Inside Australia's Immigration Detention

It was another exhausting day.  My room door was often (but not  always) locked regardless of where I was or where my room mate,  alleged Serial Thief was.  It was really inconvenient.  Sometimes, Ms  Serial Thief was in my room with all my stuff and the door was locked.  I could  not get in.  I had to go to the guards' station to ask one of them to  come to open the door. I was worried about my stuff in the locked room  where Ms S T was and no one else could entre.  What an arrangement... For the last couple of days, I have been writing my submissions for  the final hearing in the Federal Court.  I am trying to finish it off  before the first return.  Then I will be ready for the hearing to go  to pick up my little guinea pig.  This place is unbearable not only because of the  absence of my little piggie boy but because of the people here.  One of the guards  said that the demography had completely changed for the last four  years.  She said, 'They are not refugees.  You kno

I usually go to bed before 9pm.  It's 10:43pm.  Why am I still in the  computer room?  Because I cannot sleep.  The entire compound is up.   Partially because I went to the guards' station to tell them my  roommate was crying.  Well, probably everybody got up and out before I  took action since my roommate screamed like hell a minute before I  went to the station. What happened was a disaster for me... When I was in bed someone knocked on the door.  I have a habit of  ignoring a door knock.  Plus I was on the upper bed of a bunk bed.  It  is not easy to go down so I ignored.  My roommate went to the door  and probably went out.  It seems there were some furious people came  to complain to my roommate.  She seems to have stolen someone's  mobile phone.  After a few loud voices, she came back to my room and  said 'Junkie'.  Then the complainants blew their top, it seems.  I  heard someone rushed into  my room followed by screaming and yelling for  a moment.  I tho

Yesterday's lunchtime, detainees launched the protest on food  quality.  They complained that foods served here were the same every day.  At the dinner  time, protest/boycott  continued.  The ABF did not come to talk despite  that Serco central management promised to arrange the ABF to come to  talk.  But the dinner menu was different from most days.  Today, again  very different from a usual  meal.  Detainees got satisfied and the  protest ended.  I could not believe it!!  Never happened in 2006.  No  matter what detainees said, everything was just ignored in 2006.  Now, the ABF  act in the same way as everyone did in 2006 but apparently, Serco acts  differently. Yesterday, I made a complaint about the stealing to every possible  person.  My case manager of the Immigration simply passed my complaint  to the ABF.  The ABF which received my complaint form ignored it just  as usual.  But a Serco guard who received my complaint in person  telephoned his boss and someone from the cen

I  usually got up around 5:30am and use a computer until 7:30am then go t o brekkie.  This morning's job was sending an email to the Court  informing that I submitted the Amended Originating Application and  asking the court for arranging a pro bono lawyer for an early hearing  before Christmas.  I told my intention of this application to the  Minister's expensive lawyers last week so they must be happily  negotiating with the Minister for extra fees. I have not been able to assemble my legal team since my faulty pro  bono solicitor stuffed up.  My Partner has been furious against the lawyer.   I am not.  I used him knowing that he was liable for malpractice as a  migration agent.  One of my former colleagues in a law school taught  students 'if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys'.  You can't be angry at  a monkey. Anyway, one of the public interest clearing houses and a legal aid  that I applied for assistance 17 days ago will get back to me shortly.   I asked th

Section 256 of the Migration Act 1958 requires the detention centres  to provide reasonable facilities to take legal proceedings against the  Minister.  As long as I am aware, this section has never worked.  It  certainly is not working in Villawood now. The Federal Court provides the forms in the Word format.  The  computers here do not have Word.  There is a free software called  Apache Open Office and I suspect that the Department will say it is  equivalent to Microsoft Office.  However, even though the name is similar, we  cannot edit Word documents with Open Office.  It is just a text  editor.  The only way I discovered to deal with a Word doc is to use  Google docs online.  But what Google docs can do is limited and  particularly so with the outdated Internet browser.  Furthermore, I  often cannot access Google docs, either. The detention centre's outdated Internet browser does not allow me to  attach more than one file to an email.  The Internet is cut off  automaticall

Today, I completed my amended originating application to the Federal  Court which I was working on for the last few days.  The originating application  is, say, something like a statement of claim and the  amended originating application is its version 2, so to speak. Since I wrote the originating application before I was given a notice  of visa refusal and asked my Partner to file it when the ABF came to my  unit, the contents of the originating application were very general.   It was based on  my guess as to what the Department may write in the  reasons for the refusal decision.  It was good enough to file in order  to prevent the Immigration from deporting me but far insufficient to  go to a trial.  So I completely refurbished it. The Department of Immigration arranged the Minister to make a decision  personally in my case probably because the Department believed that it  is more difficult to appeal from the decision of the Minister than a  decision of a Department officer.  Wh

