Inside Australia's Immigration Detention

After the judgment, I took another pile of documents served on me during the judgment back to my room.  Since the judge did not close my case, I thought I was safe.  The Immigration would not do anything to me while a contempt proceeding is hanging over their heads, I assume. I told friends whom I ran across that I won the case and was going out.  Everyone was excited.  They are always looking for any indication that they too might be able to get out one day. When I was packing my stuff in big plastic bags, guards rushed to my room and told me that I had to go immediately.  I was booted out of my room very quickly and chased off to the Property.  Being a second timer, I knew this would happen.  So I organised my belongings in my room before the judgment. In the Property, I had to wait for ages to get my suitcase back.  Of course, I was complaining that the failure to return my bags kept in the Property constituted an unlawful detentio...

Yesterday, I telephoned the Registry of the Federal Court to ask about something other than the judgment in my migration case and accidentally discovered that the Associate to my judge had sent an email to the Registry directing it to list my migration case for the judgment on Friday.  Woohoo!  I was told that I would receive a notice of listing in the afternoon.  Bravo! Guess what.  The notice did not arrive yesterday.  I don't know whose fault is that.  But my case does not seem to follow the plan in each and every step. Eventually this afternoon, actually after 5pm (!), I received a notice of listing with the orders of the court made in chambers yesterday.  His Honour is requiring the Minister to produce me to the court for the judgment.  Unusual.   Strictly saying, because I did not put the costs argument in my submissions, I should be in court for the costs argument.  But since I am not represented, there...

Good morning.  I normally write an email to you in the evening.  But today, I am sending you this early edition because I am going back to bed.  I am falling apart.  I found bleeding from the inside of my right ear and have a swollen jaw caused by the worn out filling of one of my left side teeth.  My crankiness must have come from the physical ailment.  I have to add these items to the list of my battlegrounds against IHMS (the health service provider). Yesterday, I received a few letters from IHMS in relation to my long-standing war on glasses.  IHMS and I have been fighting since November last year.  In short, I want new glasses and theyr did not want to give them to me.   The first round of the fight was concerned with an appointment to be seen by the optometrist who visits Villawood only once a month.  I won the first round last month.  But then, IHMS informed me that it would take 6 to 8 weeks for the delivery of...

I got some documents from the Immigration through FOI.  It seems my litigation is looked after by a senior legal officer in the legal section.  The senior legal officer is taking instructions from the Directors of cancellation branch etc.  Obviously, I was severely demoted from 2006 when the Director of the legal section was taking instructions from the First Assistant Secretary who reported to the Deputy Secretary who had a meeting with the Minister regularly.  I am very happy with my rapid demotion in the last 11 years.  Hopefully, I will be demoted even further in the next week or two. Today, I tried an activity entitled 'Music'.  In that activity, a lecturer (the same one as knitting and ESL) distributed a sheet of paper which the lyric of one of Adele's songs was printed with some words were deleted.  Then while we listened to the song, we were required to fill in the missing words.  That's not music.  That's dictation!   ...

My friend whom I call a 'problem child' here finally got a visa today and got out of here.  Thank goodness.  One less worry now.  Another friend eventually received a long-awaited notice today to be sent back to his country where some money he recently had got unexpectedly as inheritance or whatever is waiting.  Yesterday, another friend who is an overstaying tourist successfully negotiated with the Immigration about a visa to go back home.  Last week, my stateless asylum seeker friend got a visa and went out.  So people here are going one after the other.   But my judge is still on holiday... Grrrr! Decades ago, my Parter often ridiculed me by saying 'When Villawood Survivor is not happy, the entire world will know.'  That was not true at all but today, I decided to lodge a few complaints to let someone know that I was not happy.  So I went to the website of the Australian Human Rights Commission to make a complaint by an online co...

This morning, I collected from a guard my final submission to the Court which I had asked her to print out last night.  Then I immediately asked her to scan it.  She might have thought that I was bullying her.  But the Federal Court online document lodgment system does not accept a PDF file made by Google Docs.  So I have to print out a PDF file of my submission first and then scan it again to make another PDF file.  I was not bullying, really. Anyway, I filed my final submission this morning.  The remaining job for this migration case is to wait for the Registry to send me a service copy and serve on the other side.  It will probably happen on Monday.  After that, I will just wait for the judge to come back from holidays.  Since the court will resume on 5 February, he will start working from that week.  Given my case is seriously simple, it should not take so long to deliver the judgment.  But who knows. I finished st...

