tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/detention-centre-10313/articlesdetention centre – The Conversation2022-02-17T19:05:00Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1748812022-02-17T19:05:00Z2022-02-17T19:05:00ZEducation is a human right, but for most asylum seekers in Australia, university is an impossible dream<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446942/original/file-20220217-23-1e785qc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/melbourne-australia-august-4-2016-lock-469654901">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After August 2012, the Australian government introduced “deterrence policies” for asylum seekers who arrive here by boat. Part of this is keeping them on temporary visas and giving them almost no feasible <a href="https://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/publication/legacy-caseload">pathway to permanent residency</a>. </p>
<p>Many linger in detention centres, while others who may be in community detention still face constraints on their freedoms. Many <a href="https://www.aasw.asn.au/document/item/4658">live below the poverty line</a> and <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-au/5ac5790a7.pdf">suffer significant mental health issues</a>. They are also locked out of many education opportunities. </p>
<p>Temporary visas for asylum seekers include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>temporary protection visas (TPV), granted for three years. Holders can work, access Medicare and some social security payments</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/tpv-shevs-info/">safe haven enterprise visas (SHEV)</a>. These are granted for five years and require holders to work or study in a part of regional Australia. At the end of five years, SHEV holders may apply for a permanent visa</p></li>
<li><p>bridging visas (BV). Holders can live in the community but don’t receive housing support and have limited other supports.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>One of the possible pathways to <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/21070727_LIV_MigrationPathwaysSHEVHolders_Final.pdf">transition from a SHEV to a permanent visa</a> is having been enrolled in <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/tpv-shevs-info/2/">full-time study in a designated regional area</a> for at least three and a half years. This makes education a crucial pathway to staying in Australia, as well as to employment. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/asylum-seekers-left-desperate-and-helpless-when-they-try-to-find-work-in-australia-125931">Asylum seekers left 'desperate' and 'helpless' when they try to find work in Australia</a>
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<p>Education also provides opportunities to learn and develop English, interact with the broader community and develop skills and qualifications. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446945/original/file-20220217-34916-11fr68f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446945/original/file-20220217-34916-11fr68f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446945/original/file-20220217-34916-11fr68f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446945/original/file-20220217-34916-11fr68f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446945/original/file-20220217-34916-11fr68f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446945/original/file-20220217-34916-11fr68f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446945/original/file-20220217-34916-11fr68f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446945/original/file-20220217-34916-11fr68f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">University study is one way asylum seekers could gain permanent residency.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-university-students-collaborating-on-project-478430329">Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>But asylum seekers have no way of paying the international fees required to study at a university, and those still at school can’t stay there after they turn 18. There are no known cases of people successfully meeting the criteria to transition from a SHEV to a permanent visa.</p>
<h2>How asylum seeker students are locked out</h2>
<p>We are conducting an ongoing study which investigates how <a href="https://www.refugeesatschool.edu.au/">schools foster resilience in refugee students</a>.</p>
<p>All children aged under 18 on temporary visas can go to school. But once they turn 18, they can no longer get government-funded schooling, even if they have not finished school. </p>
<p>A school leader told us that once students turned 18</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] The department would not fund them. If the school wanted to keep them it would be at the school’s cost and we’d have to write a very compelling statement about why they should stay.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This particular school advocated for the around 20 students who were affected, and they were able to stay at the school. But new students aged over 18 were not allowed to enrol. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/refugee-students-struggle-with-displacement-and-trauma-here-are-3-ways-schools-can-help-them-belong-168387">Refugee students struggle with displacement and trauma. Here are 3 ways schools can help them belong</a>
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<p>For other schools in our study without the knowledge and ability to advocate, students had to leave high school. Beyond being deprived of the opportunity to finish school, it is even more difficult for students on temporary visas to attend university. </p>
