Asylum seekers treatment in Australia`s Detention Centre`s

A Serco training manual instructing immigration detention centre guards to use force to incapacitate detainees was leaked. It included techniques to kick, punch and target pressure points on detainees.

Serco Group plc is a British government services company based in United Kingdom. its operations are public and private transport and traffic control, aviation, military and nuclear weapons contracts, detention centers, prisons, and schools. Currently Serco has a $1 billion contract with the Gillard Government to run nine detention centers and is thought to be responsible for 4783 asylum seekers across Australia.

Recently a prison-style training manual purportedly designed by Serco has been leaked by Crikey online, detailing explicit instructions on how to use pain to "control and restrain" hostile detainees.

Firstly personnel are taught to target detainees' pressure points and put detainees in "joint-lock control and escort" positions to render them motionless. Beyond those responses are defensive counter strikes that involve straight punches, palm heel strikes, side angle kicks, front thrust kicks and knee strikes.

The theory behind the counter strikes is to "create temporary motor dysfunction" and "temporary muscle impairment" through the "fluid shock wave" that gets sent around detainees' bodies, but only leaves bruising, the manual explains.

It is not known whether the training manual has since been updated. Serco has repeatedly fought the release of similar documents, claiming other versions are not in the "public interest" and could cause commotion inside lockups.

The Age reported that the Immigration Department had modeled its policy on restricting media access to detention centres by consulting the United States' rules for Guantanamo Bay.

"Serco's training manual, complete with detailed instruction on the infliction of pain and carefully-split gender roles for staff, appears to be based on techniques for maintaining control inside prisons.”The Department of Immigration likes to say that detention centres are not prisons, or places of punishment, but Serco's manual clearly establishes exactly such a framework."

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young was expected to read key sections of the training manual to Parliament. She said the guide taught guards to treat "vulnerable people as if they are prisoners, when they have broken no laws and are asserting their international right to seek asylum".

"There is nothing in this training manual to suggest anybody working on the ground in our detention centres has the skills necessary to deal with the specific needs of asylum seekers,". "All it does is teaching how to use force. Serco officers themselves have told the Immigration Detention Centre inquiry and their union that they are ill-equipped to deal with mental health issues and suicide prevention training.

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has continued to back Serco and its methods. A department spokeswoman said that while DIAC did not approve Serco's training manual, since that was a matter for the company, it did assess very carefully during the tendering process for the government's $1billion contract "the capability, the experience and the culture" of the bidding companies.

There are presently three inquiries into deaths in immigration detention centres run by Serco in Australia. Serco's UK parent company was last year found responsible for the death of 14-year-old Adam Rickwood, who was staying at a UK youth training centre.

Rioters turned out to be refugees

New data shows most asylum seekers detained during the Christmas Island and Villawood riots were later found to be refugees.

Refugees involved are not allowed to leave detention because they are waiting to find out if they have been sentenced to jail terms for their involvement in the riots. If they are found to be guilty they will not be accepted into Australia, even though they are considered genuine refugees. Asylum-seekers must pass a character test to be allowed into Australia and if they get a criminal record it means that they will not be accepted.

A report into riots that broke out during March and April last year said 80 of 100 detainees involved in the Christmas Island riots had received initial rejections, and blamed the disturbances, and self-harm, on detainees ''receiving the wrong outcome in their eyes''.

The report's author, Allan Hawke, told a parliamentary committee last week: ''The conclusion we were coming to was that these were not genuine refugees and they were reacting to the fact that they had paid a people smuggler to come to Australia … [and] they were going to vent their anger on the system''.

The government has repeatedly blamed the riots on large numbers of detainees being on ''a negative pathway'', rather than detention conditions.

The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, has questioned Dr Hawke's findings. "These statistics prove that the government's rhetoric - that people who have been in detention long-term are not refugees and are on negative pathways - is simply not true. Most, in fact, are genuine refugees who have been unnecessarily detained for far too long while the government played politics with their lives,'' she said.

A spokesman for the Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen, said riot ringleaders still faced having refugee visas refused by the minister if they were sentenced.

Overall refugee approval data should not be linked to specific individuals involved in the riots, ''many of whom have been charged, remain on a negative pathway and are still subject to new tougher character requirements'', he said.

The Hawke inquiry ''made clear the incidents were largely the result of the frustrations of a group of people on a 'negative pathway' not being regarded as refugees,'' the spokesman said.

Asylum-seekers in Australian Immigration Detention suffer Assault, Depression and Abuse

Recent reports have highlighted the worsening conditions for asylum seekers in detention around Australia.

Australia has a system of mandatory detention for any people arriving in the country without a valid visa.  These people are detained in remote facilities while their applications for asylum are decided.