Two days ago, the docket judge asked the Minister's lawyers for my  whereabouts. The Minister's solicitors did not respond yesterday.  It  was weird.  No litigator wants to make a judge wait.  Today, they kept  silent.  I was getting worried.  Something was wrong.  And then in the  late afternoon, they broke the silence.  They wrote that they were  seeking instructions from the Department of Immigration and hoped to  be able to respond to the queries on Monday.  Hello?  Doesn't the  Department know where I am?!  Of course, they know.  Why can't they answer the judge's query immediately?  Are they scheming  something?  Am I safe?  Everything looks suspicious now... There is a Japanese woman in Villawood.  She is a few years  older than me.  We often have a chat.  Today, she, too, told me that the  Department looked suspicious.  She is an interesting person. She came to Australia on a student visa eight years ago.  She had a  partner here.  Her partner beat her ev

Today, I got an email from the Australian Human Rights Commission.  It  was not about my complaint of the arbitrary detention but about a  racial discrimination.  Actually, when I completed a complaint form to  the Australian Human Rights Commission about an arbitrary detention  yesterday, I also filled in a complaint form under the Racial  Discrimination Act 1975 because there is no input method  editor installed of my native language in the computers of the detention centre and I want  it. As explained yesterday, the Australian Human Rights Commission  normally does not respond for weeks but I got a response in a day.  An  investigation officer wrote to me that she had been assigned to my  complaint as a priority case!  She wanted my confirmation of the  outcome I want.  Her email gave me a good laugh.  From their reaction  yesterday and today, it is obvious that the Australian Human Rights  Commission was very, very upset by the acts of the Immigration.  Oh,  funny.  Well, it is

I am getting tired. I am too old for detention.  I did not feel like working this morning.  So I decided not to work but instead to fill in  a complaint form which does not require a brain. The recipient of the  form was the Australian Human Rights Commission. Here is the copy.      I am the victim of arbitrary detention in Villawood Survivor v      Commonwealth (DIAC) [20xx] AusHRC Xxx as determined by the then      President of the Australian Human Rights Commission.  My home was      raided on 2 November 2017 and I was taken into detention again.      I am sure the Commonwealth (DIMP) failed to consider the less      restrictive way of detention again despite the recommendations      made by the Australian Human Rights Commission. I am sure that      the Commonwealth use of force and restraint is arbitrary, too. Short and sweet?  It's actually longer than what I originally thought  I might write, namely, 'The Commonwealth has done it again!' The Australian H

This morning, I had a breakfast with a young man who asked me where I w as from.  We had a little chat. He is a Sri Lankan Tamil.  His protection visa application was refused  and was finally determined by the High Court.  So he is in trouble.  I  asked him whether he could go back to Sri Lanka and he said 'No'  immediately with a scared look.  He is a genuine (rejected) asylum  seeker I rarely see here now. He has a lawyer who is doing something for him.  I could not understand  his English so I do not know whether he is applying for a Ministerial  intervention or something else.  But his lawyer is doing something so  he should be fine, for the moment. He is a lovely young fellow in that when he stood and went to get a  cup of tea, he brought a cup of water together back to the table for  me voluntarily.  Asylum seeker men usually act like that.  I met many  in 2006.  Since then, every time I saw on TV a Government advertisement  'Stop Violence Against Women' or

Yesterday, my guinea pig boy became five months old.  So I sent  an email to my friend who is looking after my piggie and asked her to give  a cuddle to him from me.  She sent me his photos today.  He now looks more  matured.  He is growing up well.  That's what I thought when I looked  at today's photos.  Maybe all in my mind since it's only the eleventh  day since I saw him last at home.  But my piggie in the photos looked less  confident than before.  Again, it may be all in my mind but it broke my  heart.  I have to get out of here to go to pick him up. I started checking the Federal Court's database and discovered that my  case was docketed to a good judge who has a track record of trying to  save even fairly hopeless applicants.  (My case is an easy case for me though.)  He usually works quickly, too.  In cases  like mine, some judge could reserve the judgment and sit on it for a  year.  I do not want that.  This judge, probably delivers the judgment  in a month