Inside Australia's Immigration Detention

It's Thursday.  My plan to finish off all the work on this litigation in this week means that I need to write up the draft of my final submission today.  This paper will not make any difference to the fate of my case so I have a little difficulty in keeping up my motivation.  But since I may want a job in future from the big law firm which the Immigration hired, I have to perfect my job to impress them. So I was ready to be in a full throttle this morning.  Then, I received a call from a sister who would visit this detention centre shortly reminding me of it.  Ooooops.  I forgot that.  But I thought it was the only task for the day and I would focus on my work after the visit.   Then, I went to the visit and met some asylum seekers who were with the sister at the visit.  Ughhhh.  I ended up agreeing to read his papers after the visit.  But his case was so simple and the judgment he got was very short.  So it did n...

I think I should send a bill to the Minister, really. This morning when I was working on the computer designated for my exclusive use in the computer room, a guard came to me with two new arrivals.  The guard asked me how they can log in to the computer.  I asked the guard whether they had a password.  The guard asked me how they can get a password.  I told the guard that she had to request it to the IT.  Then the guard said,  'Oh, I have to request it to IT?  OK.  Thank you.'   What the hell was that?!!  Why do I have to teach the guard what her job is?!!!  Not only that, the guard who is obviously new since I have never seen her before, knew my name and came to me straight away to ask the question!  I am not your supervisor, thank you.  I think this centre's management has some serious problems. The Minister's lawyers apparently have equally serious problems, too.  In their supplementary s...

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...

Merry Christmas!  This morning, one Chinese lady turned up in a beautiful china dress to celebrate Christmas.  She is the only one who wore something nice.  There are many Catholics here but no one was bothered.  There were only two people who said to me, 'Merry Christmas.'  Both of them are Muslims.  This is yet another evidence to support my theory: Everything here in Australia is upside down! I received a beautiful Christmas card from my little guinea pig boy.  Proud Mum could not resist showing it around to everyone.  He looks content and looks like to have a bath before this photo shoot.  He is looked after well.  My pigggie has always been a very handsome boy but he seems to be growing up to be a really good looking man! Had the lawyers for the Minister not so incompetent as they are, I would have been holding my boy in my arms by now.   But I cannot complain so much since I was once a part of the produ...

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...

It's Day 40 today.  Time goes so quickly when you keep eating constantly...  I feel as if haven't done anything else these days.  So I decided to have a bit of a change today. I went to the hairdresser in the Community.  I had a hairdo by a 42 year old VERY FLIRTATIOUS Lebanese hairdresser who wants to see me in Brisbane.  Ha ha ha.  Since I called him a spring chicken, he kept asking me for my vintage.  I told him that I had repealed my birthday decades ago!   Then I went to the coffee shop next door to the hairdresser.  The barista of the coffee shop is, unlike the hairdresser, a detainee.  He is to be deported finally on Thursday.  He was supposed to be deported 'in a few weeks' for the last few months so we no longer believed he would really be going.  But it seems, at last, he may.  I am now worried whether my coffee vouchers that my Japanese friends left for me can be used up....  The coffee shop mi...

Today, I tentatively finalised my Outline of Submissions to be filed next week.  It looks OK.  So I sent it to my Partner's former next door neighbour in the Law School.  His next door neighbour was an Associate Professor when I was a PhD student and subsequently went to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.  He heard a lot of cases like mine there and now is back at the Bar.  So I asked him to accept my pro bono brief.  I hope he will pick up. While I was looking for someone who will stand up in court for me, I was being looked for by some protection visa applicant.  He came to this country on a student visa and after four years, applied for a protection visa.  He seems to have been a drug addict and lost the place to live as a result.  When the Tribunal sent a letter to his former address inviting him to attend a hearing, he was homeless.  He asked me whether there is any way to go back to the Tribunal after he missed the hear...

Oh, it's nice to have the latest browser!  This should be installed in all  the computers, not be limited to the one designated for my use.  It is  also wrong  that only I have a computer specifically reserved for me.  But I decided  not to complain about it, at least for the moment. I received an email written by a counsel who was considering whether  to accept my pro bono brief.  He was apparently interested in my case  since he seems to have done a database search to find the court date  by himself. In the end, he declined with the statement that he thinks  my case needs 'resources'.  (*Resources means money.)  As soon as  people learned that I am a Japanese, they believed that they can  extract money from me.  Sorry, mate.  I have no money. In the evening, I went to the Medical Centre to get anti-depressant  which I use as  anti-anxiety.  I only take it when I feel like it,...

Today, I tried Milo, as far as I remember, for the first time in my life.  Milo was sold a lot in Japan, too.  But my Mum never bought it  for me so it was not in my drink menu.  When I lived in a college at a uni in Queensland , I saw many students stirring Milo in a  cup every morning but I have never tried.  But yesterday, a shop clerk  told me that I have 60 cents or so left so that I should buy a  Cadbury's chocolate frog, what is the name??,,, or a sachet of Milo to  use up this week's 35 dollars.  So I decided to try Milo.  Well, it's  an experience for the first and probably the last in my life. I tried another experience today.  Joining a so-called 'activity'.   There is a charity walk twice a week here.  It is interesting because  if a detainee joins the charity walk, the donation  goes to Can-teen, a  charity to support teenage cancer sufferers.  But the detainee al...

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 ap...

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...

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 s...