Inside Australia's Immigration Detention

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Since I spent half a day reading cases thanks to a bitchy nurse of IHMS, the progress of my preparation for the litigation was very good.  huh!  The Acting Health Services Manager of IHMS responded to my complaint and told me that she had booked me in for an eye test today.  So I went to the medical centre at the time.  I waited for more than an hour before a nurse came to me and asked me why I came.  Great...  I told her that I had been informed by the Acting Health Services Manager of an eye test booked for me.  The nurse replied to me that there was no such an appointment.  Then five minutes later, she came back to me and told me to wait for an eye test.  I thought this sort of problem would occur.  So I had plenty of cases printed out and brought them with me to the medical centre.  The result is the good progress of my preparation for the litigation. Anyway, the nurse confirmed that there was no appointment for me with...

I suspect that there are forty days before my lazy judge delivers the judgment.  I think I can wait because Villawood 2017 is nothing like Villawood 2006.   Having said so, I don't like the idea of missing out my guinea pig boy's entire childhood.  So I want to get out of here earlier if possible.  Particularly since I worked so hard to file all the documents early, I should not be required to be here to wait for the incompetent lawyers retained by the Minister.   So I asked all my friends to kick up a fuss.  It is not a right time since everyone is having a holiday.  But since my lazy judge said, at the end of the hearing, that the Minister might revoke the refusal decision after this hearing, someone should let him know. Will see how it goes.

I was busy from this morning.  I had to explain what happened to each and every person I met.  Most people got angry and expressed sympathy for me.  They are nice.  The most interesting response came from one of the guards I often have a chat.  He said that my case was better than his wife's.   His wife is a lawyer, had a big compensation case.  There was a six weeks trial.  Then a judge had a heart attack and died!  Wow. They have to start all over again. That costs must be enormous and the court will never compensate.  I know that in some cases, parties agree that the next judge is to make a decision by reading the transcript of the trial before the dead judge.  But given that his wife's case is a compensation case, probably the plaintiff does not have money while the defendant has big money and the defendant will not agree with the trial on papers in the expectation that the plaintiff cannot pay to the lawyer for a...

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...

------------------------------ ------------------------------ ----------------------------- Breaking: Secured the judgment date on 22 December in Brisbane. ------------------------------ ------------------------------ ----------------------------- There was a directions hearing this morning.  These days, it is called  the case management hearing.  It was listed at 10:30am in Queensland.   The notice came to me simply indicated that 10:30am.  I thought, hummm,  the case manager of the Federal Court Registry (who is a junior lawyer who has no knowledge of the  legal practice!) who was responsible for my case did not seem to know  that there was a time difference between QLD and NSW.  Sure enough,  the guards here chased me at 10:15am here in Villawood to send me to a  non-existent hearing at that time. I ignored the case manager and emailed directly to the Registrar  informing what happened.  I also left the ...

My judge was found alive today.  The problem was a registry staff.  A junior  lawyer who did not understand the legal practice failed to have  forwarded my email to the judge's chambers which I sent on Tuesday.   That was an implicit reminder of a pro bono order his Honour had  forgotten to make.  As soon as my email was forwarded to the chambers,  a pro bono order was made.  Too late.  The hearing is tomorrow. There was another disappointment today.  As a result of the court  order, the Registrar telephoned one of the public interest clearing  houses which I applied for pro bono assistance 27 days ago.  The court  order was to refer my case to the Queensland Bar, but the Qld Bar  outsourced the Bar's pro bono scheme to that public interest clearing house.   I didn't know it.  So my pro bono search went back to squarer  one.  I am tired. I spent most of the time in bed in my room...

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 knocked off my submissions today.  I may try a minor tune-up later.   But basically, it's done.  It's only 7 pages, the shortest submissions  I have ever written for the Federal Court.  It is about a half of the  normal/standard length even though I generously included extra stuff  which I really don't need.  I may get rid of the extra when I tune-up  later.  Then it'll be even shorter....  Well, it is a simple stupid case.  It does not need much argument.  But I am a bit worried.  Did I miss something???  I  cannot think of.  But I am getting worried... The Minister's lawyers responded to the Court.  It is quicker than I  thought.  They do not oppose an order of a pro bono referral to be  made in chambers.  Of course.  But then the judge became quiet.  There  were full court  sittings last week so he could be flying anywhere  today.  I hop...

Time flies.  It is already Day 25.  I was yawning all day but worked  hard.  I found that my guinea pig boy's toenails were too long in a photo I  received two days ago.  So I have no time to waste.  I have to get out quick  and pick him up to clip his toenails  before he injures his toe. Today's job was to continue to write submissions for the proceedings.   If you are familiar with legal proceedings, I finished writing the  Background, the Relevant Legislation, Grounds 1 and 2 and the  Conclusion.  I do not think I need any more grounds but just in case,  I may insert one or two more before the Conclusion.  The sad reality is that white Australian judges need enough grounds to deny in order to teach me how great they are.  So I have to include plenty of extra grounds in addition to the real ground I should win on.  But I have not made  up my mind yet because the more grounds I include...

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 demogra...

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 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 ...

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?...