Conditions in detention centres
Detention centres are being described as 'prisons' or 'concentration camps'. People are treated like prisoners in the respect that they have a set day usually consisting of work, school and labour and food comes only after you line up and receive ration tickets. Asylum seekers are being treated just like they have done something illegal, yet under the UN laws seeking asylum is perfectly legal, but all they are doing is waiting for acceptance into the country.
Pontville detention centre provides a clear image of how bad the conditions really are. A teenager who spoke to ABC News told the reporter that 20 teens sleep in bunk beds in dormitory style rooms and that they must line up for dinner, take it to their room and eat it, and then return to wash it and go straight to sleep.
Manus Island detention centre is no better, with Sale psychologist Jeanette Gibson claiming 'I couldn't believe that I was in Australia'. Around 500 people, including 50 children, suffered from some kind of mental health issue and around 12 people a day attempted to commit suicide each day.
This sort of thing happens in all detention centres around Australia. Asylum seekers become angry over their degrading treatment, denial of basic human rights and rejection of entry; only a few visas are granted. When spoken to, a group of Asylum seekers said to DIAC and Serco (reported in the global mail) that they were angry about:
Although the government portrays that they are helping the people to overcome this anger and settle down, the truth is quite the opposite. Guards in detention centres have been found to deport asylum seekers with violence; including placing them in a body lock that can cause asphyxia (position that severely restricts breathing). They has also been admittance to the use of tranquiliser sedatives to calm detainees. While the immigration department admitted this in 2010, four months later they denied it and claimed 'under no circumstances are chemical agents, including sedatives, tear gas, pepper spray of capsicum spray used in immigration detention'. the fact that they have actually listed specific chemicals raises suspicion that they may have actually used it (otherwise what was their need to list them all?). An asylum seeker who was present when there was a mass break out on Christmas island stated that the asylum seekers protested peacefully, but were met in return with beanbag bullets and tear gas.
To make matters worse some detention centres, such as Pontville, are not regularly checked and the one on Christmas island has been left to the point that there is now an asbestos risk.
Despite all of the facts, documentation and claims the government still does not address the issues as important, with one guard from the Christmas island detention centre denying every claim that was made by the asylum seeker interviewed and the information gathered from every other detention centre.
Conditions are bad, but the effects these conditions have on asylum seekers is worse.
Pontville detention centre provides a clear image of how bad the conditions really are. A teenager who spoke to ABC News told the reporter that 20 teens sleep in bunk beds in dormitory style rooms and that they must line up for dinner, take it to their room and eat it, and then return to wash it and go straight to sleep.
Manus Island detention centre is no better, with Sale psychologist Jeanette Gibson claiming 'I couldn't believe that I was in Australia'. Around 500 people, including 50 children, suffered from some kind of mental health issue and around 12 people a day attempted to commit suicide each day.
This sort of thing happens in all detention centres around Australia. Asylum seekers become angry over their degrading treatment, denial of basic human rights and rejection of entry; only a few visas are granted. When spoken to, a group of Asylum seekers said to DIAC and Serco (reported in the global mail) that they were angry about:
- 'the timeframe between being found to be a refugee and being granted a visa (due to delays in security clearance)'
- 'the timeframe between a negative decision and an independent merits review hearing'
- 'concern that UNHCR mandated were ignored in the decision making process'
- 'the lack of third country options for those on a negative pathway'
- 'the absence of perceptible change following the announced March 1, 2011 changes, which were supposed to speed up processing'
Although the government portrays that they are helping the people to overcome this anger and settle down, the truth is quite the opposite. Guards in detention centres have been found to deport asylum seekers with violence; including placing them in a body lock that can cause asphyxia (position that severely restricts breathing). They has also been admittance to the use of tranquiliser sedatives to calm detainees. While the immigration department admitted this in 2010, four months later they denied it and claimed 'under no circumstances are chemical agents, including sedatives, tear gas, pepper spray of capsicum spray used in immigration detention'. the fact that they have actually listed specific chemicals raises suspicion that they may have actually used it (otherwise what was their need to list them all?). An asylum seeker who was present when there was a mass break out on Christmas island stated that the asylum seekers protested peacefully, but were met in return with beanbag bullets and tear gas.
To make matters worse some detention centres, such as Pontville, are not regularly checked and the one on Christmas island has been left to the point that there is now an asbestos risk.
Despite all of the facts, documentation and claims the government still does not address the issues as important, with one guard from the Christmas island detention centre denying every claim that was made by the asylum seeker interviewed and the information gathered from every other detention centre.
Conditions are bad, but the effects these conditions have on asylum seekers is worse.