Workers concerned about conditions for asylum seekers on Christmas Island

Timothy McDonald reported this story on Tuesday, August 9, 2011 08:12:00

TONY EASTLEY: The High Court's decision will put the Government's proposed Malaysia Solution on hold for at least two weeks, but there's no let up to the protests at the Christmas Island detention centre.

Three asylum seekers have received emergency medical treatment after taking part in what's believed to be a hunger strike.

Kaye Bernard is the general secretary of the Union of Christmas Island Workers, which represents staff at the detention centre.

She's told reporter Timothy McDonald the Government needs to improve the situation on Christmas Island regardless of what happens in the High Court.

KAYE BERNARD: The system's been in crisis up here for quite some time. I think that's evidenced itself with the amount of protests and distress and reports that are coming through, and have been validated by the ombudsman, over quite violent self-inflicted self harm from people that have got severe mental illness.

This week we see a group of people that have come in on a boat with children who are laying out in a compound, up at Bravo Compound that was closed by Howard in 2005, that was found to be totally unsuitable for children.

We've penned up the family groups up there. And today we've had ambulances going to that condemned facility treating children who are totally traumatised.

Now, if you witnessed that in your day-to-day life as a worker you become traumatised yourself, and that's exactly what's happening.

TIMOTHY MCDONALD: We've heard that a number of the asylum seekers have been treated for dehydration. Have you come across any information that what's happening there is, in fact, a hunger strike?

KAYE BERNARD: Look people have come in that, you know, our members have reported to us that it's very, very difficult to sit and watch people that have made it a point to make a last ditch stand and a plea inside that detention centre, and have laid out since they arrived on boats night and day, with their children, as a demonstration against getting removed to Malaysia.

It's very hot here during the day and we've had torrential rain during the night. And they've laid there in complete hope that Australia would see different to sending them back to Malaysia, which I understand, they're completely scared of going to.

You know, a lot of the workers have raised this issue. We're tasked with the job. We do it. And that's for them to be processed here. They don't feel comfortable in corralling them up, herding them on to a plane to be sent off to a country where this Government's saying 'well the proof will be in the pudding'.

You know, these men that are working in these centres, and women, are really worried about what's going to happen. And, you know, we're asked to wait and see?

TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Is the High Court's decision going to give the asylum seekers more hope, or is it simply going to add to their uncertainty?

KAYE BERNARD: Well, a determination by the High Court, given all the information that will be provided to it, I guess is quite a worthwhile exercise.

But it doesn't address the situation that's here on the ground on Christmas Island. We've got record numbers of self harm in a system that's in crisis, prior to the arrival of these people, who are in a unique and very precarious situation.

The workers today said to me, the least they could to would be to get them, the family groups, out of the centre that Howard closed down and take them over into the family compound, to give these people some relief and to ease the pressure of watching them sitting in the middle of the Bravo high security compound that is not suitable for children.

You know, just on a pragmatic basis - on a day to day basis - something's got to happen like now, not in two weeks time. Just so these people are able to be cared for.

TONY EASTLEY: The general secretary of the Union of Christmas Island workers, Kaye Bernard, speaking to Timothy McDonald.

The Daily Telegraph August 07, 2011 11:10AM
 
HMAS Albany, operating under the control of Border Protection Command, intercepted a suspected 'irregular entry vessel' north east of Christmas Island this morning.
w Initial indications suggest there are 50 passengers and 2 crew on board.
The vessel was initially detected by HMAS Albany, operating under the control of Border Protection Command.
The passengers will be taken to Christmas Island for pre-transfer assessments, pending removal to Malaysia.

why forcing themselves into it?

why forcing themselves into it?

Malaysian laws impose harsh penalties like caning, etc. I do love caning Angel. Hehehe.

Why send them to Malaysia? To discourage potential illegal migrants from coming to Aus disguised as refugees/asylum seekers.
The big problem is the unaccompanied child. People smuggler could have been paid by a friend of a friend of a friend ..... of the parents.

ah okay

Updated: 08:36, Friday August 12, 2011

A senior United Nations official on human trafficking says authorities should do more to make people smuggling a high-risk, low-profit business.

Joy Ezeilo, the UN's special rapporteur on human trafficking, is set to visit Australia this year, and says restrictive migration policies are failing to deter people smugglers.

The UN says some two-point-five million people from 127 countries are trafficked into over 130 countries each year, while the International Labor Organisation estimates human trafficking is worth over 30 billion dollars a year to criminal gangs.

John Stuyfbergen August 11, 2011
Opinion

It is a pity that many, otherwise well-reasoned articles and discussions on the transfer of refugees to Malaysia diminish their reasoning by emotive words, often inferring despicable practices of the past.
Terms such as "people trading" and deporting "little kiddies to Malaysia" slant the debate and the results before we even know whether the "Malaysian solution" (combined with the re-opening of Manus Island in Papua New Guinea) is, in the end, correct in the fair treatment of the transferred refugees and effective in crushing the people smugglers' syndicates.

