A Tamil asylum seeker has been taken to hospital after attempting suicide by hanging in the early of hours of this morning, at the Darwin Airport Lodge detention facility.

Around 12.30 am this (Thursday) morning, the man who has been in detention for 27 months, was [...]]]> ANOTHER ASYLUM SEEKER ATTEMPTS SUICIDE AT DARWIN’S AIRPORT LODGE

A Tamil asylum seeker has been taken to hospital after attempting suicide by hanging in the early of hours of this morning, at the Darwin Airport Lodge detention facility.

Around 12.30 am this (Thursday) morning, the man who has been in detention for 27 months, was found by fellow asylum seekers hanging by a bed-sheet noose in a secluded part of the facility.

Serco guards seemed not to be carrying the special Hoffman knives used to cut the nooses. He was still breathing when his fellow asylum seekers finally managed to get him down and untie the noose, but detainees were distressed about the time it took to get him down.

The man was one of two Tamils in the Airport Lodge who been granted a bridging visa to be released about three weeks ago. But the day before he was due to be released, he was told that his visa had been cancelled on security grounds

It is not clear, at this stage, if this referred to his bridging visa being cancelled or his substantive protection visa.

“This man is another victim of mandatory detention and the mis-management of the bridging visa release system. To snatch away the
offer of a bridging visa in these circumstances amounts to institutional cruelty,” said Refugee Action Coalition spokesperson,
Ian Rintoul.

“The arbitrary decisions about who and who is not being released is significantly adding to the mental anguish of asylum seekers. His friend had tried to hang himself, around four months ago, and now he is left in detention limbo. What possible reason is there for him to be in detention for 27 months?”

For more information contact Ian Rintoul on 0417 275 713

Between the 26th and the 29th of January 2012, the Refugee Rights Action Network went to Leonora to visit the 160 unaccompanied children that the Australian Government has locked up, by themselves, in immigration detention.  When we arrived there, we were told by Serco that they had explained who we are [...]]]> Leonora 2012, Day 1.

Between the 26th and the 29th of January 2012, the Refugee Rights Action Network went to Leonora to visit the 160 unaccompanied children that the Australian Government has locked up, by themselves, in immigration detention.  When we arrived there, we were told by Serco that they had explained who we are to the boys (and that we came with gifts), and that they were told that no one inside wanted visitors or the MP3 players or arts supplies we brought with us.

As usual, they lied.

By Tierri Abraham, New Matilda.  From http://newmatilda.com/2012/01/31/boys-locked-leonora

Pressure from a group of teenage detainees inside the Leonora Immigration [...]]]>  

By Tierri Abraham, New Matilda.  From http://newmatilda.com/2012/01/31/boys-locked-leonora

Pressure from a group of teenage detainees inside the Leonora Immigration Detention Facility eased a 24 hour stand-off between Serco and a group of Refugee Rights Action Network protesters over the weekend.

Refugee Rights Action Network members were told on Friday by a member of Serco staff that the detained boys did not want to meet with protestors. But over the weekend demonstrators were informed that they would, after all, be allowed to meet the 160 unaccompanied minors, boys aged between 14 and 17, living in the compound.

The protesters were allowed to to enter in groups of four to meet the boys.

New Matilda spoke to protester Emma Norton, 21, who was in a group who met with nine Hazara boys from Afghanistan aged between 15 and 17.

Norton said the boys inside had demanded an interview with the protesters when they saw one of the placards said “Azadi”, the word for freedom in Afghanistan.

“A few them had managed to see us waving placards and banners displaying peace signs and it was when they saw the Azadi sign they insisted on seeing us,” she said.

Norton told New Matilda that one boy, who was 16, said he had been in detention for two years and five days. “Most of the other boys had been in detention for a year and others have been detained for many months,” she said.

“They just want to be free,” she said. “They are spending their childhood locked up.”

Norton said the boys were friendly and polite. “They were just so happy to see us. The boys came and went during the interview. At first Serco wasn’t going to let us have an interpreter but then Serco changed their minds again and an Iraqi boy of about 16 who spoke good English interpreted for us. He kept telling us the boys wanted to thank us for coming such a long way to see them. They couldn’t believe we had driven all the way just to see them,” she said.

“They said they were on holidays at the moment and would be schooled inside the compound. They said they weren’t allowed to attend the local school as far as they knew they were having lessons inside the centre.”

“We slipped some handwritten notes to them with website addresses so that they could try and contact us if they had any concerns.

“When we asked what conditions were like at Leonora the boys would say ‘Serco good, Serco good’ but then they would wink at us in a discreet way so the two guards couldn’t see.

“One boy came out and said the conditions at Leonora were worse than the detention facility in Darwin.”

Refugee Rights Action Network spokesperson Clare Middlemas expressed frustration with Serco’s behaviour. “The staff just constantly contradict themselves. One staff member told us that the boys were so excited to see us while another was saying we wouldn’t be able to go inside,” she said.

“Once we got a chance to talk to the boys inside they told us, through a 16-year-old Iraqi interpreter, that they hadn’t been told anything about us at all and they never said they didn’t want to talk to us.

“But we knew something wasn’t right. We didn’t believe Serco. We told them we had presents — MP3s and sport equipment for the kids and Serco told us the kids didn’t want the presents. I mean what teenage kid doesn’t want a present?”

Middlemas and Norton were just two of the 38 Refugee Rights Action Network advocates who made the overnight bus trip to Leonora. The group included students, parents with children, teachers and mental health workers.

Middlemas told New Matilda by telephone that when they arrived on the Friday that she could see the children waving at the protestors from behind the fences. She said 16 unmarked police cars were already parked outside the detention facility when the RRAN group arrived to protest the decision to send the teenage boys to the isolated town.

RRAN first visited the Leonora immigration detention facility in August 2010 and then again in January 2011. when they were able to enter the facility freely and talk to the detainees. This time Serco took a tougher stance.

“There is always a police presence here as well every time we come out — there’s usually as many police as protestors — but we’ve always been allowed to talk to detainees,” said Middlemas. “But each time we come out we can see even more barriers have gone up outside the compound.”

This tough treatment is far from the sympathetic regard expressed by Chris Bowen last March when he argued that when children’s refugee claims were being processed in Australia, they should be treated with care.

“Regardless of whether they are recognised as genuine refugees or returned to their homeland after consideration of their claims, they should be given the chance to learn and grow while they are here,” he said.

