Hazara Nation

G.L
Rachel Evans

On April 28, Labor PM Kevin Rudd’s government began to deport asylum seekers, beginning with a Chinese woman. The next day, two Indian men were placed in stage 1 of the Villawood immigration detention centre for preparation for deportation. One of the men has been held in detention for six years. He was also among the 61 long-term detainees whose cases Labor immigration minister Chris Evans had promised to review by the end of April.

“Immigration minister Chris Evans tried to deport a Falun Gong practitioner, but this was stopped”, said Ian Rintoul from Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) NSW. “Only Chris Evans has the power to deport detainees. So he deported a Chinese woman, and is trying to deport more.”

Evans’ actions speak volumes about the federal ALP’s policy on asylum seekers who enter Australia “illegally”. Rudd Labor is continuing with Coalition PM John Howard’s inhumane detention and deportation policy. This is not surprising, as federal Labor introduced the policy when it was in government in 1992.

Howard’s policy was brutal. Between 1999 and 2001, some 2000 children, mostly with family members, were held inside immigration detention centres. In response to this brutality, a refugee rights movement activated thousands of people, including in many rural towns. It mobilised thousands in protest marches, and protests outside the remote Baxter and Woomera detention centres in South Australia, solidarity hunger strikes, anti-deportation airport actions and in providing legal support to detainees.

Courageous actions, including hunger strikes, by refugees inside detention centres inspired the movement. Detainees went without food for days to win better conditions, self-harmed en masse, set fire to bedding and were stuck in solitary confinement for weeks for daring to protest.

Under John Howard’s prime ministership, the movement won some important concessions — children were removed from detention and the barbaric Woomera and Baxter detention centres were closed. In some cases, compensation was granted to former detainees. Yet the policy of mandatory detention of all persons entering or remaining in the country without a valid visa remains.

The newly elected Rudd Labor government inherited a popular dislike for the Howard government’s treatment of refugees. During last year’s election campaign, Rudd Labor promised to end the detention of an asylum seeker after 90 days. This promise was uttered in succession by then Labor shadow immigration ministers Nicola Roxon, Laurie Ferguson and Tony Burke. A 90-day maximum detention period would certainly be better than the indefinite detention that is the current policy.

To remind Rudd Labor of this promise, RAC organised a protest action outside Sydney’s Villawood detention centre 91 days after Labor’s election victory.

Unfortunately, some refugees rights groups have gone silent since Labor’s election to government. The A Just Australia organisation, for example, did not lend support to the RAC action — because, it was rumoured, the leaders of A Just Australia did not want to jeopardize their “relationship” with the new government.

The establishment press joined in the cloak of silence. Not one line was published about the RAC-initiated action.

The Rudd government has gotten rid of the detention centre on the Pacific island-state of Nauru. Perhaps this has fostered illusory hopes that Rudd Labor will move to scrap the mandatory detention policy.

But, five months after Labor’s election win, 4000 Australian islands remain excised from Australia’s immigration zone, including Christmas Island which houses a new and large refugee detention centre. Rudd Labor intends to replace Howard’s “Pacific Solution” with an “Indian Ocean Solution”.

Christmas Island, an Australian territory, is 2600 kilometres north-west of Perth. Its closest neighbour is Java, 360km away. The island’s new detention centre, built at the cost of $500 million, includes a high-security section, interview rooms and capacity to lock down each cell individually. It will be kept with sufficient staff to ensure it can be used within 48 hours’ notice at any time. It is also located at the far north-eastern end of the island, much more isolated from the local population than the old facility.

Prior to its election, the ALP also promised to review 247 detainee cases. This has since been whittled down to 61 cases. The 2007 ALP national conference promised to give work rights for bridging E visa holders. Federal Labor promised an end to temporary protection visa status and an end to private contracting of the management of the detention centres.

But there has been no action on the visas, and Global Solutions Ltd, the company that ran the detention centre under Howard, has had its contract renewed until December.

With Labor making only minor changes to Howard’s policy, we must continue the campaign to free all refugees and end mandatory detention.