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 ...

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...

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'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 ...

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.

One girl got a broken bone in her arm, I think, today.  I heard there had been a fight in the shop since one of the girls pushed the other's back.  The one who, I heard, caused the injury is one of my former roommates.  She was quiet, neat, tidy, calm and pleasant, in my impression....  The one who got a broken bone lives in a couple doors away from my room.  She is a quiet, well-groomed, intelligent and elegant girl, in my impression.  I cannot believe that there was a fight between those two....  I think both are Kiwi, but I am not sure. According to one of my friends (guy/gay), one of the centre managers said that the girls' compound (Lima) had more problems than the male compounds.  I often hear guards talking to each other about who was sent to Lima.  So it seems, my building is the place where the guards are scared to work.  Mmmmm...   Today, I went to Charity Walk, women's knitting class and Personal Circuit at ...

Monday!  The start of a brand new week, thank goodness.  Last week was not really nice.   First, one of my friends went to the Tribunal for her appeal from the Immigration's decision to refuse to grant her a bridging visa.  I knew the prospect was not good since her case was heard by a notable(?!) member of the Tribunal, who is a former adviser to Tony Abbott.  He said all sorts of nice things to her at the hearing so my poor friend who is very young heightened her hope.  Then he decided against her.  I thought he would do. Another friend got a disappointing notice, too.  In his case, from the lawyer acting for the Immigration.  He was asked for a consent to an extension of time to file some documents for the reason the Immigration was reviewing his matter.  I told him that the normal way was to not give them a consent and drafted a standard two-line letter for him.  But he strongly believed that the Immigrat...

My compound has a few flower beds or vegetable patches in the internal garden.  Currently, parsley, coriander, pak choy, celery, corn, sunflowers are growing.  The other day, some corns were pulled out and some sunflower's stalk was broken into two.  That made me feel sad.  I thought some of the stupid girls here must have done.  But that might have been an unsubstantiated allegation.  I saw this morning, a young cockatoo perching on a broken stalk of one of the sunflowers and happily munching on seeds!!  So cute!   This is the first time I saw a cockatoo in Villawood although I see galahs, a gang of thirty, visiting the Oval every day.  A family of five masked wrap wings (a kind of plover) lives in the Oval and they are my favourite to watch even though masked wrap wing is not one of my favourite species of bird.  The Oval also accommodates Indian mynah while my compound is a territory of an Australian native, noisy myn...

Today, I went to the Visit to see a Sister of a church.  I thought that the centre had introduced a new policy on 2 January to undertake a pat search of a detainee when entering into and coming out of the Visits.   At least, when I went to see visitors last week, the reception was in chaos as a result.  Today, there was no search.  No havoc.  Did they abolish the new policy in less than ten days?  Well, if so, it's good since the search was plainly meaningless but creating huge havoc and chaos.  But couldn't they think what is going to happen if they introduce such a policy BEFORE actually introducing it??? Anyway, when I was talking with the sister, I saw a guard with whom I often had a chat passing by.  I said to him, 'Hi!' and he came to join us.  I told him about my current battle against the Acting Health Services Manager who is a registered nurse.  She refused to book an optometrist for me despite that she was directed to...

My morning routine eventually came back!   Yesterday, I was told that the coffee shop would open next day to test a new barista.  But it opened yesterday by a barista with 7 years of experience outside!  Today, even an assistant started working!!  So it is now officially re-opened!!!  My morning habit of reading newspapers while sipping a coffee in an air-conditioned room came back with a pleasant chat with these really professional guys.  Actually, this guy makes really nice coffee at exactly the same standard of cafes outside!  Lucky me!!   Uh?  Oh, I failed to get a job.  Oh, what a pity.  I couldn't gain new skills.  Well, in these circumstances, unfortunately, the sum of the damages I will claim has to go up for ... ummmm ... maybe injured feelings?  Yes, injured feelings!  I am really really sorry for myself for ...  well ... the false hope of becoming a barista?  Mmmmm... Do you thi...