Children are no longer held in Australia’s high security immigration detention centres but they are still held in low security immigration detention facilities. These include immigration residential housing in Sydney and Perth, immigration transit accommodation in Melbourne and Brisbane and various “alternative places of detention” on Christmas Island and the mainland including the facility at Leonora. In July 2011, DIAC reported that there were 872 children in immigration detention on the mainland and Christmas Island as of July 2011. Of these, 446 children were in community detention and the remainder were in immigration detention facilities.

In October 2010 Chris Bowen announced he would begin to use his existing residence determination powers to move some families and unaccompanied minors into community detention.

A Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) spokesperson confirmed that the last of the families accommodated at Leonora had been moved to family accommodation in Darwin in recent weeks and that Leonora was now a facility for 160 unaccompanied minors aged from 14 to 17 only. She said there was no time limit on the stay of unaccompanied minors at the detention facility in Leonora but moving the children into community detention was a priority.

“People are placed in a particular facility due to individual needs and operational requirements — and everyone’s case is different,” she said.

“Some of these unaccompanied minors have come straight from Christmas Island and some are from Darwin. The Minister announced to the media last year that moving vulnerable clients into community detention was a priority and it is something we continue to work toward. It’s not a case of once you land there you stay there.”

The DIAC spokeswoman said that groups of boys would be taken on supervised visits with volunteers into the town.

“Education for the unaccompanied minors will include ESL and Life In Australia classes which are all about preparing them for life in Australian communities and other programs and activities which will include supervised excursions into the town to play sport and swim at the public pool.”

The spokeswoman said onsite education services for unaccompanied minors using qualified and registered teachers were already in place at Leonora but there were no concrete plans to send the boys to school next term — although children had been allowed to attend the local school last year.

“Leonora high school only goes to year 10 — these clients are mostly 16 and 17 years old,” she told New Matilda. “It would also be disruptive to the community to put them in school and take them out again in a matter of weeks.”

“The Department will continue to ensure all appropriate services and education services are provided.”

In March 2011, Bowen reiterated his commitment to moving the majority of children and vulnerable family groups out of immigration detention facilities and into community-based accommodation by June 2011. And in January 2012, 160 youths remain at Leonora.

Over the Australia Day long weekend in 2012, the Refugee Rights Action Network took a bus and 40 people to the Leonora Detention Centre. This event will give feedback on our experiences and impressions from [...]]]> Friday 17th of February at 6.30 PM.
Wesley Uniting Church Hall, Level 1, 97 William Street, Perth

Over the Australia Day long weekend in 2012, the Refugee Rights Action Network took a bus and 40 people to the Leonora Detention Centre. This event will give feedback on our experiences and impressions from the trip.

A number of people had never been to a detention centre before. The unaccompanied children here are detained indefinitely without charge or trial. You will hear our accounts and stories from inside. You will learn about a system that is intrinsically abusive and fundamentally breaches the Refugee Convention and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Prepare to be shocked and disturbed by the authoritarian, orwellian and kafkaesque nature of the detention system. Hear about more lies that RRAN has exposed by defying the isolation and traveling to these remote detention centres.

Come hear about the Journey for Justice.

RRANers return to the front of the Leonora detention centre to confront Serco Manager Steve about his lies and his appalling disregard for the wellbeing of the young men in the Leonora  facility.

Watch this video on YouTube Embedded with WP YouTube Lyte.

Following a day of stage managed and heavily censored visits for just a small number of the imprisoned teenagers, RRAN members climb up the fence of Leonora detention centre to throw tennis balls with messages of hope and to wave and ‘high five’ the young guys inside! Their look of [...]]]> Video by Zeb Parkes, photos by Tristan Kewe

Following a day of stage managed and heavily censored visits for just a small number of the imprisoned teenagers, RRAN members climb up the fence of Leonora detention centre to throw tennis balls with messages of hope and to wave and ‘high five’ the young guys inside! Their look of joy was priceless!

(Photos also on http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.2951708627700.2144378.1110928196&type=1.)

Check out the photos of RRAN’s first contact with the young people inside Leonora detention centre on the afternoon of Friday 27th, as they waved back in response to RRAN’s chants, noise and banners.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zebparkes/sets/72157629053067365/

Check out the photos of RRAN’s first contact with the young people inside Leonora detention centre on the afternoon of Friday 27th, as they waved back in response to RRAN’s chants, noise and banners.

Around 140 unaccompanied minors have been moved in recent weeks from Christmas Island and Darwin [...]]]> Around 40 refugee supporters from the Refugee Rights Action Network (RRAN) travelling to Leonora this weekend have been shocked to discover children who have been in detention for over a year when they visited the remote Western Australian detention centre.

Around 140 unaccompanied minors have been moved in recent weeks from Christmas Island and Darwin to the detention centre. The RRAN activists have called for the immediate release of the children from detention.

“We were told that children and families were going to be out of detention by the end of June last year, but Leonora is proof positive that even six months later, the government has not lived up to the promise of getting children out of detention. It’s a scandal”, said RRAN spokesperson Victoria Martin-Iverson.

“These kids are not recent arrivals. A majority of the 40 kids we managed to see have been in detention over a year. Yet, they are either still waiting for their second interview or have just had their appeal hearing. One seventeen year-old Hazara asylum seeker has been in detention for two years and only had his second interview this week! How is that possible?

“We were shocked to find that Serco guards referred to them by number. How dehumanising is that? One guard came is asking ‘Is 176 in here?” Another introduced a young Mohammed as, “Here is 428; he speaks good English.” Perhaps more shocking – some of these kids have signs of self harm on their bodies.

“We have serious concerns. They are not going to school; teachers are meant to be coming into the detention centre – but even that hasn’t happened yet, six weeks after they have arrived here.”

“We eat, we sleep; we eat, we sleep. We are very tired,” one Hazara told the Perth visitors.

“We were told in town that the no asylum kid has been to the library since the families were moved out of Leonora,” said Victoria.

“We are also concerned that there seems to be a large number of untrained MSS guards at Leonora, and that we saw them with direct client contact responsibilities with the children in detention. We thought that having untrained guards in such contact is in direct conflict with guidelines for children in detention. There is a serious question whether Serco or the Immigration Department is breaching its duty of care by using untrained guards.”

The RRAN cavalcade will be leaving Leonora around Sunday lunchtime (29 Jan) to make the return journey to Perth.