<p>A recent <a href="https://deakincreate.org.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/96/2020/03/DeakinCREATE-Guide-for-Tertiary-Institutions-A4-V4-accessible.pd">publication by Deakin University</a> contains a case study of Hadi, a student from Afghanistan on a temporary visa. Hadi says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] the fear of not being able to study at university would always keep me up at night. My teachers were also concerned because I was categorised as an international student and I was not eligible for a government funded place at university.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The exact number of students impacted by these preventative policies is not known. But those who gain admission to a university would have to pay around <a href="https://www.topuniversities.com/student-info/student-finance/how-much-does-it-cost-study-australia">$30-40,000 per year</a>. This is unaffordable for them. </p>
<p>A school finance officer from a school participating in our study said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[Students on protection visas] come to us for education. We want to do our bit and then they finish with us and they achieve an <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-actually-is-an-atar-first-of-all-its-a-rank-not-a-score-126594">ATAR</a> that’s got value for a university. And then the university says well we can’t take you unless we treat you like an international student. They just can’t do that.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What universities are doing</h2>
<p>Twenty-five Australian universities and one other higher education provider <a href="https://refugee-education.org/scholarships">offer scholarships</a> for students on temporary visas. These generally cover the tuition fee and some universities provide a stipend. There are about 15 universities without such scholarships. </p>
<p>Deakin University, for example, provides a <a href="https://www.deakin.edu.au/study/fees-and-scholarships/scholarships/find-a-scholarship/deakin-sanctuary-scholarships">Deakin Sanctuary Scholarship</a> to successful applicants holding a TPV, SHEV or relevant BV. This covers 100% of tuition fees and provides recipients with $6,000 per year towards study expenses. </p>
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<p>The University of Adelaide provides an annual <a href="https://scholarships.adelaide.edu.au/Scholarships/undergraduate/all-faculties/adelaide-refugee-humanitarian-undergraduate-scholarship">Refugee and Humanitarian Scholarship</a> to TPV, SHEV or relevant BV holders. This also covers 100% of tuition fees and gives recipients a one-off $2,500 payment. </p>
<p>Scholarship holders at University of Adelaide are restricted in the undergraduate programs they can undertake and cannot pursue degrees such as medicine, dentistry, occupational therapies, as well as double or combined degrees. </p>
<p>A South Australian school principal in our study told us these scholarships weren’t easy to get:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When they get to the end of school you sometimes watch that fall apart a little because their options are very limited beyond school. They can’t afford university. We hear talk of scholarships but trying to navigate that system is almost impossible and unless you’re a 95-plus student you probably won’t get one of those scholarships.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There are success stories from these scholarship programs, such as <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/an-rmit-university-project-is-giving-asylum-seekers-a-chance-to-transform-their-lives/3767a76c-1237-4c4c-a533-6cca5f73e707">Farzaneh Dehghani who graduated as a civil engineer from RMIT</a> and subsequently got a job in her field – but the competition for a limited number of scholarships is high. </p>
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<h2>What needs to be done</h2>
<p>Two simple measures would improve this situation.</p>
<p>Governments in other countries offer access to higher education for students on temporary protection or asylum visas. In <a href="https://asylumineurope.org/reports/country/united-kingdom/reception-conditions/employment-and-education/access-education/#_ftn5">Scotland</a>, asylum-seeking students under 25 are who have lived there for at least three years are treated as “home” students. This means they access higher education for free. </p>
<p><a href="https://asylumineurope.org/reports/country/germany/reception-conditions/employment-and-education/access-education/">In Germany</a>, asylum-seeking students have the same rights to access higher education as local students and can apply for <a href="https://www2.daad.de/medien/downloads/studie_hochschulzugang_fluechtlinge_engl.pdf">exemptions to university fees</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-people-seeking-asylum-in-australia-access-higher-education-and-the-enormous-barriers-they-face-107892">How people seeking asylum in Australia access higher education, and the enormous barriers they face</a>
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<p>Given the relatively small number of students on temporary visas in Australia and the significant equity benefits of providing scholarships – such as improved settlement outcomes, pathways into employment and opportunities for pathways to permanent visas – all Australian higher education providers should be making such provisions. </p>
