By Jane Salmon
The imminent bill must not be passed.
Imagine being so desperate that you flee the danger of war in an ever-worsening series of vehicles or vessels. Imagine then being trapped on the streets of a hostile foreign country. Imagine risking drowning when you don’t even swim.
Imagine then being trafficked to and tortured offshore in mouldy tents and containers in sweltering tropical heat for 6 years. All to deter others as vulnerable as yourself.
I have not lived through this. However, I have closely observed its impact on people I know.
Imagine being pressured by bouts of solitary confinement called Chauka. Imagine you were denied proper food, towels, soap, shoes and phones for years at a time.
Imagine “Lord of the Flies” misrule overseen by nationalist ex-army mercenaries. Rape survivors, the meek, literary giants, distressed, poised and violent people are treated with the same wholesale disregard.
The governments of these hired third nations have limited respect for or capacity to maintain human rights or infrastructure.
Imagine that you are denied anything stronger than Panadol or anti-depressants for any health conditions arising. Imagine losing teeth and recovering from broken limbs without proper care. Cats actually wander through treatment areas of the mosquito-infested hospital.
Imagine seeing people around you die of health neglect or depression. Imagine turning your face to the wall, ceasing to eat and giving up.
Imagine being besieged and your precious belongings upended. Imagine being bashed with iron bars while Australian officials watch on.
Imagine that when you make it to the mainland, you end up quarantined indoors for the next 24 months.
Imagine that for the next 3 years you are living on in the community in complete uncertainty. You are denied professional training and even your access to health care is disrupted.
This has happened to artists, restaurant workers, aspiring architects, winemakers, parents, tradies, educators and musicians who were warehoused on Manus from 2013. Nauru was not much different.
Imagine that requests for compensation are denied. Imagine that your life cannot really take off.
This is real. I have shared chunks of my life who have been through all of this.
Gentle, diligent and thoughtful people representing every kind of wisdom and heritage have been talked about as if they were murderers or rapists, not just hapless boat arrivals. They have been demonised as illegal though they are actually no such thing. Folk who observe the law, volunteer to fight bushfires and floods, pay taxes, donate blood, work in soup kitchens or build houses are being treated like criminals.
Then imagine that the Deportation and Surveillance Bill is passed.
The public debate is that until deportation you should live under curfews and even be surveilled by ankle monitor. New Zealand is full and you are dragged from everyone you know and everything you have established. You are forced to start all over again in a part of Canada or Finland that is frozen half the year.
That is what this Bill may lead to. This Bill is a threat to people I know well. The Human Rights Legal Centre and ASRC concur.
Let’s end (not extend) the harm of offshore detention.
Do not force immigrants to become an endangered and vulnerable underclass.
Do not force the foreign-born children of asylum seekers to remain stuck without rights or a future regardless of capacity.
Do not pass this discriminatory Bill please. It is just a sneaky iteration of a piece of legislation rejected by Senate earlier this year. The stubborn, racist and brutal Pezullo-trained Old Guard in Home Affairs never concede their mistakes or defeat.
See also:
Explainer: Labor’s brutal Deportation and Surveillance Bill
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