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Professor Linda Briskman is the Dr Haruhisa Handa chair of human rights education at Curtin University. She received the award to deliver the Eileen Younghusband lecture in South Africa in July 2008, for her work on the People’s Inquiry into Detention. She is the author of two other books, Social Work with Indigenous Communities and The Black Grapevine.

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Professor Linda Briskman is the Dr Haruhisa Handa chair of human rights education at Curtin University. She received the award to deliver the Eileen Younghusband lecture in South Africa in July 2008, for her work on the People’s Inquiry into Detention. She is the author of two other books, Social Work with Indigenous Communities and The Black Grapevine.

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Professor Linda Briskman is the Dr Haruhisa Handa chair of human rights education at Curtin University. She received the award to deliver the Eileen Younghusband lecture in South Africa in July 2008, for her work on the People’s Inquiry into Detention. She is the author of two other books, Social Work with Indigenous Communities and The Black Grapevine.

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First published by Scribe 2008

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CONTENTS

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Preface

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Flaws in the Refugee Determination Process

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On unknown boats

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On the boat SIEV 5

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On the boat SIEV 5

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Those who died in Australian Immigration Detention:1

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PREFACE

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The Australian Council of Heads of Social Work is proud to be the auspicing body for the People’s Inquiry into Detention and to have worked collaboratively with so many passionate advocates who share deep concern about the policy of mandatory detention. The inquiry builds upon the relentless perseverance of the social work heads in protesting asylum seeker policies over a number of years.

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Human Rights Overboard is a stunning example of how social work, a profession of many facets, can contribute to changing public perceptions and to challenging harsh policies that violate core human rights tenets. We are proud that social work has taken a lead, as this endeavour illuminates the heart of social work which lies in its unswerving commitment to social justice and human rights. This commitment was enacted in many ways during the inquiry process, including the work of social work schools in facilitating hearings, in enabling students to undertake fieldwork placements and for providing support to those giving evidence. The inquiry process demonstrates how social work, despite its diversity of practice modes and organisational constraints, can garner the support of others to challenge human rights abuses.

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The logistics alone were challenge enough, conducting hearings around the country and working with groups in each location to maximise the benefits and to ensure community participation and ownership. The incredible work of an army of dedicated volunteers from all walks of life, and with an enormous array of skills, ensured that the process was a success.

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Justice Bhagwati was considerably distressed by what he saw and heard in Woomera Immigration Reception and Processing Centre. He met men, women and children who had been in detention for several months, some of them even for one or two years. They were prisoners without having committed any offence. Their only fault was that they had left their native home and sought to find refuge or a better life on the Australian soil. In virtual prison-like conditions in the detention centre, they lived initially in the hope that soon their incarceration will come to an end but with the passage of time, the hope gave way to despair. When Justice Bhagwati met the detainees, some of them broke down. He could see despair on their faces. He felt that he was in front of a great human tragedy … These children were growing up in an environment which affected their physical and mental growth and many of them were traumatized and led to harm themselves in utter despair.

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At the end of its visit, the delegation of the Working Group had the clear impression that the conditions of detention are in many ways similar to prison conditions: detention centres are surrounded by impenetrable and closely guarded razor wire; detainees are under permanent supervision; if escorted outside the centre they are, as a rule, handcuffed; escape from a centre constitutes a criminal offence under the law and the escapee is prosecuted … During talks with government officials it became obvious that one of the goals of the system of mandatory detention and the way it is implemented is to discourage would-be immigrants from entering Australia without a valid visa …

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The authorities stressed that these practices have the support of most sectors of public opinion. This is no doubt the case, but with the following reservations:

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(b) Australian public opinion must also know that, to the knowledge of the delegation, a system combining mandatory, automatic, indiscriminate and indefinite detention without real access to court challenge is not practised by any other country in the world.

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Part 1

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TO DETER & DENY:
THE JOURNEY INTO DETENTION

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0402 Warning 5.56 mm (cannon) shots fired 50ft in front of vessel.

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I participated in the boarding, attempted removal and actual forced removal of suspected illegal immigrant vessels to Indonesia. Nearly everyone I spoke to that was involved in these operations knew that what they were doing was wrong. These actions are ineffective in deterring boat people in coming to Australia and merely serve to harass, frighten and demoralise people who are already weak, vulnerable and desperate … The hard-hearted who speak loudly about the need for stern deterrent actions to solve this problem have not seen the faces of the boat people in their miserable conditions, imploring us for help. 115

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The second way refugees can enter Australia is by arriving with a valid visa, such as a student or visitor visa, and then applying to be recognised as a refugee. People in this situation make up the vast majority of asylum seekers in Australia. They remain in the community while their claim is being processed and if they lodge their protection application within 45 days of arrival, they are allowed to work and receive income support and Medicare. If successful, they are granted a permanent protection visa.

