Dreamer Easy

Good news first: First Dog on the Moon on the rescue of cartoonist "Eaten Fish", who is now safe in Norway.

Manus refugee attacked for second time amid tension over Australian centres (20 December 2017, 10 am). This is the refugee who has never received the necessary treatment for the machete injury to his arm; he was attacked in Lorengau's market.

Manus Island protesters block access to refugee accommodation, supplies (ABC, 19 December 2017). They preventing food, medicine, and medical help from reaching the refugees at the East Lorengau detention centre, and are prevented refugees from leaving. Behrouz Boochani Tweeted on 20 December that the blockade had ended.

'I will kill you': video contradicts Peter Dutton's claim refugees on Manus were lying about being threatened by locals (GA, 11 December 2017). #TellUsTheTruth

A Moonlight Tour of the Damned (Mark Isaacs, 11 December 2017). The writer's visit to Manus. “Chauka [solitary confinement at Manus] was Australia’s Guantanamo prison. I was put in there three times. I slept in a shipping container. There was no air-conditioning, no breezeway, no door, no toilet door, no shower curtain, so the guards could watch you at all times. The bed was made out of wood. One time, they handcuffed me for seventy-two hours.” I also want to highlight this: "There are attempts to beautify the narrow corridors of shipping container bedrooms: love hearts painted on doors, colourful landscape murals, and little gardens." It gives the lie to the claims that the centre was in disrepair because of the detainees.

The next time someone tries to shift the spotlight away from the mistreatment of refugees by talking about homelessness in Australia, point them to Manus detainee Walid Zazai's Christmas message from manus to homeless people of Australia.

A Tamil man has been forcibly returned to Sri Lanka, where he is at risk of torture and rape, after missing the crash deadline to apply for protection in Australia. 29 Sri Lankan asylum seekers were flown back after their boat sank near the Cocos Islands.

Australia is wilfully damaging the health of children on Nauru to make a point – and it is appalling (SMH, 12 December 2017). "When we visited Nauru as paediatric specialists three years ago, we were asked to see 30 of the 100 children being detained on the island. Among them was a six-year-old girl who had tried to kill herself and a two-year-old boy with such severe behaviour problems a doctor had prescribed anti-psychotic medicines. Their parents were in despair. They had fled persecution, trying to save their children from harm, but had ended up imprisoned on a remote island, without hope. We left with the view that these were the most traumatised children we had ever consulted on, far worse than children we had seen in Australia, Africa, Asia or Europe. Three years later, 43 of those children remain on the island."

Calls to adopt child abuse inquiry's recommendations on immigration detention (GA, 18 December 2017)

'This republic breaks all borders': a dialogue with Behrouz Boochani on Manus (SMH, 23 December 2017). Profound and inspiring philosophical, political, spritual. His manifesto is this Letter from Manus Island. Here's a review of Boochani's movie Chauka, Please Tell Us The Time, shot by mobile phone.

UNHCR Fact Sheet on Situation of Refugees and Asylum-Seekers on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea (UNHCR, 15 December 2017)

Does Australia run the most generous refugee program per capita in the world? (RMIT / ABC Fact Check, 21 December 2017). SPOILERS: No. Or, as Fact Check puts it, Misleading. #TellUsTheTruth

As others see us: UNHCR says Australia abandoned refugees, must clear up the mess it made (Eye Witness News, Jonhannesburg, South Africa)

Student who protested against asylum seeker's deportation on flight found guilty (GA, 2 September 2016). I think Jasmine Pilbrow's defence was solid - that the man's life was at risk, that it was an emergency - and I'm disappointed the judge didn't agree. Crowdfunding has covered the costs she was ordered to pay, plus much more for help for refugees in Australia, and is continuing. On ya Jasmine. <3

Contractor IHMS fined $300,000 as official audit finds serious failings in asylum seeker healthcare (SMH, 1 September 2016)

Government told IHMS to cut health care costs for refugees in onshore detention centres: report (ABC, 2 September 2016)

Wilson Security pulls out of detention centres after Nauru, Manus protests (Australian Financial Review, 1 September 2016)

Ferrovial 'liable for crimes against humanity' (GA, 25 July 2016)

Ferrovial forced to run Nauru, Manus detention centres until late 2017 (Australian Financial Review, 10 September 2016)

Iranian refugee tried to burn herself to death from despair over indefinite detention on Nauru, husband says (ABC, 31 March 2016) This is Fatima, a mentally ill refugee who locked herself inside her family's accommodation and set it alight. She has now "been placed under the care of the Immigration Department controlled mental health unit on Nauru", a phrase which frankly gives me chills.