<p>Ultimately, Australians can help asylum-seeker students gain access to university by pressuring governments to scrap the punitive and arbitrary visa system which ignores the well-being of young people and dehumanises them for political ends.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174881/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melanie Baak receives funding from the Australian Research Council (LP170100145), Department of Education (Qld), Department for Education (SA), Catholic Education South Australia. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruce Johnson receives funding from the Australian Research Council (LP170100145), Department of Education (Qld), Department for Education (SA), Catholic Education South Australia. He is also a member of the Australian Research Council's College of Experts.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joel Windle does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Asylum seekers in Australia who arrived by boat mainly hold temporary visas. If they want to attend university, they have to pay international fees.Melanie Baak, Senior Lecturer, UniSA Education Futures, University of South AustraliaBruce Johnson, Emeritus Professor, University of South AustraliaJoel Windle, Associate Professor, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/985492018-06-20T23:03:49Z2018-06-20T23:03:49ZThe dreadful history of children in concentration camps<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224101/original/file-20180620-137720-1su7b84.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Child survivors of Auschwitz are seen in this 1945 photograph.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Creative Commons)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Children and family have been central to the institution of the concentration camp from its beginnings 120 years ago. Wikipedia has now added the notorious American border detention centres to its <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/d3kjma/wikipedia-us-detention-centers-concentration-camps-vgtrn">list of concentration camps</a>, and the #<a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23FamiliesBelongTogether&src=tyah">FamiliesBelongTogether</a> Twitter hashtag has brought up frequent comparisons. </p>
<p>The merits of the comparison between detention centres and concentration camps <a href="https://qz.com/1308141/are-us-immigrant-child-detention-centers-concentration-camps/">have been debated elsewhere</a>, but can we learn anything from this dreadful history of children behind barbed wire, even as the Trump administration <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/us/politics/trump-immigration-children-executive-order.html">finally moved to end the practice?</a></p>
<p>The British constructed camps during the 1899-1902 South African War in order to divide families. They hoped that Boer men who were fighting British forces would give up once they discovered that their wives and children were held in camps. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224108/original/file-20180620-137741-184qykf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224108/original/file-20180620-137741-184qykf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224108/original/file-20180620-137741-184qykf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224108/original/file-20180620-137741-184qykf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224108/original/file-20180620-137741-184qykf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224108/original/file-20180620-137741-184qykf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224108/original/file-20180620-137741-184qykf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A deceased young girl is seen at a concentration camp where the British housed Boer women and children during the Second Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Creative Commons)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similar to the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/18/politics/family-separation-deterrence-dhs/index.html">Trump administration’s apparent hope that the breakup of families would deter unwanted migration</a>, the British sought to deter Boer fighters. British parliamentarians critical of the policy labelled these “concentration camps,” alluding to the Spanish policy of the “reconcentration” of civilians during the Spanish-American War (1898).</p>
<p>Conditions in the British-run camps were horrific, particularly for children, with <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/591094">mortality rates upwards of 25 per cent</a>. An <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/1171343">epidemic of measles</a> accounted for roughly 40 per cent of childhood deaths in these camps, and other diseases such as typhus and dysentery were also devastating.</p>
<h2>Families broken up in former Soviet Union</h2>
<p>The Soviet Union’s system of camps that reached their peak during Joseph Stalin’s rule from the 1930s to the 1950s also reveals the destruction of families. While mass arrests broke up the family, and children of “enemies of the people” were separated from their parents, there were also many children in the Gulag itself.</p>
<p>Prison camps developed an infrastructure that, on the surface, <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/579144">supported pregnancy and childbirth</a>. There were maternity wards in some camp clinics, as well as nurseries, and pregnant women and nursing mothers officially received increased rations. </p>
<p>In practice, the system was regularly a nightmare. Children born in the camps were separated from their mothers, who only managed to see them at set times for nursing. </p>
<p>Hava Volovich, whose own daughter died in the camps, remembers that hundreds of camp children died each year, meaning that there were “<a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=YWHvXP7VfxAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=vilensky+till+my+tale+is+told&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj2v7b_p-HbAhVdIDQIHUtmBBMQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=plenty%20of%20empty%20beds&f=false">plenty of empty beds in the infants’ shelter even though the birth rate in the camps was relatively high</a>.” </p>
<p>At the age of two, many of the surviving children were sent either to orphanages or to relatives — a forced redistribution of children away from their parents, who, as Gulag prisoners, were at best stigmatized, and at worst seen as a major threat to Soviet society. </p>