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race

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race

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Because of the continuing amendments to the Migration Regulations, the interpretation of the Migration Act and the UN Convention on Refugees has been narrowed to such an extent that the Regulations became an absolute minefield for the case officers. I considered that it was becoming more convenient for the case officers who were junior officers in the department hierarchy to do what they thought senior management and the government wants them to do. Their power as independent administrative decision-makers was being eroded.

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The threats from the minister were not idle. Thirty-five of the RRT members whose terms expired in June 1997 applied for reappointment. Sixteen of them were not renewed … One non-renewed member – Mr John Gibson – had had a high set-aside rate175 of about 30 per cent. Mr Gibson had ‘no doubt’ that the minister’s public statements about set-aside rates left adjudicators feeling ‘somewhat vulnerable’. In any event, during April 1997 – the month in which the Immigration Department conducted interviews for applicants for reappointment – the set-aside rate plummeted to 2.7 per cent.176

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Fiona Redding: Over the last few years, I found myself becoming increasingly disturbed by the attitude of the government towards asylum-seekers, and the promotion of concepts like ‘being un-Australian’. The Tampa, the ensuing promotion of a ‘fear of invasion’, mandatory detention and the almost complete lack of any public debate really concerned me. When it was eventually found that an Australian resident and an Australian citizen were detained and deported, it seemed that finally the situation was going to be appropriately addressed.

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 It soon became apparent that this was not the case, and I heard about the People’s Inquiry into Detention. I felt that this was an excellent outlet to focus my concerns, and maybe get the information to a wider audience. Additionally, I felt that I had some useful skills that I could bring to the inquiry. I got to work with some amazing people, who I never would have met otherwise, and to speak with people first-hand about their experiences – as asylum-seekers, as detainees, as Temporary Protection Visa holders and as people trying to make a new life in a new country. 

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 The inquiry is enabling the stories of everyone involved with the system, not just those Australians ’accidentally’ detained or deported, to be heard and placed on the public record. While this, clearly, is not a discussion that Australians are willing to have now, at some point in the future the inquiry will mean that the people involved with the system and their experiences will be appropriately remembered and reflected upon.

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Lyn Mitchell: It must have started with the Tampa, but then later being told people threw their children overboard – I felt that either they must have been so desperate or something else was wrong. I decided I needed to find out more about what was going on. So I went to a forum held in Collins St chaired by Carmen Lawrence with other speakers such as Louise Newman and Marie Tehan. The speeches made me realise what was going on and how distressed I felt about it. I also went to another talk by Julian Burnside which made me so upset that this was going on in my country.

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Sophie Ellis: It was recently, while I was trawling through DIMIA media releases, that I realised with intensity what the People’s Inquiry was all about. I had stumbled across a plethora of articles on Griffith including: ‘Operation nets 22 near Griffith’ and ‘Nine illegals located in Griffith’. The headlines didn’t surprise me; I’ve grown accustomed to them as they pop up everyday in our media. It was their content that took me aback. For the first time, the ‘two south Koreans’ transferred to Villawood and deported meant something to me. I was familiar with their story and their circumstances. I felt I knew them, and the human tragedy of it all suddenly replicated before me, in the lives of all the other unknown, faceless people who have shared the barbaric experience of detention as well. The public hearings in Griffith, like those that have been conducted all over Australia, bring these stories into the open. They allow brandings such as ‘illegals’, ‘detainees’, ‘South Koreans’, ‘Indians’, and numbers to dissolve, and for the stories of people to be heard and told. Stories that I have been both shocked and deeply humbled by.

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1 This inquiry has included deaths that occurred during Australian naval intervention under Operation Relex, Immigration Department compliance raids, and the death of an asylum seeker held on behalf of the Australian government in Nauru.

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1 This inquiry has included deaths that occurred during Australian naval intervention under Operation Relex, Immigration Department compliance raids, and the death of an asylum seeker held on behalf of the Australian government in Nauru.

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1 This inquiry has included deaths that occurred during Australian naval intervention under Operation Relex, Immigration Department compliance raids, and the death of an asylum seeker held on behalf of the Australian government in Nauru.

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1 This inquiry has included deaths that occurred during Australian naval intervention under Operation Relex, Immigration Department compliance raids, and the death of an asylum seeker held on behalf of the Australian government in Nauru.

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