter of urgency.
by Bob Briton
Last week, former Federal Court Justice Marcus Einfeld added his voice
to calls for a full judicial inquiry into the management of the centres.
He is patron of the lobby group Children Out of Detention (ChilOut) that
produced its own Heart of the Nation's Existence Report into long-term
detention of child asylum seekers. It confirmed 53 allegations of abuse
within Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) facilities.
The National Assembly of the Uniting Church has made a similar call, as
has the Refugee Council of Australia. Professor Margaret Reynolds of the
United Nations Association of Australia has done likewise. Shadow
immigration spokesperson, Julia Gillard and MHR for Denison, Duncan Kerr
have added their weight to the demands.
Victoria's Corrections Minister Andre Haermeyer has ordered an inquiry
into the management of the privately run Fulham prison in the wake of
accusations against ACM and its management of federal detention centres,
including Woomera. "Probity Auditors" will report on ACM's performance
at the Fulham prison near Sale.
The Commonwealth Ombudsman has already begun its own inquiry into
conditions at immigration detention centres.
However, it was up to Democrats' Leader, Senator Andrew Bartlett, to
point out a weakness in this rather unfocussed demand for a judicial
inquiry. He has compiled a list of no fewer than 25 reports and
investigations into the detention centres in the last few years. They
have come from Parliament, the Human Rights Commission, medical
specialists, the United Nations and other independent sources.
"Every single one of these reports highlights the trauma, despair and
human rights abuses that occur in detention centres. Every report adds
to the case for stopping the policy of mandatory detention of all asylum
seekers." Still the brutal policy remains.
The Senator also demanded that Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock
resign or be sacked over the ongoing scandal.
Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown took direct practical steps. He
referred the allegations of the doctoring of documents about staff and
service delivery levels contained in the Four Corners program to the
Australian Federal Police AFP) for investigation. Melbourne Special
Counsel, Mr Brian Walters had advised the Senator that "on the evidence
presently available, serious offences against Commonwealth criminal law
probably have been committed."
If proved, the offences carry potential sentences of five years jail.
Senator Brown also referred the matters to the Commonwealth Auditor-General.
Marion Le, head of the Independent Committee for Refugee Advocacy,
raises an important point with her group's long-standing demand that
control of the detention centres should be put back in the hands of the
government's own Australian Protective Services. She believes that
little will change when ACM relinquishes control of the detention
centres in the near future.
Ms Le has little faith that Group 4, named by the Commonwealth last
December as the favoured tenderer to take over the control of the five
detention centres, will improve the bleak regime behind the razor wire.
The government's decision to exercise an option to break the ten-year
contract with ACM after only six years is probably an attempt to defuse
mounting criticism of the controversial company.
We can expect more of the same. Group 4 and ACM are both subsidiaries of
Wackenhut Corrections Corporation (WCC), the US's second biggest
corporate jailer. Like other Wackenhut enterprises the world over, it is
no stranger to controversy.
Last week, ABC Radio reported that in 2000 the Victorian Coroner found
that Group 4 and the State Government had contributed to the death of
five people at the Port Phillip Prison.
For the record, Wackenhut Corporation is named after its founder George
R Wackenhut, who was described by Britain's Observer Life Magazine as a
"more than usually right wing businessman". He now lives in a mock
castle in Florida and has a yacht called Top Secret.
Before opening shop as a private investigator and then starting up a
private security firm, he was an FBI agent. He found work for many other
former FBI staffers in his new outfit.
Former Deputy Director of the CIA, Frank Carlucci and former Head of
Defence Intelligence, General Joseph Carol have also found places on the
Corporation's board.
Wackenhut soon found itself in charge of security at top-secret nuclear
facilities like the Nevada Test Site and the Savanna Ridge Site where
weapons grade plutonium is produced. It guards other testing and nuclear
waste dump facilities for the US Department of Energy. Since 1957 it has
provided security at around 20 US embassies and diplomatic missions.
George Wackenhut also took it upon himself to keep files on three
million Americans he thought to be crypto-communists. By the late 1960s
this was the largest collection of private surveillance data in the US.
Civic-minded George reportedly handed the information over to his former
employer, the FBI.
While the Federal Government continues to abdicate its duty of care to
asylum seekers, this is the background of the sorts of companies chosen
to oversee their detention.
Phillip Ruddock appears to believe that the latest revelations about
life in his network of concentration camps can be deflected with some
departmental inquiries into secret contractual matters between ACM and
the Commonwealth.
However, the breadth of opposition to the policy of mandatory detention
and the growing awareness of its grim realities mean that, sooner or
later, the demands of this movement for the humane treatment of asylum
seekers will have to be met.
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