Senator Andrew Bartlett
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
 
Migration Committee visit to Baxter

The Migration Committee inspected the Baxter detention centre near Port Augusta today, along with the Residential Housing Project which is in the town. We flew out of Adelaide around 7.45 am in a small charter plane to Port Augusta, arriving about an hour later. This Committee has been in existence for a long time, but because its membership tends to change significantly after each election, its character changes a lot too. Joint Committees have a different style and feel to many Senate Committees, due in part to Government members having an effective majority on all of them. The new Chair of the Committee is Don Randall, a Liberal MP from Perth. The full membership is listed here.

6 of the 10 Committee members participated in the flight and visit – by coincidence 4 of them were from WA. Apart from the Chair and myself, the others present were Andrew Southcott (Boothby, SA), Michael Keenan (Stirling, WA) and Alan Eggleston (Senator for WA) from the Libs and Labor's Carmen Lawrence (Fremantle WA), well known as a former Premier of WA and also National President of the ALP. This was at least my fourth visit to Baxter, but I think it was the first for most of the rest of the Committee members.

As of the day of our visit, Baxter has 239 detainees, including 4 children. 52 of these are from Iran, 29 from Afghanistan, 17 from Sri Lanka and 12 from Iraq. There are also 29 detainees in the Housing Project, 18 of them children. These days there are a lot of overstayers, compliance and criminal deportees at Baxter, and only 104 of the detainees in the two facilities are asylum seeker cases. Compliance cases (people who have overstayed their visa or had it cancelled for various reasons) are a very different group of people, although surprisingly some also end up being detained for very long periods of time, so some of the same issues are there regarding the human impact and the lack of due process involved in determining how long people lose their freedom for.

The Committee was able to inspect the compounds where people reside, along with the educational, medical and recreational facilities and the visitors centre. While we were looking around the education area, we saw Ardeshir Gholipour. I wrote here about meeting with him during a previous visit. I was surprised to see him as I had heard he had been granted a visa, but apparently he is still waiting for the final health and security clearances (I can never figure out why these haven’t all been done, given how long people have been sitting in detention before getting their visa). More detail on the background of his story is on the SafeCom website.

We also had a look at the Management Unit, which are the isolation cells. These is where Cornelia Rau was kept for periods during her time in Baxter. They are very stark, tiny and featureless rooms, with a camera monitoring all the time. The camera doesn't fully cover the shower and toilet, but there is a mirror in the corner of the ceiling placed so that these areas can be fully seen through a window in the cell door. There is a small grassed area and some tables in a TV room for people to go to in the periods when they are allowed out of the cell. There was no one in the cells when we were there and we were told that they only had one person in there for one night two weeks ago and limited use prior to that. It seems that it is being used far less often in recent times.

From the figures given to us today 1 person (Peter Qasim) in Baxter has been in immigration detention in Australia since 1998, 7 since 1999, 43 since 2000, 46 since 2001, 8 since 2002, 17 since 2003 and the rest more recently.

Whilst it is always useful to see the facilities and meet with DIMIA officials and the guards, I found the most valuable part was being able to meet with a group of the detainees. The Committee had a 90 minute session with about 20 of the detainees – all of them long-term detainees from very diverse backgrounds. There were an Hazara Afghani, other Afghani, Arab Iranian, Kurdish Iranian, Vietnamese, Sihalese and Tamil Sri Lankans, Pakistani, Sudanese and a guy from the Congo.

Peter Qasim, the man who has been detained the longest, was there but didn't speak. The man was deported all the way to Africa before eventually having to be brought back because no country would take him was also there. There was another man whose wife and children had received a visa some time ago and who are now living in Adelaide, while he continues to be refused a visa. Many said they felt they had been locked up so long for political purposes, so the Government could use them to send a message to others.

The Committee had a quick look over the Residential Housing Project in Port Augusta where women and their children are able to stay, although husbands must stay in Baxter. There is no doubt the facilities are more pleasant, but the lack of freedom and certainty about the future still places a heavy burden. The plane took off again just after 3pm to return to Adelaide.

I can't speak for others on the Committee, but I believe it is fair to say that there is a growing recognition across the political spectrum that long-term detention is a significant problem. Continual, unrelenting pressure from the community to alleviate this situation is very important. It is undoubtedly having an impact, even if progress seems slow and erratic. Making politicians personally aware of your concerns on this matter does make a difference, as does exposing them to the human faces and stories behind the issue.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Tuesday, April 19, 2005 Permalink
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