I met the flirtatious hairdresser this morning!  He has not been sacked after all.  The source of the false information was one of my good friends.  His nickname is 'Professor' because he is very arrogant but often what he says is completely wrong.  Ha ha ha.  Real professors will be most annoyed if they noticed how they are perceived by the general public.   Anyway, it's good to have the hairdresser back since if my lazy judge takes long to write up a judgment, I will have my hair trimmed next month again. Today, I went to the knitting class again to learn the latest topics in the detention centre.  Girls told me that a new policy on food was introduced today and now a visitor was allowed to bring food in for detainees.  After the knitting class, I asked about the new food policy to a detainee who collected everyone's signature to put the ABF on notice that we would institute a class action if the current food ban policy was not changed...

I heard a rumour.  A very, very disturbing rumour.  Serco's contract is terminated.  Well, that's not disturbing at all.  But the ABF is taking over the operation of Villawood!  It's so disturbing.  I even became feeling sick.  If it happens, then VIDC will be like 2006!  No way.  I gotta get out quick... I roughly finished my final submissions to the Court.  So I knocked off pending chores today.  I had my complaints here piling up so I wrote half a dozen of complaint forms in one go.  I had to push the lawyers in the Attorney-General's Department who have been making an excuse one after the other to postpone making a decision on my petition.  So I emailed them to let them know that I would file a judicial review application with the Federal Court seeking mandamus directed to the Attorney-General and withhold the service on him to see whether they would keep the promise to make a decision by the end of February....

It seems that the very flirtatious hairdresser got a sack this week.  The rumour is that two girls lodged sexual harassment complaints and those led to his dismissal.  Geez.  I had my hair cut last week.  No wonder he was depressed and saying that there was a workplace problem, detainees gave him a hard time blah, blah, blah. People working here seems to get sacked very easily.  I heard from guards that their colleagues were often get sacked because they fell asleep during the night shift.  CCTV cameras are everywhere except for toilets and they are monitored, not just detainees etc, etc.  Well, the Immigration is good at crucifying everyone.

I heard that someone escaped from MITA (Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation) a few days ago.  As of today, Villawood started a pat search when a detainee goes to and comes back from the Visits. I guess the escape from MITA involved a visitor and the ABF went crazy.  Oh dear.  Villawood has always been worse than prison but it really is even now.  What's the point of searching a detainee when going from the compound to see a visitor?  There is nothing in the compound because the centre does not allow anything to get into the compound.  Can anybody tell the ABF to use their brain?  Oh, they don't have one?  That's a bit of a problem. Today, someone from my compound got a visa.  It is the first day of the year but someone in the Immigration started working and decided to grant a visa.  That's a good start, I think.

I am not happy. The coffee shop in the Community is not open.  Still closed because there is no worker.  I thought there were plenty of applicants for that job, plus me.  I whinged about it to another detainee and was told that the security check usually takes a few weeks.  Security check?!!!!!  Just to make a coffee in a shop in the detention centre doesn't need a security check, does it?!!!!   It's just making espresso coffee!  Not brewing beer, you know?  What the hell is the security check for?!!!  I was amazed.   The detainee said that a barista handles boiling water so it is dangerous.  Well, boilers are in the dining rooms and we're always using them.  I have not seen or heard any accident or incident. We have kettles in the kitchen, too.  What's the difference?  Everybody here was well tested for that kind of risk.  Gee... There was another bewildering story.  One detaine...

On 22 December, I spent half of the day for telephone calls to all friends to whinge and cry and the rest of the day in bed at BITA (Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation) until at night.  The guards there talked to each other how difficult it is to win against the Minister in the Federal Court.  Apparently, they misunderstood that I had lost the case.  Bloody hell.  It's not difficult to win if the Minister's lawyers are not so incompetent as they were!!  Even then, I will win.  It just takes longer than it should have been.  Bastards. The ABF tried to fly me back to Villawood immediately after the hearing yesterday but I was too sick and tired and really did not want to travel.  So I went to the toilet with a sick bag and did not come out.  The guards seem to have considered to drag me out.  But one of the guards was a mature age law student probably one of the students whose exam paper I marked a few years ago.  She per...

I don't know which complaints I had made worked but now I can access the website of the National Justice Project!  It's the site which the Federal Court order refers to.  It seems that after i reported the block to the National Justice Project, it raised the issue of contempt with the Immigration.  I could also access the Australian Human Rights Centre of the University of New South Wales Law School and the Australian Immigration Daily News, too.  Phew.  But I still cannot access the law firms and barristers' chambers for human rights and immigration.  If I fail to get out on Friday, I will make a hell of a lot of complaints again. Today, I received the other side's submissions.  They did what I had thought that they would do.  Good.  I should be able to celebrate Christmas with my guinea pig... only if I can get to the Court though...  I have not heard anything about my escort!