For more information/ interview contact Victoria Martin-Iverson 0417 904 329.

Almost 40 refugee activists travelled the twelve hour journey from Perth to Leonora to visit refugees and protest mandatory detention at the Leonora Detention Centre on the “Australia Day” weekend.

Prior to departure, activists were informed that their booking at the local caravan park had [...]]]> By Alex Bainbridge, from http://socialistallianceperth.blogspot.com/2012/01/serco-lies-again.html. Video by Zeb Parkes.

Almost 40 refugee activists travelled the twelve hour journey from Perth to Leonora to visit refugees and protest mandatory detention at the Leonora Detention Centre on the “Australia Day” weekend.

Prior to departure, activists were informed that their booking at the local caravan park had been cancelled because the proprietors didn’t want to lose business from their Serco and Immigration Department clients. That decision would have been in violation of the anti-discrimination act.

Instead, activists camped at a town oval with support of the local shire.

Upon arrival at the Detention Centre gates, an advance delegation was informed that the detention centre administrators had held a “community” meeting of the 140 unaccompanied minors in the centre. According to representatives of Serco – the private company that runs the prison – there was not one single refugee inside who was interested in meeting with the refugee activists.

This was despite activists bringing MP3 players and art supplies as gifts.

As soon as the main body of activists arrived at the gate and Serco management reiterated that no visits would be facilitated, chants of “free the refugees” and “Freedom, Azadi” attracted a lot of interest from the refugees inside.

They came and waved at protesters from behind fences in the distance. They explicitly indicated that they wanted to see the visiting activists.

Serco guards tried unsuccessfully to drive the refugees back from the internal fence. When that failed, they arranged for a large bus to be driven and parked between activists and one of the groups of refugees. Other vehicles were already stationed in front of the second group of young detainees.

Protesters outside wrote a letter to the refugees explaining that they support refugees and oppose mandatory detention. Despite being explicitly told that Serco would allow a letter to be delivered, police and centre security initially refused to pass the letter on. A sympathetic staff member (who was not a security guard) helped make sure the letter was delivered.

The refugees responded by sending out a balloon with the messages “go, go, go” and “happy Australia Day”.

By the end of the day, Serco management could no longer maintain the fiction that the refugees did not want to speak to the activists and agreed to facilitate visits the next day.

Organisers from the Refugee Rights Action Network have a lot of experience visiting refugees in detention and organising convergences. They regard it as routine that Serco regularly puts in place petty obstructions and outright lies to try to prevent activists from communicating with refugees unfairly held in refugee prisons.

This is all part of the policy of isolating refugees in detention from the broader community. For instance, while Serco considers clinical depression and hunger strikes of less than 24 hours to be “minor” incidents, unauthorised access by journalists to detention centres is considered to be a “major” issue.

These comments are indicative of a total misunderstanding of the nature [...]]]> Coalition spokesperson on multicultural affairs Teresa Gambaro has again sparked controversy stating that asylum seekers should learn English to negate racism. This follows her previous comments that “migrants should be taught about the importance of wearing deodorant and waiting in queues without pushing in”.¹

These comments are indicative of a total misunderstanding of the nature of racism and resorts to blaming the victims of racism rather than the perpetrators. The Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia chief Pino Migliorino is stated as saying:

“To trivialise the issue by saying not speaking English causes racism is illogical and it blames the victim. The whole notion of anti-racism is the capacity to accept differences, not trying to get rid of differences.”

Racism is a product of intolerance, ignorance and xenophobia. To tackle it we need to remove the stigma from racial differences – the most effective way to do this would be to stop publicly vilifying asylum seekers in politics and the media.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/deodorant-mp-sparks-new-race-row/story-fn59niix-1226248814677

¹http://www.watoday.com.au/national/teach-migrants-about-deodorant-queues-mp-20120110-1ps6o.html

Legitimate refugees, including toddlers, are imprisoned indefinitely. Only ASIO knows why and it will tell no one, writes Kirsty Needham.
“I live like a dead man walking,” says Suvenran Kathirdamathambi, or “Sutha”, 32. “This is supposed to be the golden period in anyone’s life – [...]]]> By Kirsty Needham, Sydney Morning Herald. From http://www.smh.com.au/national/without-hope-without-reason-20120113-1pzei.html.