Marital rape no longer allowed and suicide, homosexuality decriminalised at Nauru (SMH, 27 April 2016) Which is good news, but rapes of refugees go unprosecuted and gangs beat gay refugees.

Resettling refugees in Papua New Guinea: a tragic theatre of the absurd (GA, 20 May 2016). "Lae is considered the most dangerous city in Papua New Guinea. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s website advises Australian citizens 'to exercise a high degree of caution in PNG because of the high levels of serious crime', with particularly high crime rates in Lae, where 'bush knives (machetes) and firearms are often used in assaults and thefts'. Yet, somehow, Australia has chosen this city as the ideal place to resettle refugees."

Cambodia revives Australia refugee deal with planned Nauru visit (ABC, 25 May 2016) | First refugees sent to Cambodia under $55m deal have left (ABC, 27 May 2016)

Australian police accessed phone records of asylum whistleblower (GA, 24 May 2016). This is scary as hell. After the death of Manus detainee Hamid Khazaei, the Department of Immigration asked the AFP to investigate where the media had got their information about the lethal mishandling of his case. Dr Peter Young was a target because he had criticised asylum seeker medical care in the press. Police examined his phone records and grilled his colleagues.

Australia’s Offshore Cruelty (The New York Times, 23 May 2016). "The Australian treatment of refugees trying to reach this vast, thinly populated country by boat follows textbook rules for the administering of cruelty. It begins with the anodyne name for the procedures — 'offshore processing' — as if these desperate human beings were just an accumulation of data."

There's been such a response to Immigration Minister Peter Dutton's baseless remarks about "illiterate and innumerate" refugees which have been (correctly IMHO) understood as disparaging all migrants from a non-English speaking background. For example, this passionate editorial in The Age: Time to embrace the potential refugees offer Australia (The Age, 22 May 2016) "The refugees I meet at the ASRC are not some racist's caricature. They are the doctor I know who speaks nine languages, and the young man who is studying a double degree in law and business after arriving by boat as an unaccompanied child without a word of English. They are everyday mums and dads willing to do anything, often the jobs no Australians will touch, just to put food and dignity on the table for their families. They are my heroes, my role models and this nation's future."

Boat migrants 'turned back to jail', despite Vietnamese promise (SMH, 24 May 2016) The same fate befell asylum seekers who were returned last year.

'Like returning a lamb to a den of lions’: Deo Nuyu's fight to stay in Australia (SMH, 1 June 2016)

Asylum seeker forcibly returned by Australia says his refugee claim was ignored (GA, 18 May 2016). "Sri Lankan asylum seeker says he was only asked his name, where he was from and why he came when he arrived at the Cocos Islands by boat."

Hazara asylum seeker says he is being sent back to Afghanistan (GA, 23 April 2016)

Desperate refugees arrested trying to return to Manus Island centre (SMH, 22 April 2016) "Three refugees who have left Manus Island to try and rebuild their lives in Lae after being granted refugee status have returned to the island, saying they feel safer in the transit centre."

Catching up on links:

Asylum seekers fear forced repatriations as Julie Bishop continues talks with Iran's Foreign Minister (ABC, 16 March 2016) | Iran would welcome back asylum seekers 'with pride', Iranian Foreign Minister says (ABC, 16 March 2016) Fortunately, the Minister said that it would only accept "voluntary" returnees. Unfortunately, that means the only way to get rid of them is to keep up the torture.

