Detention officer stood down after ‘wife-beater’ comments

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.