Legitimate refugees, including toddlers, are imprisoned indefinitely. Only ASIO knows why and it will tell no one, writes Kirsty Needham.
“I live like a dead man walking,” says Suvenran Kathirdamathambi, or “Sutha”, 32. “This is supposed to be the golden period in anyone’s life – your 20s and 30s. But I can’t even say when the day starts.”
Sutha is married, but his wife lives alone in Sri Lanka, unable to tell anyone she has a husband who has spent 30 months locked up in Australia. The former paramedic sleeps in short spurts, sharing a room at Villawood detention centre with men who sporadically wake at different times, miss breakfast, smoke heavily, shun exercise and mope around under trees.
“No one is in their right mindset,” he says by telephone. “To pass one day is a massive effort.” Sutha has been homeless since his father and two brothers were killed by the Sri Lankan army. His mother had to keep moving with her son, disrupting Sutha’s education but surviving.
During the civil war, he worked for an international non-government organisation then fled with a huge wave of Tamil asylum seekers when the conflict ended. “I thought this country would give me protection.”
A year ago, the Immigration Department did indeed tell Sutha it accepted he was a refugee. The same day, he was also told ASIO had labelled him an “adverse security risk”, for reasons the agency has refused to explain.
“It was agonising,” Sutha recalls, still unable to believe such a profound decision could be made after just one interview. The secretive ASIO ruling blocks him from setting foot in the suburban Sydney streets outside. “OK, we are safe, but it is a terrible life,” he says.
Mirnalini Sasikumar, 27, travels daily by public transport to Villawood to see her husband, another Tamil refugee from Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war. The separation is devastating for their five-year-old son, Sharthi. When the boy is at home, he continually runs to the door and cries, “Daddy is here”. But he is not. His father, labelled an adverse security risk by ASIO, faces indefinite detention, yet the entire family are approved refugees.
A Tamil widow and her four-year-old child joined the ranks of Villawood’s dispossessed “security risks” before Christmas. She was plucked from a community house in Melbourne when the dreaded ASIO decision arrived – an adverse finding and she wasn’t told why. She cries continually.
Her neighbours at Villawood, the Rahavan family, have seen it all. But the government is doing its best to make the Tamil family of five, and the problem created by ASIO’s verdict that the mother, Sumathi, is a security risk, disappear. One-year-old Vaheson may be the only infant in Australia to grow up without constantly being photographed by proud parents – no photographs of detainees are allowed, even toddlers, under department rules. His brother Abinajan, 4, was forced off the stage at his preschool graduation by guards keen to enforce the photo ban.
A few months earlier, the children’s playmate “Shooty” Vikadan, a friendly 27-year-old neighbour, killed himself by taking poison. Refused permission to leave Villawood for a day to celebrate the Diwali Hindu festival with friends – an interim ASIO security assessment was cited – the uncertainty of endless detention became too much for Vikadan.
Lawyers are now fighting in the federal court to save a suicidal Kuwaiti Bedouin teenager, locked up for a year and repeatedly taken to hospital, from the same fate. Just before Christmas, Ali Abbas was the first minor deemed a security risk by ASIO. It means the boy, who arrived by boat as an unaccompanied 16-year-old, will never be released.
What is happening to these refugees is an aberration internationally. Fifty-four refugees, mostly Sri Lankan and Burmese, have been blocked from permanent visas since January 2010 because ASIO has labelled them a security risk. Another 463 await security assessment, often living for years behind wire in uncertainty. And the boats keep coming. Subjects cannot challenge ASIO decisions or even be given an explanation. A standard letter outlines five broad possible grounds: suspicion of espionage, sabotage, threats to defence, promotion of communal violence and border integrity. Their lawyers have no idea what they are charged with, let alone the federal politicians now examining the issue. Only once has the Immigration Department asked ASIO to rethink a verdict, and ASIO upheld its decision.
The refugees cannot be sent home, because this would be a breach of the United Nations Refugee Convention, which Australia has signed. But no other country, so far, has offered to take them, largely because of the ASIO security insinuation.
The Australian office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says it simply does not believe the ASIO decisions are warranted, and its own assessment has found the refugees don’t reach “that serious level of threshold” that would exclude a person from refugee protection on security grounds under the refugee convention.
The UNHCR is urging the federal government to introduce some oversight to ASIO’s decisions on refugees. It has provided details on how New Zealand, Canada and Britain allow a court or special advocate to review security assessments and give the subject a summary of the case against them. This is basic fairness, which can be balanced with national security and the need to protect classified information, says the UNHCR’s regional representative, Richard Towle. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal could act in this role, UNHCR has suggested.
The push to rein in ASIO appears to be gathering political weight.
The Labor MP Daryl Melham, the chairman of the parliamentary inquiry into immigration detention, recently told the department head, Andrew Metcalfe: “I have a philosophical problem with ‘who guards the guard while the guard guards you’ … I am not comfortable with people remaining in detention without charge, technically for the term of their natural life, and saying, ‘There is not one person in the whole of Australia who can safely review an initial assessment from ASIO.’”
Labor’s national conference passed a resolution calling for the National Security Monitor, a position within the Prime Minister’s office held by Bret Walker, SC, to investigate ways to provide an independent review mechanism for refugees with an adverse security findings. The federal government has said it will make a statement soon on the matter.
But a spokesman for the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Stephen Blanks, who is also the Rahavans’ lawyer, is concerned such a review will only delay action. He argues it will take too long to set up an independent monitor and says the existing system available for Australian citizens to seek review of ASIO decisions through the Administrative Appeals Tribunal could instead be expanded quickly to include asylum seekers.
ASIO is resistant to any independent scrutiny of its refugee decisions, with its director-general, David Irvine, arguing not only national security but also ASIO’s “sources and methods” could be at risk. The system was last reviewed in 1977, the agency argues, and it was decided then that appeal rights shouldn’t be given to non-citizens.
But this was before the modern era of asylum seekers arriving by boat facing prolonged mandatory detention. And the problem isn’t solved by the federal government’s recent policy shift to release new boat arrivals into the community on bridging visas. Those failing ASIO security checks are excluded from community release, the Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen, has said.
Blanks has called for the Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon, to sack Irvine, claiming his evidence to the parliamentary inquiry showed a failure to appreciate basic democratic principles.
If there is no change, the judiciary, which last year scuttled the government’s Malaysia refugee swap, is likely to make its own challenge. The law firm Slater & Gordon has been approached by several refugees in detention and the legal community is considering a class action.
“We are dealing with a government agency woefully under-resourced, required to conduct complex assessments of large numbers of people held in detention, where the length of detention is creating mental illness,” the firm’s Ben Phi said.
No one knows exactly what ASIO looks at when it “checks” a refugee, and Irvine refused to tell the parliamentary inquiry when asked, saying if he divulged to the politicians the criteria for security checks, refugees would find ways to evade them.
But he gave a hint, saying “the particularly relevant” issue is politically motivated violence, specifically the potential to support terrorism from Australia and “the financing of terrorism overseas”.
Many Tamils fled to Australia by boat after the Tamil Tigers (or LTTE) were crushed by the Sri Lankan army, fearing persecution after thousands of displaced Tamils were herded into huge military camps by the Sri Lankan government.
The Tamil Tigers are listed as a terrorist group in Australia. But Bala Vigneswaran, the refugee co-ordinator for the Australian community group the National Tamil Congress, says the LTTE ran a “shadow government” in the north of Sri Lanka during the war. “If you were there and you worked, you had some involvement,” says Vigneswaran.
Sumathi Rahavan was a clerk in the LTTE court. Other refugees in Villawood are believed to have known people in the LTTE or were said to be “open sympathisers”.
“But we are open people. We talk,” protests Vigneswaran. “If someone says, ‘These people are always talking about Tamils needing freedom’, well, so do I. Does it make me a terrorist?”
He says ASIO needs to have actual proof of terrorism, not an opinion.
Rohingya Burmese, an ethnic Muslim group persecuted by the Burmese junta, are another cohort being held for years in detention on security grounds, with at least four Rohingya given an adverse ASIO finding.
Sayed Kasim spent 14 months in detention waiting for ASIO. Unable to work, he couldn’t send money to his wife stuck in Malaysia to support their four children. She became suicidal after she was forced to put their eldest son in an orphanage.
Kasim fled Burma after being bound and threatened with execution by soldiers. Living in Malaysia as an illegal immigrant, he established a school for Rohingya refugee children and became politically active. Harassed by Islamic religious extremists, he was again forced to run.
His story has a happy ending. Kasim was finally cleared by ASIO late last year, and now works at a coffee cart in Liverpool. “I didn’t know what freedom meant until the day I was released from detention,” he says. Kasim counts himself lucky, and is trying to bring his family to Australia.
But he puzzles over why ASIO took so long. It was only after Kasim took the initiative to write to ASIO and invited them to visit him that officers interviewed him. “They asked me about terrorism. I said, ‘We are simple people in Burma, we can’t do anything. We are Muslim but I have never heard of a Rohingya involved in terrorism.’”

