Mental Health in Australian Detention Centres

Recently there have been many cases of mental health traumas in Australian detention centres.

There have been cases of many children’s and adults having chronic post-traumatic stress disorder during and after detention.

Recent wide-spread riots at detention centers across Australia are a reflection that mandatory detention has a negative impact on mental health of asylum seekers.

More than 6800 asylum seekers mostly from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq arrived in Australia in 2010 and hundreds more have arrived this year. As detention centres are become more overcrowded, stays are longer and there are reportedly a growing number of self-harm and suicide attempts.

Hundreds of detainees have burnt down buildings in Christmas Island detention center to express their anger over lengthy delays in processing and the rejection of asylum claims.

There were 79 recorded incidents of self-harm in detention centers, compared with 39 of the previous financial year.

Assessment of children and families in detention found that all of 10 children assessed aged between six and 17 fulfilled criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder and major depression with suicidal ideation.

The plight of children in detention is illustrated by the case of Shayan Badraie, who was five years old when first detained in 2000. He was in the Woomera and Villawood detention centres until 2002.While in detention, Shayan saw attempted suicides, self-harm and abuse. He was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and was described as being in a catatonic state of distress.

There have been a couple rape claims in Australian Detention Centres. On March 23 a 23-year-old male Iranian asylum seeker claimed he was raped by other asylum seekers at a detention centre on Christmas Island. The man told detention centre medical staff that he had been raped by several men the previous day at the Phosphate Hill camp. It is understood he claimed some of the men warned him that they would kill him if he reported the attacks. The man is believed to have since been moved to a protective unit for his safety.

And in other case a 5-year-old boy has allegedly been raped by three men while they were detained in a refugee camp in Western Australia. The claims say that the boy was forced to look at a porn magazine, and then reenact what he saw in the magazine. The claims are being investigated.

Detainees in Australian immigration centres have poor mental and physical health, according to a study by the University of Wollongong, NSW. 40% of those held for 2 years or longer developed new mental health symptoms. A third of Australia's 7375 detainees are seeking asylum under the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Many are traumatized, with high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and severe depression, and about 20% have been tortured, imprisoned for political offences, or have witnessed murder of family or friends.

Long-term detention of asylum seekers is not only violation of their human rights, it is damaging to their health. Many experience depression, mental anguish, trauma and psychological damage in detention Centres. And yet at the end they might not get a visa, after all what they have been thru. If the governments don’t want any refuges then why attempt to go their thinking that they might get lucky. Why not try a legal and a safe way to migrate.

Riots at Australian Immigration Centre’s

Australia has seen a surge of asylum seekers from Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq and Australia. Recent widespread riots at detention centres across Australia are a reflection of mandatory detention of asylum seekers, long processing time on applications and crowded detention centres.

People who come to Australia by boat are arriving illegally and according to Australian law, these illegal arrivals have to be detained in Australian detention centres. Most are first taken to the remote Christmas Island. Christmas Island is overcrowded and the mix of ethnicities is often explosive. There have been reports of attacks and injury between asylum-seekers. Earlier this year a Sri Lankan asylum-seeker had his teeth knocked out by a fellow detainee. Asylum-seekers are also attacking their guards. An Iranian asylum-seeker through boiling water on a guard as he tried to break up a fight between asylum-seekers. The Iranian is now facing criminal charges.

Overcrowding became a serious problem in Australian detention centres because Australia was not prepared to receive the record number of asylum-seekers that arrived last year. In 2010 134 boats came to Australia carrying 6,535 people. As of 20 April, 6300 asylum-seekers were detained in Australian detention centres. More than half of the asylum-seekers detained have been on the Island for 18 months.

A few months ago asylum-seekers caused extensive damage at an Australian detention centre in Sydney, setting alight buildings and attacking firefighters. 100 men were involved in the disturbances which raged throughout the night. Nine buildings were seriously damaged including a medical centre, kitchen and computer room.

Riot police were called in by the private security firm which runs the centre. Firefighters who tried to extinguish the blazes were pelted with roof tiles and bits of wood. An explosion is thought to have been caused by a gas bottle catching fire.

Police said tear gas was not used but pepper spray and “bean bag” bullets, were fired from a shotgun.

An Iranian man involved in the riot named Majid, said they had been forced into these actions because they had no other option. ”We were desperate,” he said. “We just want attention. We did not hurt anyone. We did not hurt firemen. We did not attack security. ‘‘I’m not an animal, I’m human. I’ve been in the detention centre for 20 months.’’