<p>The Gulag also held camps for young offenders, where teenagers worked as forced labourers and faced horrific living conditions.</p>
<h2>Nazis crushed families</h2>
<p>Nazi policy included both large-scale deportations and large-scale importations of population groups, with major implications for families. </p>
<p>The Nazis removed citizenship from German Jews then, during the Second World War, sent most Jews, from Germany and elsewhere, to camps outside the borders of pre-war Germany. Yet, as the war progressed, Germany brought in huge numbers of forced labourers from all over Europe (U.S. Attorney General <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/19/politics/jeff-sessions-immigration-border-separation/index.html">Jeff Sessions’ claim that German-run camps were designed to keep Jews in</a>, rather than out, is unfounded). </p>
<p>Nazi family policy was a pivotal part of the concentration camp. Once the death camps were operational, the Nazis crushed the family unit among undesirable populations, focusing on Jews. </p>
<p>The selection process at Auschwitz could result in the temporary survival of one or both parents, if they were physically fit (or just lucky), but children were usually sent directly to their deaths.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224112/original/file-20180620-137750-1jq7c28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224112/original/file-20180620-137750-1jq7c28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224112/original/file-20180620-137750-1jq7c28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224112/original/file-20180620-137750-1jq7c28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224112/original/file-20180620-137750-1jq7c28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224112/original/file-20180620-137750-1jq7c28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224112/original/file-20180620-137750-1jq7c28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The late Elie Wiesel is seen in this 2012 photograph.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Jewish writer <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007176">Elie Wiesel</a> lost his mother and sister right away, and only survived selection because he lied about his age, claiming he was 18 and not 15, his actual age. </p>
<p>The unimaginable cruelty of many practices —the smashing of babies’ heads against walls, the medical experimentation, particularly on twins —reveals an extreme dehumanization. </p>
<p>Even at the show camp of Terezin, which included a family camp, <a href="http://www.terezin.org/the-history-of-terezin/">only 150 of the roughly 15,000 children sent there survived</a>.</p>
<h2>High mortality rates</h2>
<p>What do these historical cases have in common? All involved the separation, either immediate or eventual, of children from one or both parents, and all involved horrific conditions and extremely high mortality rates for the children. </p>
<p>In all cases, the dehumanization of the unwanted population was a key starting point. As <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/591094">historian Aidan Forth writes</a> of the South African case, Gen. Herbert Kitchener referred to the Boers as “savages with only a thin white veneer,” and British officials often described the Afrikaners as “dirty, careless, [and lazy.]”</p>
<p>Former Gulag prisoners frequently reported that guards and officials <a href="http://gulaghistory.org/exhibits/days-and-lives/guards/4">referred to them as animals or as “scum.”</a> As <a href="https://www.sakharov-center.ru/asfcd/auth/?t=page&num=11058">one former prisoner wrote</a>, quoting a camp boss: “A person? … There aren’t any here! Here are enemies of the people, traitors of the motherland, bandits, crooks. The dregs of humanity, scum, riff raff, that’s who is here!” </p>
<p>The dehumanization of the Nazi camps is well known, as Nazi propaganda frequently likened the Jews to vermin or to an infectious disease, making Trump’s tweet about asylum seekers particularly chilling:</p>
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<p>Another commonality can be found in the experiences of the victims.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-long-term-separation-from-parents-harms-kids-97515">Why long-term separation from parents harms kids</a>
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<p>In all cases, children separated from parents could not have known if they would ever see their parents again, or under what circumstances. The children of the camps had to rely, for the most part, on other children, for any support or security. Often, the separation was permanent.</p>
<p>These comparisons only take us so far, however. Some commentators have looked not at European powers, but to a long North American history — <a href="http://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/featured/americas-legacy-slavery-seen-trump-policy-separating-children-families/">including slavery</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/Goodeeeeee/status/1009272719257604097">residential schools</a> — of separating non-white children from their parents.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224109/original/file-20180620-137714-1l4ugnz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224109/original/file-20180620-137714-1l4ugnz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224109/original/file-20180620-137714-1l4ugnz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224109/original/file-20180620-137714-1l4ugnz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224109/original/file-20180620-137714-1l4ugnz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224109/original/file-20180620-137714-1l4ugnz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224109/original/file-20180620-137714-1l4ugnz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children at a residential school in Fort Resolution, Northwest Territories, are seen in this undated photo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(National Archives of Canada)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If there is any optimism to be found in the historical examples of children in concentration camps, perhaps the history of public reactions can provide some hope. </p>
