After I was handed over to the NSW team of Serco in Kempsey, I gave up having any sleep in the van. It was just impossible. So I decided to gather as much information as possible about the survival in Villawood by asking a question to the Serco girls. We also had a chat about the route to Villawood, the estimated time of arrival and so on. They told me that: there was no breakfast scheduled in this transport or in any other transport these days so they would miss out breakfast; that was the standard way these days; one of the girls got a call from the company a night before while having a shower and rushed out to get into the van to come to pick me up so that she had no preparation etc.
After having these chat, the girls fell asleep. I felt so bored that I decided to have an early breakfast at about 4am with a pack of the sandwich which I had been given as a dinner at the police station. When I was almost finishing my half-dehydrated cheese sandwich, the Serco girl sitting next to me woke up. Since she would not be able to have a breakfast, I gave her a pack of biscuit from my dinner pack comprised of a pack of sandwich which I had eaten, a small orange and two packs of biscuit. The Serco girl shared the biscuit with another girl who also woke up by that time.
The NSW team did not stop at any police station, just parked on the roadside, changed a driver and continued driving. Since I wanted to get to Villawood as soon as possible to give a call to my Partner, it was good.
Sometime after the sunrise, all members of the Serco NSW seem to have agreed to have coffee from Hungry Jacks. The Serco girl next to me asked me if I wanted her to buy me a coffee. Of course! So I had a morning coffee on her shout. Later when I arrived in Villawood, some other detainee told me that there were a number of nice guards working to provide escorts and it was a fairly common practice for those guards to buy coffee or give a cigarette to the detainee they were escorting. That detainee also told me that there were a number of guards who did not use handcuffs at all although there were some nasty guards who not only used handcuffs but did not cover them in the public place even though the rule was to cover handcuffs in the public place.
It seems that the rules of handcuffs are applied reasonably flexibly by some of the guards but not by others. Cxx told me that he thought it was ridiculous to handcuff a 75 year old lady because she would not escape and even if she tried, he would have had no difficulty in catching her. Nonetheless, he handcuffed her because it was the rule.
He also told me that he put handcuffs on a man who could not even walk due to his medical condition. Cxx had to carry him into the van because he could not get into it by himself.
A 2009 High Cour ruling resonates in my head. The High Court of Australia in the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship v SZIZO (2009) 238 CLR 627 decided in respect of certain provisions of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) that ‘Notwithstanding the detailed prescription of the regime’ ‘and the use of imperative language it was an error to conclude that the provisions’ 'are inviolable’.
Anyway, my travel to Villawood continued until around 12pm due to the Sydney's traffic. The traffic jam continued even at the gate of the Villawood detention centre since there was a queue to go through the gate. I was eventually dropped off at the reception of the detention centre maybe at about half past twelve.
After having these chat, the girls fell asleep. I felt so bored that I decided to have an early breakfast at about 4am with a pack of the sandwich which I had been given as a dinner at the police station. When I was almost finishing my half-dehydrated cheese sandwich, the Serco girl sitting next to me woke up. Since she would not be able to have a breakfast, I gave her a pack of biscuit from my dinner pack comprised of a pack of sandwich which I had eaten, a small orange and two packs of biscuit. The Serco girl shared the biscuit with another girl who also woke up by that time.
The NSW team did not stop at any police station, just parked on the roadside, changed a driver and continued driving. Since I wanted to get to Villawood as soon as possible to give a call to my Partner, it was good.
Sometime after the sunrise, all members of the Serco NSW seem to have agreed to have coffee from Hungry Jacks. The Serco girl next to me asked me if I wanted her to buy me a coffee. Of course! So I had a morning coffee on her shout. Later when I arrived in Villawood, some other detainee told me that there were a number of nice guards working to provide escorts and it was a fairly common practice for those guards to buy coffee or give a cigarette to the detainee they were escorting. That detainee also told me that there were a number of guards who did not use handcuffs at all although there were some nasty guards who not only used handcuffs but did not cover them in the public place even though the rule was to cover handcuffs in the public place.
It seems that the rules of handcuffs are applied reasonably flexibly by some of the guards but not by others. Cxx told me that he thought it was ridiculous to handcuff a 75 year old lady because she would not escape and even if she tried, he would have had no difficulty in catching her. Nonetheless, he handcuffed her because it was the rule.
He also told me that he put handcuffs on a man who could not even walk due to his medical condition. Cxx had to carry him into the van because he could not get into it by himself.
A 2009 High Cour ruling resonates in my head. The High Court of Australia in the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship v SZIZO (2009) 238 CLR 627 decided in respect of certain provisions of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) that ‘Notwithstanding the detailed prescription of the regime’ ‘and the use of imperative language it was an error to conclude that the provisions’ 'are inviolable’.
Anyway, my travel to Villawood continued until around 12pm due to the Sydney's traffic. The traffic jam continued even at the gate of the Villawood detention centre since there was a queue to go through the gate. I was eventually dropped off at the reception of the detention centre maybe at about half past twelve.