I had a visitor today.  The place called the Visits is comprised of two sections.  One section is a big room for meeting visitors and the other is a place where there are a number of interview rooms.  When I had a chat with my visitor, I saw more than ten Sri Lankan people waiting to go into the interview rooms.  I saw a few faces of my friends.  I had a horrible feeling.  I was right.  They were served with a removal notice.  They are quiet and nice people and they are the most friendly in this centre.  I am sure anyone who meets them will like them.  Can't you keep them in this country? My next door neighbour (the other side from the one who had a big fight at the airport and came back) got a removal notice a few days ago.  She told me yesterday that she would leave today.  Guess what.  She is still in my next room.  Her Mum arranged a lawyer and got an injunction.  Really, the Imm...

Have you read the article about the delegation problem in the Immigration?  Were you able to access the page?  I can't!  Would you believe it?  The Immigration blocked the site after I accessed it! The Australian Human Rights Centre of the University of New South Wales Law School is now also blocked.  Law firms that accept pro bono brief in migration and/or human rights cases are blocked even though I can access the sites of all commercial law firms.  The websites of barristers chambers that accommodate barristers doing migration law and human rights law are blocked while those of other chambers are not.  Great....   Yesterday, there was a Christmas concert here.  I heard it was a beautiful piano concert.  Yes, I only heard about it after all finished.  I knew that there was a concert on 15th but I completely forgot because I had a deadline for filing my court document.  And as half anticipated, all sorts of human ...

Do you remember I wrote a few days ago that the barista of the coffee shop was going to be deported on Thursday?  It is Thursday today.  I gave him a farewell hug yesterday.  Then, I met him at the coffee shop today!!  It seems that the Property forgot to undertake the discharge process for him last night and when they realised it this morning, it was too late for the plane!!!  Another botched deportation.  No wonder the tax of this country is horrendously high... A botched deportation reminds me of the interesting story I read a few days ago.  It is about the Immigration's conduct which could potentially lead to mass botched deportation.  It is easy to understand even for a non-lawyer so you might want to read the article by yourself. http://migrationalliance.com.a u/immigration-daily-news/entry /2017-12-section-109-visa-canc ellations-without-proper-deleg ation-a-holiday-season-lump- of-coal-from-the-department. html Funny?  I...

Woohoo!  My next door neighbour came back!!  She came back in the  evening yesterday.  Her suitcase went to her country of origin which she had left when she was a kid but she didn't go there with her suitcase.  She seems  to have a big fight at the airport in Sydney. According to her, she went there with seven guards.  They recommended her to have water,  coffee, one after the other.  She drank some of them and soon became  dizzy.  She thought she had been drugged.  But she shook it off and  fought against the seven guards who tried to drag  her into the  plane.  Another seven guards turned up.  But she fought off.   I  remember my Japanese friend told me that my next door neighbour had had a  big physical fight against my ex-roommate Ms Serial Thief  once and the  emergency response guards (all male) had tried to break the fight and had  chased her in the basket ...

Last night at 1.20am, I was woken up by a guard.  The Property was  calling me.  Thank you very much for responding to my request after  the mid-night, bastard.  I could ignore the guard but I took the  opportunity since I had tried to access my belongings held by the  Property for the last three weeks in vain.   I took bottles of shampoo  etc to the Property to store in my suitcase.  I also checked both of my  bags (one is the suitcase and the other is my briefcase) held in the  Property.  I wanted to check whether my jewellery (although not really  much, basically my wedding ring which I thought I would sell when needed) was there.  Of course, that's gone. Now I know why the ABF officers who raided my home asked me again and  again where the precious things were.  One of them specifically asked  'Where is jewellery?' several times.  That must be what she wanted.   The ABF do...

Rainy day.  I have a garbage bag to wear so that I am not going to get  wet.  But I was given a raincoat in 2006 so my situation is worse than  2006. I put a request form in today stating: 'I need a court attire for my  Federal Court case against the Minister for Immigration on 21  December.  Dark suits and dark shoes are preferred.  However, any  business style is acceptable.'  I saw some detainee men walking in  suits from time to time so there must be something for court for men.   Then why don't they have something for women? My Japanese friend here went to the local court today as a witness for  the police.  She came back and asked me what happened in her court  case.  How could I know?  I didn't attend the court. According to her, she went to the court and waited in front of the  court room with another witness and a police officer.  The defendant  did not turn up as usua...

I was searching a few legal databases this morning and accidentally  found the article entitled: 'Truth, Justice and the Australian Way: Plaintiff S157 of 2002 v  Commonwealth'. My immediate thought,,, 'My piggies!!!'.   I remembered a remark by a  B&B owner where I often stayed.  When she learned my guinea  pig's name, Justice, she said, 'Appropriate name.'  I thought Justice  was a pretty name but may not sound so pretty for native English speakers. Anyway, what was I searching in the database?  Two pieces of  legislation. One, the amendment to the defective Migration Regulation  1994 newly allowing a student who won in the tribunal to apply for  another student visa even after the original student visa expired  while the lazy tribunal was mucking about without making the decision.   Two, the amendment to the faulty Migration Act 1958 to eventually  abolish the detention costs debts.  T...