<p>In South Africa, reports by Emily Hobhouse and then the Fawcett Commission, particularly on starving children, galvanized public pressure to force the British government to <a href="https://www.angloboerwar.com/other-information/16-other-information/1847-emily-hobhouse">improve conditions at the camps</a>. </p>
<h2>Outcry helped end practice</h2>
<p>In contrast, in Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, there could be neither public nor parliamentary discussion of inhumane internment conditions. </p>
<p>Bu today, some U.S. reporters and lawmakers have visited the American detention centres, and non-governmental organizations such as <a href="https://act.amnestyusa.org/page/25820/action/1">Amnesty International</a> and even the <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/methodists-bring-church-charges-against-jeff-sessions_us_5b28fc2ee4b0a4dc9920b9dd">Methodist Church</a>, as well as many elected officials, maligned the policy. </p>
<p>The public discussion, and the public outcry against the separation of children from their parents that eventually caused U.S. President Donald Trump to cave and end the policy, perhaps makes the American case more similar to that of South Africa than either the Nazi or Soviet camps. </p>
<p>This similarity, however, depends on the actions now of the Trump administration, <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-war-on-children-is-an-act-of-state-terrorism-98612">which for several weeks before its reversal included denial, deflecting blame and even justification</a>. </p>
<p>But with reports of children being torn away from <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/migrant-children-border-facility-w521518">their mothers’ arms while breastfeeding</a>, the more notorious concentration camps of the 20th century must serve as a stark reminder that the act of dehumanization is a slippery slope towards violence and further atrocities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98549/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wilson T. Bell received an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), June 2015-May 2018. He is a member of the Canadian Association of Slavists and the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. </span></em></p>The more notorious concentration camps of the 20th century must serve as a stark reminder of the depravity of tearing children away from their parents and putting them in camps.Wilson T. Bell, Assistant Professor of History and Politics, Thompson Rivers UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/819902017-08-13T21:11:14Z2017-08-13T21:11:14ZThe bad buildings scream – lessons from Don Dale and other failed institutions<p>It’s just over a year since the <a href="https://theconversation.com/rethinking-youth-justice-there-are-alternatives-to-juvenile-detention-63329">Don Dale scandal</a> became public. A youth was <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2016/07/25/4504895.htm">shown on ABC Four Corners</a> bound and in a spit mask. Within a few hours, a <a href="https://childdetentionnt.royalcommission.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx">royal commission</a> was initiated, and within days the Northern Territory centre was to be condemned. </p>
<p>Now the brief is out for a new centre – but word is, <a href="http://architectureau.com/articles/design-brief-for-new-darwin-youth-detention-centre-slammed/?utm_source=ArchitectureAU&utm_campaign=ec0c99a5cc-AAU_2017_07_12&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e3604e2a4a-ec0c99a5cc-41314117&mc_cid=ec0c99a5cc&mc_eid=00d901f802">it’s “a disgrace”</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">An excerpt from the Four Corners report, Australia’s Shame, on July 26 2016.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An obsession with “function” – the patterns and protocols of management and care – dominates the designs of residential institutions that serve unwilling guests, such as prisons, detention centres and mental health facilities. The functional spaces assume people’s behaviour will remain the same regardless of the architecture. And so residential institutions end up as places where the business of managing people should be easy.</p>
<p>But people aren’t easy. When forced into an institutional residential setting, they come with baggage that can’t be checked in at the sally port (the gate). </p>
<p>The clients are products of diverse cultures, they have kin, they may have addictions and special needs. Some will be prone to <a href="http://strona.app.nazwa.pl/uploads/images/2014_16_4/5Golembiewski_ArchivesPP_4_2014.pdf">aggression or at risk of suicide</a> (or both). In Australia, about half have <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/prisoner-health/mental-health/">mental illness</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/good-mental-health-care-in-prisons-must-begin-and-end-in-the-community-40011">Good mental health care in prisons must begin and end in the community</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>Much of the functional planning is designed to control this diversity and unruliness. But people generally don’t like to be controlled, especially if it means they can’t be with the people they love or contribute meaningfully to society. It’s hardly a surprise that facilities see bursts of violence.</p>
<h2>Tougher controls add to pressures</h2>
