Senator Andrew Bartlett
Friday, December 17, 2004
 
Tis the season to be taking things a bit easier - which is why it is so much greater a torment if you are someone who can't.

A large number of detainees at Baxter are now well into a second week of a hunger strike. Even though the situation at Baxter detention centre appears to be getting worse, it's not getting much news - I presume on the grounds that it's not really "new". Hunger strikes, hospitalisation, psychological collapse, deliberately orchestrated torment - it's all fairly run-of-the-mill in Australia these last few years. Plus Mr Howard won the election, so maybe it’s assumed the majority of the public support this (which is not something that I believe).

It can take a while in indefinite detention before the despair really starts to kick in. It was a little over a year ago that detainees were hunger striking on Nauru after 2 years on the island and no pathway for their future. I visited them not long after. I have always tried to discourage detainees from hunger striking - it can be very harmful and I had felt it would often paint the Govt into a corner where they wouldn't help as they didn't want to look like they were responding to blackmail.

However, it is hard to know what else these people in detention can do. The Iranian men in Baxter have been in detention for 4 or 5 years and have seen some of their countrymen deported without warning. In one notorious case, a father had his young daughter deported from the centre without his knowledge or a chance to say goodbye while he was locked up in solitary confinement. He was then told the only way he could see her again was to go back to Iran - not recommended treatment for maintaining good mental health. I am sure they would also be aware of the research that has now been done showing that some of those returned to Iran have been persecuted.

It's not like the Australian Government can treat them any worse anyway, so it's no surprise that hunger strikes are occurring. I saw in the men on Nauru that the hunger strike experience had actually empowered them - after years of hopelessness and despair, they were finally exercising some control over their lives in about the only way they could.

It is only because of the enormous courage and resilience of refugees that some of these people have not died - it cannot stay that way forever.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Friday, December 17, 2004
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