Taliban tortures Abbott government deportee (The Saturday Paper, 4 October 2014) | Hazara asylum seeker to be forcibly deported from Australia to Afghanistan (GA, 14 March 2016) | Australia’s folly returns Afghan Hazaras to torture and death (The Conversation, 15 October 2014) | Afghan minister for refugees and repatriation warns against forced returns (Kabulblogs, 28 February 2015)

Refugee: 'I fear that I will die' in Cambodia (SMH, 20 March 2016) (video)

Federal Government repatriates former military interpreter to Iraq, despite fears his life is in danger (ABC, 10 November 2015)

Asylum seekers could be forced into warzones under laws proposed by Federal Government, human rights lawyer David Manne warns (ABC, 21 October 2015)

633 asylum seekers turned back under Sovereign Border in last 18 months, Peter Dutton confirms (ABC, 6 August 2015) The twenty boats included 46 Vietnamese asylum seekers who were sent back to the country they were fleeing after being secretly held at sea for a month. Another must have been the boat that made it within 200 metres of Christmas Island before being towed back out to sea. (At least they made it back to Indonesia.) Another would have been the boat with 65 asylum seekers from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, includng a pregnant woman. More recently (March 2016) a boat containing Bangladeshi asylum seekers was turned around.

btw: Turnbacks under way when Indonesian waters breached, FOI documents reveal (GA, 11 March 2016). "Disclosure of previously blanked-out details from review of six Australian breaches of Indonesian territory puts end to two years of speculation."

Asylum seekers should not be sent back to Sri Lanka yet, say religious leaders (GA, 8 June 2015) | AFP providing support to Sri Lankan government department accused of torture (ABC, 4 August 2015)

Refused asylum seekers face personal data disclosure by immigration department (GA, 13 April 2015)

ETA:

Detention of 157 Tamil asylum seekers on board ship ruled lawful (GA, 28 January 2015) Our obligations still apply despite High Court win (SMH, 19 January 2016). "The High Court decision on the detention of Tamil asylum seekers at sea turned on a technical reading of statutory provisions, not an assessment of Australia's international refugee and human rights obligations." | Australia's high court questions legality of asylum seeker boat turnbacks (GA, 29 January 2016)

(Behind a paywall, but you get the gist:) Sinhalese asylum seekers' on-water claims accepted by UN (The Saturday Paper, 31 January 2015) "Asylum seekers sent back to Sri Lanka after Scott Morrison’s ‘on-water’ interviewing have been confirmed as refugees by the UNHCR."

Government defends decision to send four men back to Sri Lanka whose boat was intercepted as part of 'people smuggling venture' (ABC, 20 February 2015)

Royal Australian Navy personnel open up about trauma of seeing asylum seekers die at sea. Officers state that Navy vessels are being told not to board asylum seeker vessels until they reach Australian waters, and that one vessel sank as a result, with loss of life. One says that "Our vessel was delayed 15 hours for a boarding on one occasion and we got reports in from surveillance aircraft that that vessel had sunk 13 hours ago. All we found was probably a line about 70 miles long of bodies. We fished them out for as long as we could, 'til we were full. And that wasn't uncommon."

These incidents have been keep secret as part of Operation Sovereign Borders. When I said I believed that boats were still leaving Indonesia and that lives were still being lost, it seemed so abstract.

In September, the SBS news program Dateline reported on the torture and rape of asylum seekers returned to Sri Lanka. In late November, an asylum boat from Sri Lanka was intercepted near the Indonesian coastline and 37 asylum seekers were handed over to the Sri Lankan navy and arrested. At least one, Indika Mendis, had previously been tortured by Sri Lankan police, and has reportedly been tortured again by Sri Lankan authorities after his arrest.

Another involuntary returnee, Zainullah Naseri, states he was abducted and tortured by the Taliban after being sent to Afghanistan. However, the High Court prevented the deportation of a second Afghani who had been told he could avoid persecution if he changed jobs.

Cambodia says it will only take "20 or 10 or 50 or 100 [refugees from Australia] or something like this. Not 1000 as people have said", in exchange for an additional $40 million in aid (to one of the world's most corrupt governments). Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says the program will start with "four or five" refugees and build up from there. The UNHCR and Amnesty have condemned the deal and a coalition of human rights lawyers and groups have expressed particular concern for children. Cambodians have protested the deal: sex worker and advocate Sou Sotheavy points out that the country can barely take care of its own people, and says she doesn't expect the refugees will survive for long after they arrive. "Australia has abundant resources while we have few... this is difficult for me to understand."