Seven detainees have been charged over the destruction at the detention centre. One of those charged is Iranian.

There was a similar riot on Christmas Island in March where buildings were set fire to and the police had to use tear-gas and bean bag bullets to end the unrest. Eighteen asylum-seekers were charged over the riots. The charges include burglary, destroying Commonwealth property, using weapons and harming or threatening a public official. The charges carry maximum penalties ranging from two years to 20 years in jail.

There is a lot of anger in detention centres and asylum seekers are trying to show that anger by protest or self-harming. Many people in detention have tried to harm themselves to bring attention to their cases.

One man made a lasso from wire and tied it to a vent on the rooftop before threatening to kill himself by jumping off. Fellow detainees held him back. Another detainee also sewed his lips together to protest against the way authorities had treated his asylum claim at the Christmas Island center.

Some also face serious mental health issues and actually commit suicide. Such as two young Afghan men who were found dead in their rooms at different detention centres in March.

Protests, riots, self-harm and suicide are all a result of frustration and anger felt by asylum-seekers. They have traveled a long way and have spent a lot of money and time and seen a lot of hardship to get to their destination but yet they face another challenge of overcrowded detention centers, long periods of detention, and at the end some of them don’t get any visa and are deported because they are not genuine refugees. Every year there are hundreds of illegal refugees who travel to Australia even though there are legal and safe ways to get there without being detained.

Christmas Island People Smuggling `Kingpin` Faces Charges

Australian Federal police charged a people smuggling `Kingpin` with 89 people-smuggling counts including four of “aggravated” people smuggling. Some of them relating to last year’s Christmas Island boat tragedy.

Iranian Born 40-year-old Ali Khorram Hyderkhani also known as Hayder Khani and Ali Hamid who has been an Australian Citizen since 2003, is now facing 89 charges relating to four boat carrying more than 300 people between June 2010 and January 2011.

Heydarkhani was detained by Indonesian authorities on January 25 and deported to Australia on May 11 for overstaying his visa, precluding the need for Australia to seek his extradition. He was immediately arrested when he arrived in Sydney.

Three Indonesian crew members of the SIEV 221 were also arrested and charged with one count of illegally bringing a group of non-Australian citizens to the country.

Ali Khorram Hyderkhani  is now facing 89 charges, 36 Charges related to a boat known as SIEV 221, which smashed into rocks on the coast of Christmas Island in December last year. It is believed that 92 people were on the SIEV 221, 42 survived and about 50 men, women, children died, mostly from Iran and Iraq. 20 of which were lost at the sea.

An Australian navy lieutenant described the difficulties he had to go through to save a child attached to a drowned woman when SIEV 221 smashed into rocks on Christmas Island. Two boats were sent from the patrol vessel HMAS Pirie to rescue people. The sailors had to battle waves, wind and rain to reach the cliff where the asylum seekers’ craft smashed apart.

He said that he had seen dead bodies in the water, including a middle-aged woman just below the surface who was attached by a line to a child in a lifejacket floating on the surface. He had to cut the line in order to rescue the child. He said that he was forced to ignore the cries of other people and just concentrated on saving those he could.

There have been previous tragedies involving asylum seekers. The worst known remains the death of 146 children, 142 women and 65 men in 2001 when their boat known as SIEV X sank inside the Australian aerial border-protection surveillance zone. Or October 2009 incident in which a boat carrying 105 Afghans disappeared on its way from Indonesia to Australia. No trace of them has ever been found.

There are also boats that go missing. Like the boat that went missing in November 13 last year. This Boat started its journey from Jakarta, Indonesia towards Australia Carrying Iranian, Iraqi, and Afghan Asylum seekers. The stories of their relatives and friends are consistent about the last time they heard from them, on November 13. The Sunday age first raised the alarm in December, after worried relatives began calling advocate’s in Australia trying to find out if they had arrived. According to Border Protection Command boats usually takes two to four days to reach the water around Christmas Island from Indonesia.

Umm Hamed, Mother of 17-year-old Hamed el Ibrahim from the Dikondi province of Afghanistan, who was also on the boat, emails Sunday age every week, begging for news. She says “I really worry about my son he is just 17 years old and he is so young. I can’t help crying, please help me, I cry day and night, any information that you have, the fate of them, please tell me”.

There have been many cases of missing boats. Those attempting to count the deaths of irregular migrants at sea have estimated that only one in three bodies is ever recovered.

