World Refugee Day is approaching (20 June), so I felt compelled to write a piece looking at the inhumanity of current Australian asylum seeker policy. As it is an election year, I also reveal what we can expect if Tony Abbott's Liberal government comes to power in September.
My two interviewees for this article were Mark Goudkamp, a long-time refugee activist and member of the Refugee Action Coalition, and Mohsen Soltany, who spent four years in detention after arriving in Australia as a refugee from Iran. (I have previously written about Soltany in an article for The Scavenger, which looked at how detention dehumanises asylum seekers.)
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“They’re not illegal. That’s a lie. You know it’s a lie”.
Mark Goudkamp
wanted to set the record straight. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, fronting a press
conference to unveil a billboard tallying so-called “illegal” boat arrivals
under Labor, was fuelling the “illegals” myth during his theatrics for the assembled
media.
Just prior to
the Perth press conference, a nervous Abbott staffer had warned refugee
activist Goudkamp to stay silent during proceedings. However, Abbott’s relentless
rhetoric tipped Goudkamp over the edge, prompting an interjection which was
widely reported
in the media.
Following the
conference, Goudkamp directly confronted
Abbott over his asylum seeker policy, and an argument ensued. “He was
clearly annoyed that we’d turned up, and disrupted what he thought would be an
easy escalation of hostility towards asylum seekers who arrive by boat”,
Goudkamp says.
It’s
understandable that Goudkamp’s presence elicits anxiety from Abbott’s inner
circle. He has been involved with the Refugee
Action Coalition for 13 years, and his scope of knowledge around refugee
issues is impressive.
Refugee activists
have had to remain vigilant during Gillard’s tenure and Abbott’s opposition.
Attacks on asylum seekers have been relentless; ranging from the restoration of
offshore
processing, an expansion of prison-like
detention facilities, and a host of policies which serve to demonise
refugees. Furthermore, the adversarial tactics of the Australian political
scene have diligently manufactured a distorted and hostile view of asylum
seekers.
Australians have been subject to propaganda which has successfully –
and conveniently - diverted their attention away from other domestic issues.
We can naturally
expect an intensification of political posturing around the refugee issue in
the lead up to September’s Federal election.
Pawns in the system
Mandatory
detention has long been the centrepiece of successive governments’ asylum
seeker policies, despite condemnation for atrocious and punitive conditions,
and the exorbitant
costs of operation. But rather than the “deterrent” that the government
claims it to be, mandatory detention is a political strategy.
Goudkamp
agrees. “I think mandatory detention is more about creating an ‘us and them’
view in the minds of the wider Australian public”, he says. “Now, the
perception in the minds of many Australians is that those incarcerated have
somehow done something wrong, when clearly they haven’t”.
Activists
from around Australia recently converged
on the Yongah Hill Immigration Detention Centre to hold a series of actions. The
sight of the massive facility, which is 80 km from Perth and cost hundreds of
millions of dollars to build, stirred alarm among campaigners.
“Even
seasoned campaigners were shocked to see the scale of this industrial
monstrosity, used to incarcerate people who’ve committed no crime other than to
seek protection in Australia”, says Goudkamp. He said that their presence gave
heart to those inside the complex, and helped to strengthen the movement.
A Four
Corners report recently uncovered the appalling living conditions endured
by asylum seekers in the detention facilities on Manus Island and Nauru. The
program spotlighted deteriorating mental health and rising incidents of
self-harm among detainees.
Mohsen
Soltany, who came
to Australia as a refugee from Iran, knows the despair of detention all too
well. His feet had barely touched Australian soil before he was whisked away to
endure four desperate years in immigration detention centres.
It has now
been ten years since Soltany languished behind the razor wire. To the outside
observer, his post-detention life is blessed: he has good friends, a beautiful
young daughter, has published an acclaimed book of poetry, and plays in a band.
But four years of mental anguish didn’t magically dissipate upon his re-entry
to the outside world. Wounds take time to heal, and Soltany is still tending to
his.
He is angry
that history is repeating itself.
“In Australia,
we have never learned from history”, says Soltany, who was detained in the
Howard era. “It’s sad that in Australia we’re not looking for any point of
humanity. We didn’t learn from the past - what we are doing is destroying the
human beings who ask for help”.
When September ends
Soltany says
he isn’t sure whether asylum seeker policy can deteriorate further, even with
the looming possibility of a Liberal Federal government come September. He
feels that Gillard and Abbott have similarly bleak offerings.
Goudkamp,
however, identifies a few areas where Liberal’s ruthlessness would trump Labor’s.
“It says a lot about Gillard that there is so little difference between her
policies and what Abbott has in mind. But, nonetheless, there are clear
differences”, he claims.
Abbott
intends to undo the tentative steps taken to review the circumstances of the 56
refugees with ASIO negative
security assessments, who presently face a lifetime of detention. He also plans
to turn
back asylum boats bound for Australia from Indonesia, with navy assistance.
This plan has garnered criticism from several corners, including the Indonesian
government and staff within the Australian Navy.
The reintroduction
of Temporary Protection Visas is also back on the cards. “Even those found
to be refugees would only receive temporary protection, without the right to
apply for family reunion or to leave the country. TPVs were devastating for
refugees during the Howard years, and actually led to more women and children
getting onto boats”, Goudkamp says.
Rekindling our humanity
Soltany has
seen Australian racism at its ugliest. “In Australian society, if you say
you’re a refugee, people look at you very negatively - they see it as very
ugly”, he says. “Unfortunately in Australia they are not looking at refugees as
human. Because anywhere that you tell people that you are a refugee, they look
down on you”.
Soltany is
right: refugees have been dehumanised relentlessly. “We have to tell people
where they [refugees] come from, that they are really human… they are the same
as me and you, there’s no difference”, he declares.
Soltany is as
human as it gets. His empathy for others runs deep; it cuts him to his core. He
is moved to continue advocating for refugee rights, but it’s not an easy fight
for him. It’s raw, and it’s personal. For him, the razor wire is physically
gone, but its legacy has weaved tight chains.
It is clear
that Soltany can’t truly celebrate, or even properly experience, his own freedom
until all others are free from detention too. And until then, he has resolved
to keep fighting for their rights.
Goudkamp
admits that the campaign has changed his life. “Once you start forming
friendships with refugees, you feel a personal attachment to the campaign”, he reveals.
He says that the moral and emotional aspects of the campaign are compelling,
precisely because of the current denial of basic human rights of real people
with real lives.
For him, being
active is not just about defending the rights of refugees. “It’s also an
argument about what kind of society we want to be part of”.
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Originally published June 2013 in Discordia online zine.
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Originally published June 2013 in Discordia online zine.