ETA: This one dates all the way back to August: "While Syrian authorities are committing crimes against humanity including systematic killings and torture, Australia is doing the unthinkable – trying to send Syrians back home."

Serco, the company which runs Curtin detention centre, claims that high-profile visits such as Senator Hanson-Young's cancelled visit yesterday provoke self-harm incidents. Now, no statistics are kept on actual deaths in immigration detention; given that, I don't believe that any statistics are kept on self-harm incidents in immigration detention. If I'm right (and I have some Googling to do), Serco's assertion is meaningless; the real problem is that high-profile visitors report to the public self-harm and other damage done to detainees, such as the trauma alleged by Hanson-Young.

ETA: I was wrong; self-harm statistics are kept. In fact, there's an extensive report from the Commonwealth Ombudsman from last year - which nowhere mentions any impact from high-profile visitors. Rather, the factors causing self-harm are obvious: past trauma, prolonged, hopeless detention, isolation, overcrowding, and unavoidably witnessing other detainees harming themselves.

While the 157 Tamils were being held at sea, secret negotiations were taking place between the Australian and Indian governments regarding their fate.

What will happen next in the High Court case regarding the 157 Tamil asylum seekers will be determined on Thursday. The asylum seekers have been given limited or no access to their lawyers and other legal advice (and, apparently, no clean clothing).

The High Court challenge on behalf of the 157 asylum seekers held at sea will now focus on the legality of their being sent to India or Sri Lanka. Their lawyer: "The High Court will be asked to consider whether it is legal for the government to send the asylum seekers back to the country they are fleeing from or to a country where they face a risk of refoulment [ie being returned from India to Sri Lanka]." The interviewing of the asylum seekers by officials from India, a country which is not party to the Refugee Convention, is unprecedented of questionable legality.

The ABC explains:

• What we know about the 153 Tamil asylum seekers being detained at sea
  
• Why the fate of 153 asylum seekers is in the hands of the High Court

The stories of the 41 asylum seekers returned to Sri Lanka include violent political persecution and terrorisation by criminal gangs. The boat's passengers describe a mixture of good treatment and mistreatment by Australian authorities, including being punched , manhandled, and denied medical treatment. One passenger described the "enhanced screening" process: "I could not understand the language and the line was also very bad. I never had an opportunity to tell them what I wanted."

Reports of attempted suicides by ten women on Christmas Island have been dismissed by the government, with Senator Eric Abetz stating that only as "minor self-harm incidents" Trying to figure out what's really going behind the secrecy blanket is difficult, especially since "self harm" and "suicide attempt" are sometimes the same thing. The Shire President confirms that one woman jumped from a roof; she had been returned to the island against the advice of mental health professionals. He states that nine mothers, each of whom have a baby under one year of age and in some cases other children as well, have expressed their intention to take their own lives: "Each of the nine women are saying that they will do away with themselves because they see that the only way that their children can have a future is to be free in Australia and the only way that is possible is they take their own lives." OTOH, lawyers acting for some of the asylum seekers on Christmas Island state that "We have heard from our clients there that in the last day several women have attempted suicide or harmed themselves. They are in a state of utter despair. They are concerned about the health of their children."

Fourteen women, mostly mothers, are under continuous suicide watch by male guards. Four months ago pregnant asylum seekers on Christmas Island pleaded with visiting medical experts to have their children adopted. Babies on the island were suffering from skin infections and weeping sores.

Four families comprising fourteen asylum seekers, including a six-week old Australian-born baby, have been moved from the Inverbrackie detention centre in Adelaide to Christmas Island. This makes a total of 71 babies on the island.

Although far more adult than child asylum seekers are being held in detention, 23% of children are being detained while 18% of adults are.

Twelve asylum seekers, including five teenagers, have gone into hiding after two of their friends were returned to detention. Woodville High School students are campaigning for the release of the two Vietnamese teenagers.

The destruction of a victim of the Manus Island violence continues.

Last word goes to Gosford Anglican Church:

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