2018-08-16
By Chris Johansen, GI Co-editor
Since becoming The Greens spokesperson on immigration, Nick McKim has made several trips to Nauru and Manus Island to gain first-hand knowledge of the asylum seeker detention centres there. He shared his experiences in a presentation at the Perth State Library on 6th June. On his initial visits to Manus Island he could not access the asylum seeker compound, which houses only men, as it was located within a Papua New Guinea military compound for which he could not gain an entry permit. Eventually though, he was able to, and thus met up with the detainees, many of whom had been languishing there for over five years.
Those of us with concerns about Australia’s asylum seeker policy have heard of the sheer cruelty of these detention centres, even though only snippets have appeared in the mainstream media. Nick was able to give a first-hand, and inevitably graphic, account of the recent situation on Manus. His impressions from his brief visits were reinforced to us on 18th June with the Perth screening of the film ‘Chauka: please tell us the time’. This provided an inside view of the day-to-day lives of Manus inmates, including the instances of torture, assaults, medical neglect, etc., as captured on the smart phone of Kurdish journalist-cum-poet and Manus detainee Behrouz Boochani and sent to Australia for processing into a documentary. And, on 3rd August there was a launch of Behrouz’s book, ‘No Friend but the Mountains’, again transmitted to Australia by mobile phone for publication here. The large crowd attending the launch at the Saga Bookshop, Fremantle, could also interact with Behrouz via a phone hook-up to Manus.
Nick McKim reiterated that the obvious main aim of these offshore detention centres is to act as an ongoing deterrent to anyone considering ‘illegal’ entry to Australia by boat. Another aim is to reduce number of detainees by inducing them to return to the countries from which they fled, seemingly by making their lives even more miserable than they were in the places from whence they fled. However, there is no obvious intention to completely empty the camps as the idea seems to be to maintain an ongoing example of what happens to anybody ‘illegally’ attempting to reach Australia by boat. Much the same way that the USA indefinitely maintains suspected terrorists without trial in Guantanamo Bay.
There has certainly been no rush to settle those found to be genuine refugees in other countries. Processing of asylum seeker applications has been inordinately slow (e,g, under an agreement with the USA), and offers of other countries to take them rejected (e.g. New Zealand). The indefinite detention, with no light at the end of the tunnel, has acted as a ‘drip-drip-drip’ type of torture, for those eventually found to be genuine refugees (i.e. most) and those not. It is estimated that some 20% of inmates are now mentally ill. Eight of Manus detainees, and four on Nauru, have so far died, mainly through suicide but also externally applied violence and medical neglect.
In 2016, the PNG Supreme Court ruled that the Manus centre was illegal and unconstitutional, and should be closed. In October-November 2017 the Australian Government tried to do this by building alternative accommodation in the Manus capital of Lorengau. However, the inmates refused to move fearing violent attacks by locals, which had happened previously (e.g. Reza Bharati). So, the Australian Government tried to starve them out, by cutting off food, water, electricity and medical supplies. However, this didn’t work, as the inmates, on hearing rumours that this may happen, had hoarded supplies and built rain water catchment systems. Eventually though the notorious PNG ‘Mobile Squad’ chased them out with batons and other forms of violence. However, on reaching the so-called alternative accommodation it was found to be only partially built.
Nick McKim revealed something that those us concerned about offshore detention did not realize. The reaction of the Manus detainees to the brutality and torture that they had been continuously subjected to was one of non-violence, even to the point of remaining polite to their captors no matter the provocation. Nick described this behaviour as an ‘anarchic collective’ mobilized by informal but generally accepted leaders. In addition to the likes of M.K. Gandhi, M.L. King, etc. The Greens could draw on the experiences of the Manus detainees in strengthening their non-violence pillar. They have indeed given us a valuable gift and so we should feel obliged to reciprocate by doing everything we can to relieve them of their ongoing plight.
But how has Australia ended up as a patron of torture and concentration camps? All the more surprising when one considers how the otherwise conservative Fraser Government facilitated the arrival and resettlement of Vietnamese boat people in the 1970s. Essentially, the 9/11 terrorist attack. Xenophobic politicians used this as an excuse to claim that they are the ones best suited to ‘protecting our borders’. Asylum seekers, especially those arriving by boat fleeing conflicts involving Muslims, were conflated with ‘terrorists’; e.g. the Tampa incident. This allowed latent racism to emerge, into what is now blatant racism at the highest levels. For example, the minister until recently responsible for immigration, Dutton, wants to fast track entry of white South African farmers while continuing to cast aspersions on non-white, non-Christian asylum seekers.
The former PM, Tony Abbott, backed by his then Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, successfully embedded slogans like ‘stop the boats’, ‘break the people smugglers’ business model’, into the Australian consciousness, converting the ALP in the process. However, there are alternative pathways for dealing with these slogans and our response to people seeking asylum.
Firstly, regarding ‘business models’, Government sleuths regularly claim success in infiltrating terrorist groups and preventing imminent terrorist incidents. Not that I’m in any way a sleuth but I would imagine that it would be much more difficult to penetrate a terrorist group than a people smuggler network. All that is needed for the latter is to deploy decoy asylum seekers and wait for smugglers to take the bait.
And, for ‘stopping boats’, there are many options. The first one is to look up how Malcolm Fraser dealt with Vietnamese boat people. Establish processing centres in transit countries and liaise with those countries in preventing departure of rickety boats overflowing with refugees (electronic, aerial, satellite surveillance capability now available makes this increasingly feasible).
The Abbott Government added boat ‘turn backs’ to its anti-asylum seeker arsenal. These are simply illegal according international law and should be ceased for that reason alone. Forcibly changing course of a boat in international waters is akin to hijacking. The Government claims that turn backs save lives. Logically, however, if a rickety boat is required to retrace its journey over dangerous seas the threat to lives would seem at least doubled. However, all of this turning back is done in secrecy so the fate of any vessels intercepted is not disclosed to the public. Even if there is only partially effective asylum seeker processing in transit countries for the few boats that may make it Australian shores, again, international laws and conventions state that the asylum seekers should be processed here.
The asylum seeker problem is a global one, which needs to be addressed collectively as a global community. The UNHCR was established to coordinate this but, unfortunately, Australia has alienated itself from this body through its unilateral approach to refugee policy of the previous five years.
Further, much more needs to be done in tackling the reasons why people seek asylum in the first place, especially by wealthy nations like Australia. Our outgoing Foreign Minister seemed reluctant to speak up about human rights violations forcing people to seek asylum (e.g. Myanmar, Cambodia, Philippines, Israel/Palestine) to avoid being seen to be involved in the internal politics of other countries. That there will be increased numbers of climate refugees into the future is inevitable, but the Australian Government still inhabits a world of climate denial. Our foreign development assistance budget continues to decline and thus our potential to improve lives in refugee source countries, rendering people there all the more likely to seek refuge.
Most importantly, the narrative of the Government and their supporting media needs to change, from emphasizing the supposed nexus between border security, terrorists and asylum seekers towards the general benefits of welcoming people from other cultures, including refugees, that was on the ascendency at the end of the last century. This descent into reliance on cruelty for political reasons – creating straw man threats – is destroying the soul of this nation.
Header photo: Nick McKim with fellow senator Jordon Steele-John and Perth candidate Caroline Perks, at the presentation on 6th June. Photo credit: Georgia Blackburn