More asylum seekers in Australian hospitals

Australian doctors are increasingly treating asylum-seekers being held in immigration detention in the country's north, many suffering mental illness.

Darwin's major hospital is struggling to treat the large number of asylum seekers who have been traumatized by immigration detention, many asylum seekers have attempted suicide and some have to be admitted to the psychiatric ward.

The Northern Territory branch of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) said three to five detainees from Australian immigration Centre’s were being brought to hospitals every day, many with mental or recurring issues. "They are all complicated cases, because virtually all of them will have some mental health issue," said Dr Paul Bauert, president of the AMA.

Dr Paul Bauert Said "They are not straightforward (cases), there is a fair degree of mental illness and chronic anxiety with their representations. They often need interpreters which are hard to find. So the whole process... becomes compounded."

Bauert said while some cases clearly involved psychiatric illness, other asylum-seekers came with chest or abdominal pain which needed to be examined despite the often firm suspicion it related to mental health.

Dr Bauert says immigration health services are not helping. "One of the ways that's used in an effort to decrease the amount of presentations to the health staff at the detention Centre’s is the use of anti-depressants," he said.

"One gets the feeling that both Minister [Chris] Bowen and the Health Minister, Plibersek, really don't understand the health conditions of the Northern Territory population and certainly has no understanding of the amount of psychological stress that they are putting on these unfortunate people in detention." He says long-term drug use is putting the detainees at further risk.

Rights groups have long criticized Australia's policy of mandatory detention for asylum-seekers arriving by boat, under which many are kept at remote and isolated detention Centre’s which have been beset by unrest.

A spokesman for Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said the government was concerned about mental health in detention but noted that asylum-seekers had appropriate access to health facilities. "People in detention will be taken to Royal Darwin Hospital when they are medically assessed as requiring emergency or specialist health services for various health complaints," he added.

Australia’s Curtin Detention Centre Criticized Again

Curtin Detention Centre, in a remote area of West Australia, is in the spotlight again after another human rights organization visits and says the centre needs to be shut down.

Amnesty International sent a delegation to inspect the detention centre last week as part of a tour of detention centres around Australia. The four-person delegation spent two days at the centre, meeting with around 860 men currently detained there. After the visit, Amnesty International declared that the centre should be closed immediately. Amnesty’s Refugee Coordinator, Graeme Thom, said that there was an “air of hopelessness” among the asylum seekers and that their mental health was “obviously being crushed” by spending up to three years waiting.

Curtin Immigration Detention Centre is in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The Centre was once described as the Australia’s “most primitive” immigration detention centre and was closed by the Howard Government in 2002 following a riot. The current Gillard Government reopened Curtin in 2010 to hold Afghan and Sri Lankan asylum seekers whose applications for refugee status had been rejected. Curtin was built to house between 1200 and 1500 people and there are currently 856 men being detained there. In 2011, 1433 asylum seekers were being held in Curtin, the largest group of detained asylum seekers in Australia. There have been consistent reports of riots, hunger strikes, self-harm, suicide and depression amongst asylum seekers detained there.

In 2011, Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner visited Curtin. Following her tour, she raised concerns about the conditions in the centre. She noted that more than three-quarters of Curtin detainees were held for longer than six months and a third had been detained more than a year. She argued that “this indefinite detention, particularly in a remote place, is very damaging to their mental health.” She said that asylum seekers spoke to the delegation “about sleeplessness, about feelings of wanting to suicide.” She also said that “there have been mass voluntary starvation, people have been burning themselves with cigarettes, cutting themselves with razors and they tell us things like we are dying from the inside out.”

The Human Rights Commissioner raised serious concerns about the mental health of asylum seekers detained in Curtin. According to the report, an Afghan man being held in Curtin said “we feel that we have lost everything here – our hope, our health, our memories, our names, our ability to help our families, our minds. We are more than half way to dead now. We are all dying here, from the inside out. We see others who have gone mad and think that we are going there too.”

Amnesty’s full findings report will be released immediately after the tour on February 16 and a more comprehensive report on detention centre conditions around Australia is due later this year.

Iranian Asylum Seekers Could Face Indefinite Detention in Australia

The number of asylum seekers from Iran trying to reach Australia by boat has increased dramatically in recent months, leading to fears that thousands of Iranians could be denied refugee status but unable to return to Iran.

In 2009-10 Iranians were just 6% of the asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat. By 2010-11 they made up 36%. Recent figures show that asylum seekers from Iran now make up almost 50% of the people arriving by boat in Australia. 1,549 Iranians arrived in 2010-11.

Despite the increase in numbers, Immigration Department figures show that most of the Iranian asylum seekers were found not to be refugees in their first application. Between July and September 2011, 754 out of 1366 asylum seekers from Iran had their refugee applications rejected. And more than 25% of Iranian asylum seekers could not get these initial rejections overturned.

Normally, people who are not accepted as refugees are sent back to their home country, even if they don’t want to. But in the case of Iranian asylum seekers, they can’t be returned to Iran because the Iranian Government will not accept them. The Australian Government has said that “the involuntary return of failed asylum-seekers can only occur with the agreement of the host country.” But there is no agreement between the Iranian and Australian governments. “Despite numerous attempts by Australia, the Iranian government has made it clear that it will not accept the involuntary return of failed asylum-seekers.”

Without an agreement with the Iranian Government, failed Iranian asylum seekers could be kept in detention centres forever. The Australian Immigration Minister Chris Bowen says that the Australian Government knows the issue is a “considerable challenge” and that a “range of case resolution options” are being considered for failed refugees.

There have been agreements between Australia and Iran in the past. In 2003 a deal was negotiated by Australia to return failed refugees back to Iran by force. In exchange, Australia offered working holiday visas for young Iranians. The Refugee Council of Australia says that the Australian Government needs to look at a range of options with Iran because there are many Iranians who have been in detention for more than two years. Without a new agreement or another response, the Refugee Council is concerned that people will become stuck in detention forever. “People have to be returned in certain circumstances to their country of origin. If they can't be, the options are indefinite detention.”

Australia makes another regional asylum-seeker deal

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill confirmed that he has approved the re-opening of the Manus Island detention centre to accept asylum seekers from Australia.

Prime Minister Peter O'Neill says that the centre will be managed and paid for by the Australian Government. He says that the details of the arrangement, such as how many people will be sent to the island, are yet to be finalized. It is up to the Australian Government to determine how soon the centre can open.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen says it will be at least several weeks before asylum seekers can be sent to Manus Island as facilities need to be upgraded.

The government has been under pressure to find a second regional offshore processing point, especially as the arrangement with Kuala Lumpur is limited to 800 asylum seekers and the High Court has challenged whether unaccompanied minors can be sent to the Malaysian country as it has not signed the UN convention to protect the rights of refugees.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says a memorandum of understanding will soon be signed on the Manus Island centre. Earlier she said the Government's Malaysian solution would continue despite Papua New Guinea's offer to house asylum seekers.

"We're determined to deliver the Malaysia arrangement and that is before the High Court now," she said.

Mr. Bowen says the arrangement to send asylum seekers to Manus Island for processing will complement the government's refugee swap deal with Malaysia.

He also gave a message for those asylum seekers who are thinking of coming to Australia: "You may be sent to Malaysia or Papua New Guinea, but you're not going to be processed in Australia.”

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.