The Australian Department of Immigration reports that there are 3,289 people in detention centres as of July 2011.  More than a third of people in detention centres have been waiting for more than a year to find out whether they can stay in Australia or not.

Between 2008 and June 2011, there were 1,273 reports of assault, damage to property or aggressive and abusive behaviour in detention centres.  596 cases involved allegations of assault while police were notified of incidents 242 times.

In a report to the Australian Parliament, The Australian Medical Association said hospitals were reporting large numbers of adults with mental health problems hurting themselves on purpose and requiring medical treatment.  The Association said it was worried about the mental health of detainees.
Meanwhile, Australia's Human Rights Commissioner has reported on the mental health damage of indefinite detention in Curtin Detention Centre.

The Commissioner expressed concern about the high rates of self-harm caused by poor conditions and a lack of services.

"Indefinite detention, particularly in a remote place, is very damaging to [asylum seekers’] mental health. They spoke to us about sleeplessness, about feelings of wanting to [commit] suicide, we know that there've been a worrying number of self-harm incidents there, including a man apparently who threw himself through a glass window."

Alexander Dianati, 37, an Iranian asylum-seeker has been in detention for three months after fleeing Iran to avoid religious persecution. He says fellow detainees are cutting, burning or trying to kill themselves on a weekly basis because they do not know what is happening with their asylum claims.
"Almost every week we have one situation like this, I'm sure Australian people don't know these things.”

He says tension in the facility is extremely high. The "mental health of the detainees is really bad, they are so depressed," he said.

He warned of mass protests if the situation is not resolved.  "The most biggest protest will happen in the history of Curtin soon, if Immigration and Serco doesn't do anything, I can guarantee this."

Mr Dianati also says that he was threatened with violence by detention centre staff after he spoke to the media about the problems.  Mr Dianati said he was called to a private meeting with a senior staff member from the detention centre.  He said the staff member got angry and threatened him after he refused to stop speaking to the media.

There are also reports that detainees and staff members at Villawood Detention Centre in Sydney engage in clashes at least once a week.  The Australian Government says that police are called to the centre at least every two weeks.

Villawood holds about 349 asylum seekers.  Between 2008 and June this year there were 45 incidents involving injuries to detainees and police were called 87 times. The figures show there were also 22 staff injuries.

Meanwhile asylum seekers in the Darwin detention centre are warning they will increase their protests unless their demands are met within a few days.

"They have given an ultimatum to the immigration department to fix things in a few days, or the protest will escalate. The asylum seekers have access to tools and construction items," the Refugee Action Coalition said.

The detainees want to know when they will find out whether or not they are allowed to stay in Australia.

It is also reported that immigration detention centre guards around Australia are worried that detainees could take them hostage or stage mass suicide attempts as more asylum seekers become increasingly desperate about their plight.

United Voice, the union for staff employed at detention centres, said rumors were circulating that detainees were plotting to take guards hostage to protest the time it was taking to make decisions about their asylum claims.

"Another rumor issuing out of (the Darwin camp) was that detainees were threatening to stage a mass hanging at a time when it was well known that the centre would be understaffed and unable to cope with multiple incidents," the Union said.

Australia told detention of child asylum-seekers is abuse

Refugee advocates have criticized the Australian Government for sending 73 unaccompanied child asylum seekers to a remote detention centre in rural Western Australia.

A plane carrying 36 teenage boys seeking asylum landed in the remote town after the Australian Government decided to use the town's detention centre to hold unaccompanied youths.

The boys, aged 14 to 17, are believed to be mostly from Afghanistan. Another 37 asylum seeker children will also be flown to the centre.

The Australian Government had planned to send the teenage boys to Malaysia for processing as part of a deal between Malaysia and Australia. But the High Court rejected this plan because Malaysia has not signed the UN's refugee convention.

According to recent statistics from the Australian Department of Immigration the majority of children currently in detention come from Iran and Afghanistan. 246 children have come from Iran and 187 from Afghanistan.

The Refugee Rights Action Network says detaining children is a form of child abuse. “We do know as a matter of absolute certainty that children that are held in immigration detention experience levels of depression, of self-harm and of suicide that is never seen in children that are held in the community", they said.

The Australian Medical Association said it was worried about the mental health of detainees, and that children were suffering from depression and self-harm.

"We are aware of a nine-year-old child who was recently admitted for trying to commit suicide," the Association told a committee of Australian politicians investigating the detention system.

They said hospitals had also reported large numbers of adults with mental health problems hurting themselves on purpose and requiring medical treatment.

Australia has a policy of mandatory detention that requires all people arriving in the country without a valid Australian visa to be detained in remote facilities while their applications for asylum are assessed. Some people wait for a year or more to find out whether they can stay in Australia or not.

A doctor at the Australian Medical Association has said, "Mandatory detention is medically harmful, violates human rights, has no known beneficial effects and is a waste of money".