Today, I went to the medical centre to see whether my prescribed anti-depressant which I use as anti-anxiety had arrived.  My medication is Prozac, a typical SSRI.  But somehow, it is not commonly used in Villawood.  So it has to be specially ordered for me.  It has not arrived yet.  I went the medical centre with my friend who is supposed to take a similar anti-depressant, Zoloft (sertraline).  He has never taken any anti-depressant before he got a prescription of Zoloft only about a fortnight ago.  When a nurse gave him a tablet, he said, 'That's not mine.'  Then the nurse told him that it was the medication he had been taking for the last fortnight.  Then she showed him a package.  It was a box of Seroquel!!!  I jumped up.   Seroquel is a psychotropic used for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.  It can be used as augmentation for severe depression.  But it is not the first choice drug for a mild depr...

Yesterday, I noticed one middle-aged male guard looked like he was not with it.  I asked him whether he was OK and he replied that he was just sleepy.  This morning, I witnessed him walking into a column!!!  He was definitely not all right!  I wonder whether he has the onset of something... I saw another medical problem today.  I met my next door neighbour.  She went to ... or was supposed to have gone to the hospital for an operation on the torn ligaments of her thumb yesterday.  She waited for the operation for a month with cordeine.  But according to her, she came back even before getting to the hospital.  It seems that there was a scuffle between her and escorts.  I don't know what really happened but no matter what happened, it sounds ridiculous to me to miss out the operation.  I am sure the surgeon and the hospital staff were annoyed.  No wonder this country's tax is so high. In the evening, my other side n...

I slept well last night for a change.  I got up afresh.  Then I went to the Charity Walk again.  Since I have been flashing around my certificate and recommending everyone to participate, the number of participants in this activity is growing.  It helps them in the tribunal and simultaneously helps the charity organisation, Can-teen.  And most importantly (?!), I am thanked by other detainees, which will make my life here easier.  Triple win situation! The start of the day was brilliant but after that was downwards.  I didn't feel like doing anything.  The depressed mood was triggered by one email.   One of my Japanese friends emailed me to tell me that she is wishing that I can get back to the previous life.  Oh no.  No way.  I don't want to go back to the previous life, namely the life below the poverty line.  No thank you.  Friends here pointed out a few days ago that getting a job and making money are to...

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.

Happy New Year!  What is your new year resolution?   Actually, this is the question I was asked first in this year by my next door neighbour who barely escaped a deportation last year.  My answer: Get out of here!  Her resolution should be the same but her response was: 'Ahhhh, that's trueeeeee!' Hey, mate, you should be worried about your situation more seriously otherwise you will be really deported next time. Although getting out of here is the first thing I have to do this year, it is virtually the last year's job.  In fact, the Federal Court database stated my current case status as 'Hearing finalised.  Waiting for submissions.'  What the hell is that stupid status!  It sounds as if the substantive argument is finished and the judge is waiting for the submissions as to costs or something.  The truth is that the hearing continues on papers and will not be finalised until February (!!) even though it should have...

It's Day 60.  It's the end of the year.  I guess/hope, 35 days to the judgment.  But I am getting itchy feet.  I don't want to just wait.  Then my private media advisor (my gooooood friend who is a retired well-known journalist) succeeded in hooking one of the media producers.  Yay!  I need someone to tell the Minister that the judge said, 'Minister might revoke his decision after this hearing.'  I also want someone to tell the Attorney-General that I will file an originating application seeking mandamus against him because my petition has been sitting on someone's desk in his Department for the last four years.  Those guys should do the right jobs before wasting tax payers' money and judges' time. By the way, do you think the Immigration is reading my emails?  I am asking it because I got a poncho this morning.  It was raining when I was on the way to the Dining rooms for brekkie so I asked a guard for a poncho....

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...