We would also like to thank the Hellenic [...]]]> Due to the size of our regular meetings, RRAN is moving its Monday night meetings to the offices of Unions WA, Level 4, 445 Hay Street, Perth WA 6000. For more details, send us a message via our Contact page, or call/text us on 0417 904 329.

We would also like to thank the Hellenic Club, on Stirling Street, for allowing us to meet there over the past few years.

Serco, the company that runs immigration detention, has stood down an officer who posted Facebook comments saying Muslim children in detention didn’t deserve Christmas presents and male detainees taught their children it was acceptable to [...]]]> By Kirsty Needham, The Age (and an interesting follow-on from this post on our website. Ed). From http://www.theage.com.au/national/detention-officer-stood-down-after-wifebeater-comments-20120110-1ptib.html

Serco, the company that runs immigration detention, has stood down an officer who posted Facebook comments saying Muslim children in detention didn’t deserve Christmas presents and male detainees taught their children it was acceptable to beat wives.

The Serco officer, who has direct contact with asylum seekers at the Darwin Airport Lodge, posted the Facebook comments on Monday, after an incident in which Christmas presents for 200 children weren’t handed out by officers until 12 days after Christmas.

“A member of Serco Immigration Services staff has been suspended pending the outcome of an internal investigation,” a spokesman for the company said yesterday.

In the first Facebook comment, the officer wrote: “Sad for all the Christian kids! Not sure why Islamist would want Christmas present.”

A short time later he posted: “I don’t know of any country in the world that you can enter illegally an be granted freedom immediately! No one abuses them, perhaps u forget the saying it takes two to tango. Maybe you need to come and face these men who teach their children that women have no rights. I guess you must think there is nothing wrong with domestic violence.”

Victoria Martin-Iverson, a West Australian refugee advocate, saw the comments posted on Serco Watch, a Facebook page that monitors international news about the multinational company, which runs prisons in Britain as well as Australia’s detention network.

“I thought they were pretty outrageous comments. What he essentially said is they are wife-beaters. It is horrific, and he is working directly with asylum seekers,” she said.

Ms Martin-Iverson said she was concerned the written comments reflected a wider problem among Serco officers in Darwin who she claimed routinely called asylum seekers recovering from self-harm incidents “nutters”, and exhibited racism towards detainees.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the Darwin Airport Lodge was the “worst” detention centre in terms of lack of cultural awareness training among guards, and tensions there appeared to be worsening.

Senator Hanson-Young said the Facebook incident highlighted the problems that arose when Serco guards without adequate training were allowed to deal with asylum seekers.

Ms Martin-Iverson forwarded the Facebook comments to the Immigration Department, and the department’s compliance division, which can fine Serco for breaches of the company’s contract, responded.

A department spokeswoman said yesterday: “The detention services provider is investigating the matter as they are required to do under the terms of their contract and has taken appropriate action.”

A submission by the CPSU, the public service union representing Immigration Department staff, to a parliamentary inquiry has said department officers were embarrassed by the behaviour of Serco staff towards asylum seekers.

The Serco spokesman said the company’s staff undertook an induction program “which specifically includes cultural awareness and cross-cultural communication”, as well as human rights.

Two deportations of Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers have been averted at least temporarily, pending a High Court challenge to be heard in the new year. These were to be the first deportations of people who arrived by boat under the current Labor government.

The Refugee Rights Action Network [...]]]> By Andrew Martin

Two deportations of Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers have been averted at least temporarily, pending a High Court challenge to be heard in the new year. These were to be the first deportations of people who arrived by boat under the current Labor government.

The Refugee Rights Action Network (RRAN) held protests outside the Perth Immigration Detention Centre against the deportations. This was combined with a legal challenge seeking a High Court injunction coordinated by Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Collective (RAC) NSW.

In a media release from RAC, Rintoul stated: “The government has been handed another opportunity by the courts to reconsider its dangerous policy of deporting asylum seekers to Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. Neither country is a safe place to return asylum seekers. Nor will they be safe in February next year.

“It also needs to view the cases of all asylum seekers processed under the discriminatory off-shore determination process.

“The Federal Magistrates Court this week declared that at least one of the off-shore refugee assessors, Steve Karas, was biased. He is not the only biased assessor. But behind them is a biased and discriminatory system. We would expect that all off-shore assessments, not just those made by Karas, will now subject to a truly independent review.”

It is hoped that the case will open up even more of the determination process, previously kept behind the scenes, to legal scrutiny.

RRAN was at the Perth detention centre when one of the Tamil men, Emil, was being removed to another immigration facility. The group of activists spent many hours on Sunday, December 18, blockading the centre and communicating with asylum seekers. RRAN visited the two men facing deportation, and it became clear that the government and Serco intended to continue with the deportations regardless of a case being in process. If the injunction had come only hours later, one of the men would have been flown to Sri Lanka via Singapore, where his wife had already been visited by police questioning her about his return. The other man, Vithurun, was due to be flown the next day.

The injunction restrains the immigration minister and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) from removing the asylum seekers pending the outcome of their case in February. There were loud cheers among the activists upon hearing that the injunction had been granted, and they were determined to make sure everyone inside the detention centre heard the news. Amid the usual chants of “Freedom, azadi” (a Persian word meaning freedom) and “Open the borders, close the camps”, activists included: “This time we won: we got our injunction” and “No deportation today”.

‘Counselling’

Protesters blocked a car that was taking Vithurun to a residential facility owned by DIAC, which claimed without any hint of irony that it was taking him to trauma and torture counselling. The claim is most likely untrue, but it shows how farcical the whole system of mandatory detention is and that nothing is too low for DIAC. Meanwhile, Emil was placed under suicide watch and was forced to sit in a chair, unable to sleep the night before he was due to depart. RRAN activists know of instances where refugees who are being deported are drugged before they are forced onto the plane.