<p>If ever there’s an unplanned event with lasting consequences, the architecture is usually patched to prevent another similar event. This is usually very literal, such as putting in a layer of vandal-proof glass, CCTV, or some other invasive security measure. </p>
<p>These modifications rarely help, because they only intensify resentments and feelings of being controlled. Before too long, another incident is inevitable. </p>
<p>The final blow for a facility is usually when the public hears of an incident – <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-25/don-dale-detainees-to-be-housed-at-mental-health-facility/5694616">the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre</a> and <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/half-of-parkville-youth-detention-centre-closed-because-of-rioting-20170109-gtobl4.html">Parkville Youth Justice Centre</a> in Victoria are recent cases in point. Remember, these are places that <em>unnecessarily</em> separate people from their loved ones and everything of importance – is an angry response really a surprise?</p>
<p>When a centre is being shut down, administrators frequently blame architecture: they say “it wasn’t fit for purpose”. Suddenly it’s the building that’s done wrong, not the people or protocols that gradually developed in it.</p>
<p>But the administrators may be right. <a href="https://theconversation.com/building-a-better-world-can-architecture-shape-behaviour-21541">Architecture can be very manipulative</a>; it can affect our behaviour and the choices we make. So why don’t designers anticipate behavioural problems when they’re designing a facility?</p>
<p>These problems arise because <em>as vulnerability increases, choice decreases</em>. When people are mentally ill, feel they’re oppressed, are emotionally overwrought or physically ill, their <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26597102">brains begin to function differently</a>. Their capacity to choose how to react to any given circumstances is reduced to a set of learned and instinctive behaviours, however inappropriate these are to those circumstances. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">In oppressive conditions, peope’s capacity to choose how to react to any given circumstances is greatly reduced, however inappropriate their behaviour might be.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Importantly, this same effect reduces the possibility of behavioural change and reform, which is meant to be the focus of the <em>corrections</em> system. And only this past week, this was revealed to be a <a href="https://ipa.org.au/publications-ipa/research-papers/ipa-research-finds-australia-falling-behind-world-criminal-justice-costs-results-2">serious and costly problem</a> for criminal justice in Australia.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-state-of-imprisonment-in-australia-its-time-to-take-stock-38902">The state of imprisonment in Australia: it’s time to take stock</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>What’s worse is that <a href="http://www.urbandesignmentalhealth.com/journal2-psychosis.html">people with mental illness can become symptomatic</a> in bad environments. Only when people are in a state of robust mental health can they develop new, nuanced responses and adapt well to circumstances.</p>
<h2>There is a better way</h2>
<p>People who have studied this problem talk about congruency. It’s about “the good fit” between the person, their culture and the place: the physical layout, the things there are to do, the attitudes of staff, etc. </p>
<p>If the clients were all healthy, this wouldn’t be so important, because people can then adapt easily. But in mental health facilities all the clients have mental problems, and a high number in prisons too – whether diagnosed or not.</p>
<p>To provide for clients in residential institutional care, administrators first have to understand that all clients are vulnerable. Even if they’re tattooed and tough and might carry a shank knife; if they’re in a residential institution, they’re vulnerable.</p>
<p>It’s essential to treat humans with dignity. First up, that means that prison should never primarily be a punishment (it’s not meant to be under <a href="https://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/GA-RESOLUTION/E_ebook.pdf">current United Nations rules</a> either). </p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/prisons-policy-is-turning-australia-into-the-second-nation-of-captives-38842">Prisons policy is turning Australia into the second nation of captives</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>But beyond just abiding by the rules, it’s essential to provide for a meaningful existence. Different people and different cultures find meaning in different places, and it can be hard to provide for everyone. But that’s no excuse not to try.</p>
<p>Some universal values provide meaning for just about everyone. These can be expressed by making provision for family and for meaningful activity such as gardening, art, music, sport and religious expression. </p>
<p>Other provisions must be geared to local cultures. <a href="http://www.waikatodhb.health.nz/assets/news/Improving-mental-health-in-prisons.pdf">Te Kauwhata</a>, a secure mental health facility in New Zealand, has places for Maori clients to carve wood, based on the understanding that this cultural activity is important enough that they are equipped with dangerous carving tools.</p>
<p><a href="http://architectureau.com/articles/west-kimberley-regional-prison/">A prison in the Kimberley</a> provides wide, open spaces that are close to kin, and prisoners have opportunities to personalise their spaces.</p>
<p>Very few clients will be there for life. To maintain the competencies needed in the real world, it’s essential to shift the locus of control from staff to the clients. For this reason, the institution should promote trade in wholesome goods.</p>
