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...

Day 100 started normally in Villawood despite that I was supposed to be in Queensland by the order of the Federal Court.  Well, there was nothing I could do.  So I went to the Gym and learned a new way of using one of the machines from a trainer. After coming back from the Gym, I checked my emails.  There was an email sent by the Registrar but no doubt authored by a very unhappy judge!  His Honour required 'a suitably senior Immigration official' to swear an affidavit on the Minister's failure to produce me to the Court in Queensland.  Clear indication that a fun time ahead!! The judgment was by a video conference.  Surprisingly, I was allowed to bring my mobile with me.  The court must have told to the Respondent that I should be able to have my mobile with me.  I needed it just in case the immigration hands in another notice of refusal to me immediately after the judgment.  If it happens and I cannot contact anyone, I might be...

I was told this morning that the Immigration will fly me tomorrow with no wallet, no credit card, no money, no mobile, no computer, no key to the home, no nothing.   I seriously considered whether I should apply to the court for a variation of the order which the judge made on his return from holidays on Monday.  The order the judge made is that the Respondent produce the Applicant to the Court for the judgment in Brisbane.  What can I do if I get the order I am seeking, namely, the Applicant be released from detention forthwith?  I will be thrown out to the street with no money, no card, no mobile, not even the key to my home!  Contacting here and there and try to prepare for all the possibilities, my day has gone.   Then in the evening, I received an eye-popping email from the lawyers for the Respondent.  I am copying the first three paragraphs. 'We refer to the above matter and the Orders made Xday February 2018, requiring ...

Last night, I had a headache and could not sleep.  So I went to the guards' station and asked for paracetamol.  The guard telephoned a nurse who was on a break and would not return for another five minutes.  So I waited.  The guard called the nurse again but this time, the nurse was on the phone with someone.   According to the guard, one nurse is receiving all calls from all detention centres in this country so that it could take long for her to get a permission to give me paracetamol.  The guard put the phone on hold and waited for five minutes.  No signs of the nurse picking up the guard's call.  So I decided to fill in a complaint form.   I wrote the first complaint form without using my glasses.  I could not see anything well but usually, my writing is still legible.  But since it was very uncomfortable to write anything without actually seeing it, I took the case of my reading glasses out of my bag, opened the c...

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...

Yesterday was a disaster.   After I sent you my email, put my medical request form and complaint forms in and whinged to a manager who was unluckily wandering around, I went back to bed.  After a while, a guard came to get my signature.  It was another issue which I may tell you some day.  Anyway, the guard noticed that my face was swollen!  I thought that's bad.  I didn't want half of my face paralysed.  So I went to the guards' station.  One of the guards jumped up when she saw my face (which I did not think that bad...) and persuaded a nurse to see me, thank goodness.  I went to see a nurse in the Medical Centre.  At first glance, she told me that she could tell my face swollen.  She gave me Neurofene and paracetamol and put a request for a dentist in.  She said that it was not her who decided an appointment and detainees were waiting for a dentist for years.  I thought that might be the case.  ...

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...

As you must have noticed, I was really cranky yesterday.  The culmination was at night when a guard came to tell me that she had put a new girl in my room.  Of course, I said 'No'.   The guard asked me whether I wanted to speak to a manager.  I thought I would get the one whom I always speak to first thing in the morning next day rather than speaking to an unfamiliar one at night.  But I changed my mind when I was filling in a complaint form.  So I grabbed the manager of the day.  I told him that I was unhappy and gave him an unhappy stare.  He was mumbling one thing or another but soon agreed to do something in the morning.  Since I am not unreasonable (even though I may not be reasonable), I agreed to put up with a roommate for a night.  But when I came back to my room, the roommate came with her friends and collected her belongings and left.  I could not understand why the supposedly new girl had friends here and a...

Even the High Court justices heard migration cases in January but my Federal Court judge is still enjoying holidays.  It is February but he is still on holidays.   The High Court listed for the judgment in a migration case next week but my case in the Federal Court has no future listings because my judge has not even started working this year yet.  You are right.  I am cranky today. By the way, the High Court case which will be delivered next Wednesday is the Falzon case.  So if you are a migration lawyer, you have to keep an eye on the High Court page (www.hcourt.gov.au) next Wednesday. The Minister seems to want the public voting to select judges.  My inclination today is the partial support for the Minister's idea.  I propose a voting to strike off the judges of the Federal courts before a voting to select the State Courts judges.  Lazy judges should be struck off!  Yes, I am cranky today.  But I am also interested in w...