According to sources who’ve worked inside the mandatory detention system, the trauma and torture counselling is completely ineffective and serves only as a soundboard for the refugees to relive the tragedies that they’ve escaped from. The biggest impact on mental health by far is the indefinite detention of refugees, most of whom had no knowledge at all about Australia’s system of mandatory detention. There is nothing like freedom in helping to overcome trauma.

Both Emil and Vithurun were elated at the actions of RRAN and said that they hadn’t been expecting any help from Australians. Vithurun, who is only 23 and has already spent 26 months in detention, said the actions “gave him more breath” and the courage to continue fighting; he sent a text message to activists saying “you all rock”.

Emil and Vithurun both sent this message to activists from NSW RAC and RRAN via email: “We cannot thank you enough for what you all have done for us. We and our family will always be grateful to you all for saving our lives. Thank you very very much for all the hard work you and your team did for us. Please continue supporting refugees in however way you can … we need you.”

However they have secured only a temporary reprieve. The legal process for asylum seekers is complex, and very few lawyers are willing to challenge it, particularly in WA because much of the legal process is conducted on the east coast. Both refugees had failed the Immigration Merits Review (IMR) process, and their applications for protection were dismissed by the Refugee Review Tribunal.

The challenge went to the High Court after being dismissed by the Federal Magistrates Court. The challenge is that there was a violation of procedural fairness in determining the status of both asylum seekers. Certain officers of the Merits Review Tribunal, which conducts the IMR, have systematically rejected every application they’ve received.

Both asylum seekers will remain in detention until the High Court case is heard in February. If they lose their case, they will still face deportation.

Death sentence

Under pressure from DIAC, some Tamils have been repatriated “voluntarily”, having signed an agreement after their claims for asylum were rejected. According to the Edmund Rice Centre, a humanitarian organisation, under the Howard government’s mandatory detention regime, at least nine Tamil refugees were killed upon their return to Sri Lanka. The number of those who have been beaten and imprisoned without any legal representation is not known. The United Nations Committee Against Torture has reported that it is “seriously concerned about the continued and consistent allegations of widespread use of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”, after hearing submissions from a number of NGOs.

Tens of thousands of Tamils, mostly civilians, were killed in the final stages of the civil war in Sri Lanka that had lasted for 26 years. Most died because the army bombarded designated no-fire zones. Sri Lanka is still unsafe for anyone who disagrees with the government. The Australian government is deporting asylum seekers, claiming that circumstances have improved and that it has assurances from the Sri Lankan government that human rights will be protected and that it is seeking reconciliation. These are the assurances of state-sponsored mass murderers who have told almost as many lies as the Australian government (one of which is that Australian refugee advocates are organising people-smuggling activities).

Australia not alone
While Australia has a bad human rights record towards asylum seekers, other social democratic governments around the world are seeking to emulate its Orwellian example and perhaps even outdo it. The UK government recently deported 50 Tamils to Sri Lanka. Despite the protests of several human rights organisations including Amnesty International, the UK Border Agency has carried out two large-scale deportations to Sri Lanka since June.

In an attempt to halt any future flights, the activist group Tamils Against Genocide has lodged a petition in the High Court claiming that the UK government has failed in its obligation to review its deportation policy in the light of new torture allegations.

In a case recently referred to in a Border Agency report, Freedom from Torture documented that in the northern spring this year, a Sri Lankan national known as Rohan had been tortured after travelling back from the UK. According to Freedom from Torture, Rohan, who held a UK student visa, claimed that after returning to visit a sick relative. At the airport the 32-year-old male was approached by two people claiming to be from Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department, who then bundled him into a van, where he was tied up, blindfolded and beaten. He was held for three days, beaten, stripped and his skin burned with heated metal.

Switzerland has taken similar steps to deport Tamils, who make up one of the largest migrant groups in the country. Hundreds of Tamils have protested in front of the parliament against the Federal Migration Office’s stance on the issue.

The lives of refugees are being bargained with as an item of diplomacy and electioneering. The front line against mandatory detention is becoming international. The refugee rights movement will have to increase its organisation in order to mobilise as many people as possible against the crimes of their governments.

(Andrew Martin is an activist with RRAN)

As predicted, the ALP national conference was another low point for the neoliberal pro-capitalist party, which adopted offshore processing as part of its platform. It was a win for Chris Bowen, the immigration minister, who gained support for putting the weight of the party behind the government’s proposed Malaysia solution. Bowen sought [...]]]> By Andrew Martin

As predicted, the ALP national conference was another low point for the neoliberal pro-capitalist party, which adopted offshore processing as part of its platform. It was a win for Chris Bowen, the immigration minister, who gained support for putting the weight of the party behind the government’s proposed Malaysia solution. Bowen sought to bargain with refugee rights supporters within the party, who had criticised him for violating “Labor principles”, by promising to increase the refugee intake to 20,000 people. This is described as an “aspirational” target, meaning that it will mostly be ignored.

Bowen said the amended platform showed Labor had a “soft heart but a hard head” when it came to refugees. Even the reverse is not true. It has no heart, and if it has a head, it is deep in the sand. The platform calls for “regional cooperation and bilateral arrangements” to process refugees — in other words, state support to sanction human rights abuses and repatriate people to danger.

Linda Scott, a delegate from Labor for Refugees (L4R), spoke against the motion to change the platform. “Labor for Refugees supports increasing Australia’s humanitarian intake”, she said, “but we will not do so by making a deal that sends people away from Australian shores who are seeking our help … Join with me today in looking to the light on the hill and not in the shadows of the past.” Reflecting divisions within the party, the vote was 206 in favour of Bowen’s amendments and 179 in favour of L4R’s amendments. The Right faction refused to allow NSW opposition leader John Robertson and L4R co-convener Shane Prince, both from the Right faction, to speak in support of L4R’s resolutions. They dredged up former PM John Howard’s arguments about people smuggling to win the debate; if there was ever any light on the hill, it’s long gone.

Five speakers from the left spoke: Melissa Parke, MP for Fremantle, Linda Scott co-convener of L4R NSW, Darren Dwyer of L4R Victoria and Australian Manufacturing Workers Union delegate, Michelle O’Neill, national secretary of the Textile Clothing & Footwear Union, and Nadine Flood, national secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union.