In this case, an emotive argument is not very helpful, as we have a purely practical problem that needs a pragmatic solution. If we wade through all the arguments, and as the High Court deliberates a challenge to the deal, we find that the Malaysian solution is the one that needs our support.

Listening to some faith-based institutions it could reasonably be argued that we should welcome all asylum seekers coming to Australia and let them settle in our vast country. Many secular-thinking people could well agree with this approach. The average annual number of refugees arriving by boat is a tiny fraction of our total immigration and either seems hardly worth worrying about or they should be welcomed as a small contribution to the regional problem of refugees and displaced persons.

On the one hand that could be one option, and no ethical argument can be made that our charity and welcoming should be limited to a set number of arrivals, especially if it is such a tiny number.
On the other hand more than 50 per cent of the population, if we accept the polls, rejects the above point of view.

At the same time, Labor holds on to the Malaysian solution, the Conservatives push for the well known Nauru solution, and no one, the faith-based institutions, the secular population, the compassionate thinkers, the political parties, or the populace at large seem to be the winners in this debate.

As each of the participants scrambles to put its point of view in the best possible light, it comes as no surprise that we seem to forget that the original and fundamental aim of the Malaysian deal is to stop the boat smugglers transporting highly vulnerable and traumatised people to Australian shores.

To do nothing risks families and children perishing at sea in substandard and leaky boats. And if we think that present boat arrivals at Christmas Island can be managed because it's just a case of the odd people smuggler, we should think again.

If it isn't the case yet, it won't be long before organised crime will consider people smuggling to Australia as an excellent return on their minimal investment. At the level of money they charge each refugee, compassion does not seem to play a role. Most likely a boat disaster would be only "collateral damage".
There is a possible long-term approach to achieve a regional solution, but the only immediate solution is the Malaysia deal — sending asylum seekers back to the end of the queue in Malaysia under strict, humanitarian and transparent conditions.

It was not that long ago under former prime minister John Howard when asylum seekers were considered queue-jumpers. We all wondered where, for heaven's sake, those queues were, as we, and rightly so, couldn't imagine a queue in front of an office somewhere in Afghanistan, Iraq or Somalia.

Apart from the fact that the simple word "queue-jumper" is an insult to any parent who is desperate to safeguard the life of their children, we now know that there is a queue of some 90,000 people in Malaysia who have been waiting for years to be accepted as legitimate refugees in another country. The acceptance of some 4000 of these desperate people is at least a genuine effort to assist in this problem.

Listening to the politicians talk, we notice how happily they criss-cross from one level of debate to another level, from the ethical to the emotional, from populist answers to leading opinion. They are for or against a Nauru solution, for or against the Malaysia solution, with every debate hoping to sway some voters.
In the end a government's task is to make a decision in the midst of a sharp diversity of opinions to break the nexus of the people smugglers' criminality. Let us hope that the Malaysian solution works and prevents any high-seas disasters from ever happening again.

John Stuyfbergen is a writer and former journalist. He is an academic at La Trobe University. His research covers the autobiographies of migrants and refugees.

delaying tactics

Before, easy for Aus to process them and send them to accepting countries like USA, Can, France, etc. Not anymore.

Reminds  me of the movie “Voyage of the Damned (1976)”.
Directed By: Stuart Rosenberg
Written By: David Butler

Often described as "Ship of Fools with a conscience," Voyage of the Damned is based on a true story. In 1939, the Nazis ostentatiously loaded a luxury liner with hundred of Jewish refugees from all walks of life. The ship then tried to drop anchor in Havana, Cuba-only to have its passengers refused entry by the Cuban government, in keeping with its super-stringent immigration policies. Vaguely remember they were also denied entry in USA and other countries. This was exactly what the Nazis expected to happen, and indeed wanted to happen. By having the refugees turned away from Havana, the German government could "prove" that the Jews were indeed the most unwanted race on earth, thereby justifying Hitler's extermination policy. The crosssection of humanity on board the ship includes the requisite big-time stars: Faye Dunaway as a monocle-sporting countess and Oscar Werner as Dunaway's society-doctor husband; professor Luther Adler and his wife Wendy Hiller; poverty-stricken Nehemiah Persoff and Maria Schell, who hope to be reunited with their "fallen" daughter Katherine Ross; disbarred attorney Sam Wanamaker and his family (wife Lee Grant, daughter Lynne Frederick); anti-Nazi captain Max Von Sydow; and so on. Representing the Cuban government are president Fernando Rey and bureaucrat Jose Ferrer; other Havana denizens include businessman Orson Welles and minister James Mason. Despite its morbid overtones, Voyage of the Damned ends on a faintly positive note. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Yes, indeed! These refugees are the most unwanted people on earth.  Except, of course, by the people smugglers.