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, people were upset because three very peaceful pleasant guys had been taken to Christmas Island at 4 am this morning. One of them is a young black overseas student from an African country.  He was here at one time with her sister.  His sister got a bridging visa, I think, last year.  His application was knocked back.  He went to the court yesterday and was told that he would get a decision within 24 hours.  Before that time comes, he was taken to a remote island where no one can contact him.  Isn't that great?  Someone told me that if he wins, the Immigration will bring him back.  But I am not sure.  We will not be notified by the court whether he wins or not and he is not contactable (at least at this moment).  So no one will know anything from now on until and unless he gets back on the Internet from some place in the world.  I do not like the sneaky way of treating a very young overseas student.  Student...

It was an extremely busy day.  The problem was that I attended four activities without giving up my normal routine of having coffee and reading newspapers.  Every activity starts at half past and finishes at quarter past.  So during these fifteen minutes break, I rushed back to my compound to work on emails.  I served my final submissions on the other side, knocked off the last assessment of the online course and so on. Other than ESL and circuit training at the Gym, I tried one science(-like) course and the movie club today.   The lecturer of the science(-like) course showed us a TV program which was concerned with scientific research of the illicit drug use and its effect.  The real drug users participated in the experiment.  I learned the kinds of commonly used illicit drugs, how to use them and the effect of them....  For an ignorant person from a country where the drug control is almost flawless, all the information was new....

It's Day 88.  Still one week before the Federal Court will resume the hearing.  Some judges subcontract (?!) writing entire judgments to their Associates but in many cases, judges write the conclusion by themselves.  So chances are, until and unless my judge, after coming back from holidays on 5th, starts and finishes writing something, I will be here.  My judge is not the slowest worker amongst the ones who hear migration cases in Queensland.  But he proved to be lazy last year so I am worried....  The slowest worker in Queensland is definitely my other judge.  I have a pending case against some Government organisation in the Federal Court.  I filed the case in 2016 and have been waiting for the judgment since May last year!  This dispute occurred in March 2009 and ended up in the Federal Court first time in 2013.  I won the case in 2015.  After the remitter, the Government organisation made the same decision agai...

Last few days, I have been going through my old emails concerning my FOI requests to the Immigration and chasing the outstanding requests.  The Immigration's FOI officers have never been reasonable for the last 14 years but the recent ones are exceptionally bad!   My FOI requests always go to the person whose position number is XXX who is lying all the time.  In one of my requests, I asked for the emails held by the Director of some centre.  The position number 851 replied that those were previously released and pointed out one of my previous request asking for the emails held by the Director of one of the units under the centre.  Not only that, when I asked whether those two different positions were held by the same person, the position number XXX replied that that was the case.  I had to find out the names of these office holders and made a complaint.  Then XXX replied that those two persons shared the file.  They don't ...

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...

One of my friends received a notice of intention to consider the refusal of a  bridging visa under s 501.  I cannot understand why he can hold such a strong belief that the Immigration will grant him a visa soon when the notice he received clearly states 'intention to consider refusal', not the intention to consider the grant of a visa.  Just in case he may listen to me, I explained the situation.   As anticipated, he told me that I was wrong.  He knew better.   Actually, most people in Villawood are like him.  My other friend did not believe me when I explained to him that 'setting aside the decision' and 'quashing the decision' are the same.  According to him, setting aside a decision is good for an applicant while quashing a decision is bad.  He knew it because he read it and I was wrong. I stopped trying to figure out long time ago why those people got such misunderstanding.  None of them are psychotic but they are...

It was a busy day again.  I went to the gym for strength training with a personal trainer.  I usually do aerobics using a treadmill, a cross trainer, a bike and a rowing machine myself.  But I decided to learn how to use machines for strength training while I am here.  I booked a personal trainer at the induction yesterday for today's exercise.  So I was nearly murdered (?!) today.   Geez, those machines are so effective.  My stiff neck and sore shoulders have gone completely in a very short time.  I definitely need a membership of a gym after I get out.  Villawood is a nuisance, always costly.  Last time when I got out, I could not go back to the lifestyle without a bath thanks to VIDC which had baths for children in detention.  But the Australian Human Rights Commission did not include in the recommended compensation the sum of the difference of rents between a unit with a bath and a unit without a bath.  I thi...

The Chinese girl who does not speak a word of English and whom I tried to communicate with by writing Chinese characters (and dismally failed) turned to be a chatterbox!  She is very talkative and speaks to everyone.  Everyone listened to her with big smile and nods!  It looks as if everyone understood what the girls said.  But they came to me after the girl had left and told me that they could not understand what she said at all.  Sooo-oh funny! I went to the induction to the Gym today.  Every year, they require users to sign a medical consent afresh.  There were two Asian older men in the session.  Both look to me Chinese but it seems that they came from different countries since they did not speak each other.  The medical consent form does not have a translation.  Those two men do not speak English at all.  So the trainer started trying to translate it into kind of a sign language (?!).  I should not have laughed but I ...

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...