The government is now seeking to work out with the conservative opposition a common policy to establish offshore processing. This is a setback for the refugee rights movement and a demoralising outcome for L4R. Adding insult to injury, at a rally held outside the conference a section of refugee rights protesters heckled one of the NSW co-conveners of L4R, Shane Prince, calling out, some by megaphone, “Give up your job”, “Resign, resign” and “Shame, Labor, shame”. Shane Prince is not employed in any capacity by the ALP or any trade union. He is a lawyer who has worked pro bono for refugees.

Diane Hiles from Children Out of Detention (ChilOut), who was chairing the rally, was also heckled and jeered. Members of Solidarity rightly said that it gave the “impression of a campaign that was at war with its own supporters”. It certainly created an atmosphere of unease and division. The speakers had been invited by the NSW Refugee Action Collective, and no one at the organising meetings for the rally had objected to them being included on the platform. Material advertising the rally clearly stated that there would by speakers from L4R, yet no objections to this had been raised in any of the activist groupings around the country.

Most of the heckling was by interstate members of Socialist Alternative, but it is not clear whether it was orchestrated. Most likely it was a spontaneous outpouring of rage and youthful exuberance, but it is also a result of a long and bitter rivalry with Solidarity, both organisations having split away from the former International Socialist Organisation. Apart from being plain stupid, it was a simultaneously sectarian and opportunist effort (quite a feat), elevating a petty rivalry above the needs of the movement. The previous day, Socialist Alternative had applauded and cheered Rainbow Labor at the same-sex marriage rally, seemingly without reservation.

The response from Solidarity has, however, not been particularly edifying either. After the fallout from the rally, they aroused controversy by insisting that NSW RAC formulate a statement that castigated Socialist Alternative for their actions. What followed was a divisive, destructive and fractious debate on what the refugee rights movements position towards the ALP should be.

The statement contained the following words: “Labor conference was marred by attempts during the rally to shout down Shane Prince, the representative of Labor for Refugees, who was an invited speaker to the rally. The rally chair, Dianne Hiles from ChilOut, also faced being shouted down, when she called on those interrupting the invited speaker to allow him to finish. RAC Sydney believes this persistent attempt, including the use of megaphones to disrupt the rally, was totally counter-productive for the refugee rights movement.”

Solidarity has overstated the role that L4R plays in the refugee rights campaign and has asserted that activists from Socialist Alternative made a grave error, as if their actions had caused long-term damage within the movement. On RAC NSW’s email list accusations were made that members of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), the party that produces Direct Action, were heckling the speakers. Why these accusations were made is unclear. As a member of that party, I can say I most certainly wasn’t, although I did engage with the rest of the rally in chanting “Shame, Labor, Shame” at various times, but stopping when the speakers wanted to continue.

It is not the position of the RSP to exclude members of L4R from speaking at refugee rights demonstrations, but neither do we consider they are of central importance to the movement. With the adoption of the statement by by NSW RAC, Solidarity no doubt feel some vindication for raising the debate. Socialist Alternative have hit back with some arguments that are anything but constructive, accusing Solidarity of being Labor-centric, citing the fact that no Greens members were invited onto the platform. This is a strange juxtaposition, considering that it was a Labor conference and that, while their position on refugees is streets ahead of the ALP’s, the Greens are exclusively focused on the parliamentary road of seeking social change, with very little involvement in any of the activist groups.

Other activists within NSW RAC have gone further, claiming that Solidarity has no interest in building a broader movement and is consciously holding it back in order to focus exclusively on winning support from members of the ALP. This is simply slander and completely lacking in any rational perspective. Ian Rintoul and Mark Goudkamp, members of Solidarity, have worked hard for many years, are respected nationally for their work in the refugee rights movement and have been involved in many different aspects of the campaign, coordinating complex legal challenges, liaising with the media to raise the movement’s profile, seeking solidarity from the union movement and working hard to build a base on university campuses and in the community.

Paper backfires

However, despite their experience and perhaps against their better judgement, they have contributed to a position paper that amounts to a point-scoring exercise, and it’s backfired. It’s hard to see how the statement could improve relations on the left. Any debate around the statement, its endorsement or otherwise inevitably leads to the question of how to relate to the ALP, which none of the groups have developed a formal position on. There was certainly no urgent or crucial need for it to be discussed in Perth. (We’ve generally behaved pretty well and there has been no dissension on how to relate to the ALP.) What it has done is blow the issue out of proportion and intensify the discord. Further, simply issuing a statement is no guarantee that the issue will be debated. At a meeting of the Refugee Rights Action Network (RRAN) in Perth, Socialist Alternative members were conspicuously absent from a meeting where it was to be debated and the issue was dropped from the agenda.

In any case, it wouldn’t have amounted to much of a debate, and some, including myself, were opposed to having it at all. Socialist Alternative member Alexis Vassiley had already posted on RRAN’s email list that “… shouting down Shane Prince definitely wasn’t great … On the broader point of our approach to the Labor Party and unions, I think we in RRAN WA need to do things like jump on any opportunity we get of people inside the party speaking out — e.g. the State Labor pollies who criticised aspects of the Malaysia Solution. We need to welcome whoever will speak out against the current appalling policies of the govt, and when it’s ALP people doing this, especially, but not just MPs, it helps to give the campaign a broad appeal, can help change the public debate, and help give pro-refugee supporters confidence.” This is the correct approach for all socialists and refugee rights activists. It is the approach most socialist organisations have historically taken towards the ALP.

United front

This is most certainly a time when the refugee rights movement needs greater collaboration, unity and coordination, but there are many different conceptions of how to go forward. A common misconception is that you need L4R beavering away inside the Labor Party and you need activism bringing the issues to the streets. This delineation is not helpful in determining how to build a mass campaign. A far better formulation would be to make use of L4R to help build a broad movement, but L4R is by no means central to the campaign or even necessary for it to be successful.

The Labor Party is so moribund as a vehicle for progressive social change that orienting towards it is barely debatable. The hardship that the refugee rights movement faces is that it is still quite small. This presents the danger that some sections of it could champion small “vanguard” actions or stunts as an alternative to building a broader movement that seeks to win public opinion over to the cause of refugee rights.

The general approach of activist groups has been to unite around the single issue of ending mandatory detention, and this is still the correct approach. Activists involved in these groups have various positions on the character of the ALP and how to relate to it; some may actually have no position at all or care nothing for parliamentary politics. Formalisinga position on how the grass roots movement should relate to the ALP will do nothing but split the movement into competing factions.