Sometimes people smugglers lie to their customers.  People smugglers tricked 128 Afghan asylum seekers by dropping them off at a tiny Indonesian island they were told was Australia. This is the fourth time smugglers have dropped asylum seekers on the island after telling them they had reached Australia. In October 2009 Indonesian police rounded up 22 Afghan asylum seekers who were hiding on the island after being left there by smugglers. The men were furious after giving their life savings to the smugglers.

People who decide to migrate to other countries paying thousands and thousands of dollars should consider what the possibilities are and what could happen, there is a big chance that they won’t make it to their destination. People smugglers really don’t care if the people they are trying to get over other side arrive safely or if they crash, drown and lose their life. What people smugglers really care about is money and they should be charged and punished as criminals. There is always a safe and legal way to get a visa.

Human rights abuse in Australian Immigration Detention Centre’s

Nowadays Self-harming, suicides, attempts of hanging, Homicidal thought and self-mutilations, Children self-harming, depression, talks of sleepless nights, frequent thoughts of suicide and cases of hunger strikes are increasing in Australian detention Centre’s.

As Federal Governments has set mandatory and indefinite detention for asylum seekers where people can see no end in sight because there is no set time limit on the period a person can be held in detention.

In March 2011, more than half of the 6819 people in Australia’s detention network had been detained for longer than six months, while 750 people had been detained for more than a year. This included elderlies, woman’s, children’s. And Some people have had their applications rejected.

According to ABC investigations on 11 May 2011 there have been 50 or so incidents, including suicidal intent among asylum seekers, self-harm with intent, attempted hangings, homicidal thoughts ,self-mutilation and a case of one man who sewed his lips together some involving detainees aged under 18.

Also Documents from inside Christmas Island detention Centre reveals more than 50 asylum seekers were place on suicide watch in the past month. And there has been reported allegations by detainees at Villawood detention Centre in Sydney that an inadequate response from guards forced them to use a cigarette lighter to try to save the life of a man who had attempted suicide earlier this year.

There are cases of children’s as young as four and five years old being part of hunger strikes and children as young as age 10 are trying to self-harm. There have been signs of psychological stress and regression. Their parents say “our six-years-olds” are behaving like four-years-olds.

Current and former employees of contractor Serco (the security company hired to manage Australian detention Centre’s) raised issues about self-harming of asylum seekers. A shortage of staff members means it is more difficult to make sure that asylum-seekers do not seriously hurt themselves while in detention centers.

The current Serco employees believe it is “a matter of time” until a big tragedy occurs. They say it’s a whole logistic exercise in itself to escort one person over from one camp to the medical Centre especially on occasions when there might be only two officers to look after 600 or so clients in a camp. Sometimes suicides are reported in hours and sometimes even days out of date to us to escort them to the local hospital or to medical Centre.

Since the beginning of 2010 there have been 8000 boat people who arrived in Australia. Because of high number of Asylum seekers 400 male asylum seekers have been temporarily housed in converted Army barracks at Pontville, north of Hobart.

Recent riots, rooftop protest, self-harm and suicide attempts have prompted the Government to approach Malaysia about taking some for processing. Australian detention Centre’s are overcrowded. Australia plans to send 800 Asylum seekers arriving by boat immediately to Malaysia for processing and in return Australia will accept 4000 people already assessed to be refugees from Malaysia for resettlement over four years.

According to some reports conditions in Malaysian detention centers aren’t any good. Malaysia Canes up to 6000 detainees a year, using rattan cane that causes visible injuries and scarring. The law also allows guards to use punishment on children’s. There are photographs of woman and even babies caged in squalid conditions at the lenggeg immigration Depot, near Kuala Lumpor, and hundreds of man in one tennis court-sized enclosure.

A 22-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker who was detained in the main Islands detention Centre was granted a permanent protection Visa says the Centre cannot be called anything other than a prison, but opinions in there is certain that its better than being sent to Malaysia. Everyone thinks people who are sent to Malaysia won’t come back.

UN Human Right Commissioner Navi Pillay, Visted Australia to discuss and examine major human right issues. She wasn’t very happy about the conditions of asylum seekers in detention Centre’s or about the Australia and Malaysia deal. She said Australia and Malaysia's agreement to swap asylum seekers for refugees jeopardized asylum seekers' rights and was part of a racist and inhumane Australian policy.

The situation for asylum-seekers in Australian immigration detention is hopeless. They are better off trying to find legal ways to get to Australia, than to suffer inhuman, illegal and immoral treatment while trying to be accepted by Australia after arriving illegally by boat. A better solution should be thought of by the Australian government and the UN for these desperate asylum seekers who are detained in search of a better life.