Refugee Action Collective (Vic)

Refugee groups across Australia ask Minister Ruddock to allow independent monitors/legal observers into Baxter this weekend. Grave fears are held for the detainees inside Baxter. We believe that the level of paranoia being generated about the Easter protest could see ACM and DIMIA engineer mass repression of human rights.

Already it has been reported that the medical staff at Baxter believe that there will be a mass suicide. I believe this is nonsense, but that the staff consider this possible is a concern - and indicative of the level of hysteria present at the camp.

Baxter Camp will be locked down from Thursday night. No phone calls in or out. No visitors. All guards are being locked in for the Easter duration. Forcing guards and detainees into a lockdown for four days is a recipe for disaster. Already people are fearful having been threatened with deportation, separated from friends and moved in and out of compounds.

We call on the Minister to allow independent observers into the six compounds for Saturday and Sunday. This will have a calming influence on terrified detainees and put brakes on the behaviour of those guards with a propensity for escalating conflict.

DIMIA have ordered the incarceration in the solitary cells of the Management Unit (MU) of eight men determined by Greg Wallace to be troublemakers. This is the sort of summary pre-emptive punishment which leads to unrest.

"It is no coincidence that riots occur in a system that lacks accountability. We do not have riots in our detention centres because we have a riotous group of refugees; we have them because we run appalling systems". ... Professor Harding said that an autonomous inspectorate was needed for all Immigration Detention Centres.

Account of a visit to Curtin (the detention Camp run by Greg Wallace before he took over Baxter) by Western Australia's Inspector of Custodial Services, Professor Richard Harding. It is taken from a speech he gave to the International Corrections and Prisons Association on 30 October 2001:

"Minister Ruddock has been quoted in papers throughout Australian toady as saying that 'destructive detainees had been separated'. What he failed to make clear that these men were seized suddenly by guards, placed in hand cuffs and taken to solitary cells in Management Unit without explanation. By the 4th day in isolation they broke walls when staff refused to tell them why they were locked up and when they would be released."

The eight men placed in MU on April 5th were hand and foot cuffed for some hours. Their cells have one mattress on the floor, a camera watching their every move, one toilet under the glare of the camera.

They are allowed out of their cells three times a day for ten-minute periods for a cigarette. Last night for the first time a DIMIA staff member visited them to answer their constant inquiry as to why they have been isolated. She gave them forms telling them if they did not like solitary, they could sign for deportation.

There are allegations of assault documented by several refugee advocates who have been in phone contact with these men since the 5th of April which include a beating, hand and foot cuffing and mouth taping. Requests to both State and Federal police to investigate the allegations were met with refusal after five hours of calls.

We fear that what is happening to these men will happen to others. The Minister has made it clear that he wants all the detainees to leave Australia. This includes 1600 Timorese, living in Australia for over 10 years and despite pleas from Xanana Gusmao.

Afghani people are being threatened with deportation despite the perilous state of their country. Iranians are being threatened with forced deportation as they are the most fearful of the consequences of return. This week while Iraq is still being bombed, Minister Ruddock signalled that they are next on his list. We have grave fears that the Easter protest will be used as a pretext to intensify the deterrent measures already in place to force detainees to sign to return.

Please write, ring and email the Minister asking him to allow monitors in Baxter over Easter. Please add your name to the list of those urging the Minister to ensure that the detainees are not punished for peaceful protest.

Pamela Curr

Greens National Spokesperson for Refugees

Melbourne
15 April 2003