The movement needs to include all who are opposed to mandatory detention, regardless of how they relate to the ALP. Decisions also need to be in the hands of the groups themselves, not imposed from Sydney on the rest of the movement. Conflicting views can be debated within the groups or parties involved, but the terms and limits of debate cannot be set by any particular body. This is simply not possible with such a diverse movement, which has no national structure to facilitate differences that arise.

Despite the length of time that the refugee movement has been in existence, it is still fledgling and not developed enough to settle these questions through protracted debates. Only the practice of struggle will determine the correct approach. The movement’s leaders can influence the positions taken during the campaign only by example and not by decree.

What is obvious to most participants is that the movement needs to be completely independent of the two major parties, but it is not at the stage where it can draw up its own program of action to change society and compete for power. That is why the tactics of the united front are so important.

The tactic of the united front has its historical origin in the practice of the Bolshevik party, but it is also used by many different groupings involved in campaigns for social justice today. Revolutionary socialists are a tiny minority with few connections to any mass base among the working class. The united front offers a method of working with larger numbers of non-revolutionary workers and their allies. It inherently means seeking agreements with non revolutionary political forces. It is not an end in itself, but a means to unify and mobilise as many people as possible drawing them away from the influence of pro-capitalist leaders, advancing their consciousness through experience in action. Whilst the goal is to win workers to revolutionary politics and an understanding of the correct line of march, there is no precondition on who to work with (or what they might think of the ALP) except common agreement with the basic objectives of the campaign.

Andrew Martin is an activist with RRAN and member of the RSP. This article appears at http://theclasstruggle.blogspot.com/

RAC Sydney statement concerning the refugee rally at the national Labor Conference (Sunday 4 December) :

The pro-refugee events over the weekend of the Labor Party conference have laid the basis for a much greater degree of co-ordination and collaboration in the future – thanks to all those who travelled from interstate, or participated online, in the national consultation, including activists from Perth, Darwin, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Wollongong, and Sydney.

However the otherwise very positive march and rally outside the Labor conference was marred by attempts during the rally to shout down Shane Prince, the representative of Labor for Refugees, who was an invited speaker to the rally. The rally chair, Dianne Hiles from ChilOut, also faced being shouted down, when she called on those interrupting the invited speaker to allow him to finish.

RAC Sydney believes this persistent attempt, including the use of megaphones to disrupt the rally, was totally counter-productive for the refugee rights movement. It gave the appearance of a campaign at war with its own supporters and not a united campaign at war with the anti-refugee position of Gillard and Bowen. It focussed on committed refugee supporters rather than the Labor leadership. It created an extremely divisive and uncomfortable atmosphere when we wanted to promote a united voice against the Labor leaders and the shift in the party platform that had been carried the previous day.

RAC Sydney is raising our concerns on the RAC national list and other refugee lists because much of the push to shout down Shane and Dianne seemed to come from interstate segments of the campaign from Socialist Alternative, and people carrying the Melbourne Refugee Action Collective and Melbourne University Refugee Action Collective banners, among others.

Despite extensive discussions in Sydney RAC meetings and considerable national notice in materials clearly indicating Labor for Refugees would be speaking at and endorsing the rally, no concerns were raised in any forum regarding Labor for Refugees’ participation. To then disrupt a key public rally by shouting down an invited speaker risked harming relations between RAC and Labor for Refugees and ChilOut as well as with various union representatives who came at our express invitation. A further indication of the detrimental impact of the disruption was that ACTU speaker Ged Kearney was quite clearly concerned by the disruption.

The willingness of Labor for Refugees to endorse and speak at a rally outside the Labor conference was a major step forward for the campaign and an indication of the growing disquiet both inside and outside the Labor Party. The refugee movement should be encouraging pro-refugee voices in the ALP, not attacking them. The connections between the trade unions and the Labor Party and the presence of rank and file unionists and Labor Party members at the conference and rally also meant the rally was an important chance to build connections with the labour movement. The disruption at the rally harmed those opportunities.

Deepening connections with the unions has been strategically important since the formation of the campaign, and will be increasingly vital for all the groups in the movement as we confront the government’s moves to deport asylum seekers to Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

The Sydney RAC meeting on December 5 agreed overwhelmingly that we should draft a statement outlining these concerns about what occurred, and clarifying that the disruption runs counter to RAC’s work in trying to build a broad and effective refugee rights movement.

We hope that the issues raised in this letter will be discussed as appropriate among the various groups to build an even stronger foundation for a broad, vigorous and united refugee movement.

Signed, Sydney RAC

The private company that runs immigration detention has been forced to back down on an arbitrary ban on asylum seeker children using crayons and coloured pencils in their rooms.

Serco officers had told a group of Darwin residents, including three children, who had wrapped 80 art [...]]]> By Kirsty Needham, Sydney Morning Herald. From http://www.smh.com.au/national/serco-drops-ban-on-coloured-pencils-and-crayons-for-asylumseeker-children-20120106-1pogh.html

The private company that runs immigration detention has been forced to back down on an arbitrary ban on asylum seeker children using crayons and coloured pencils in their rooms.

Serco officers had told a group of Darwin residents, including three children, who had wrapped 80 art packs to give to 200 children at the Darwin Airport Lodge detention centre on Christmas morning that the presents couldn’t be distributed because “the children might draw on the walls”. Other visitors to detention centres have also reported being told not to give pencils to children.

It is understood Serco had stopped child detainees from using crayons and pencils outside of group classes, and they couldn’t be used in family rooms, even under parental supervision.

The Greens and refugee groups said yesterday the restriction would impair children’s development, and was in breach of Serco’s contract.

“Preschool children learn how to write by first learning how to mark paper with crayons. It is a necessary part of the early childhood education process,” said Kate Gauthier, chairwoman of ChilOut (Children Out of Immigration Detention), which helped raise $15,000 to buy presents for children in detention centres nationally.

The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said: “This is another classic example of why children should not be in immigration detention … Serco is under a contractual obligation to provide early childhood materials to children in detention.”

After protests to the Immigration Department by the Darwin residents, the Christmas presents were distributed on Thursday, 12 days after Christmas. A Serco spokesman yesterday apologised for the delay and admitted its process for checking the gifts “did not work well in this case”.

A department spokeswoman said: “We regret there has been this slight delay in this single incident, and understand most of the 200 children have now received their gifts.” The spokeswoman said “safety procedures” are in place when goods enter a detention centre.