<p>People should be encouraged to cook for each other and themselves, to do their own cleaning and to develop workplace and cultural skills such as sports development or learning musical instruments.</p>
<p>Until these basic concepts are routine and the reflexes of management are to look at opportunities to improve wellbeing, rather than making facilities harder and more segregated, social problems will remain at the heart of one scandal after another.</p>
<p>Remember, all buildings speak to us on a psychological level – but the bad ones scream.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-expected-reoffender-to-trusted-neighbour-why-we-should-rethink-our-prisons-60114">From expected reoffender to trusted neighbour: why we should rethink our prisons</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81990/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jan Golembiewski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Architecture can affect behaviour and the choices we make. The brief is out for a centre to replace the Don Dale facility, but word is, it’s ‘a disgrace’. We can do much better.Jan Golembiewski, Researcher, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/421712015-05-21T22:22:37Z2015-05-21T22:22:37ZGrattan on Friday: Nauru detention centre needs its own Ombudsman<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82479/original/image-20150521-17361-bxewjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Transfield Services Chief Executive Operations Kate Munnings during the Senate inquiry into recent allegations relating to conditions and circumstances at the regional processing centre in Nauru.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Mick Tsikas</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australian taxpayers are providing Transfield Services with $1.2 billion over 20 months to operate the detention facilities on Nauru and Manus Island.</p>
<p>It’s a huge cost to the public purse, requiring maximum accountability and transparency.</p>
<p>Earlier this year there was a damning report from the Moss inquiry about what had been happening on Nauru. So you’d have thought that when Transfield executives appeared before a Senate committee this week they’d have been well briefed to provide detailed answers to questions.</p>
<p>Instead their performance was woefully inadequate. Even the most basic questions had to be put on notice.</p>
<p>With allegations of rape, sexual harassment, bartering for sexual favours and women afraid to go to the toilet, the gender break down of staff was an obvious question they’d be asked. It was not one, however, that the executives could answer.</p>
<p>Nor could they throw light on how often the power failed. “I would take that on notice because it has changed over time,” said Derek Osborn, executive general manager of Transfield’s logistics and facilities management.</p>
<p>Pressed by Labor’s Kim Carr for at least a general indication, Osborn said it failed from “time to time” but couldn’t be more specific. Kate Munnings, chief executive operations of Transfield Services, broke in to explain that Osborn had a lot on his plate – he oversaw “a large business”.</p>
<p>Osborn couldn’t say whether he first heard of allegations of sexual exploitation before or after the Moss review. That had to go on notice too.</p>
<p>And it was not possible to get specifics on the day about the number of complaints about accommodation, facilities and staff.</p>
<p>The impression given was that either the Transfield executives had come extraordinarily ill-prepared or that they wanted to put as much as possible off to written replies.</p>
<p>Mullings said more than once that they had appeared on “short notice”. That hardly washes. Transfield knew after the Moss report and the March establishment of the Senate inquiry into the Nauru centre that it would be called. Surely a very detailed brief would have (or should have) been prepared and kept up to date. Transfield’s May 1 submission to the inquiry said it would welcome the opportunity to have its personnel attend the inquiry.</p>
<p>Executives of Wilson Security, which is contracted by Transfield to provide security services, also appeared at this week’s hearing and, while taking some questions on notice, had a good deal more information at their fingertips.</p>
<p>Answers eventually come through the questions-on-notice route, but there’s not the chance for immediate probing, as happens when they are given on the spot. However Transfield is going to be recalled.</p>
<p>After the hearing (which also took evidence from Save the Children) Immigration Minister Peter Dutton complained that Labor and the Greens had “combined to ensure only one point of view was presented”, accusing them of delaying proceedings so that there wasn’t time for the Immigration Department to appear.</p>
<p>“The department’s evidence would clearly be an inconvenient truth for this Labor-Greens witchhunt,” he said. (The department will get to be heard, in detail, later in the inquiry, as will whistle blowers.)</p>
<p>Dutton’s claim about “only one point of view” seemed to rest on some odd logic. You’d think that the department and the firm it contracts, Transfield, would have a broadly similar point of view.</p>
<p>The minister went on to say the department would co-operate fully with the committee but added that “this stunt should be seen for what it is - nothing more than a waste of time and taxpayers money”.</p>
<p>Dutton was absolutely ‘on message’. The government’s policy is to keep the public in the dark, as much as possible, about what happens at Nauru and Manus.</p>
<p>Allegations forced it belatedly to have the Moss inquiry, and it undertook to implement its recommendations. Mostly, however, it just wants to plug any possible sources of independent information and, where it can, to demonise those who try to probe, most notably the Greens.</p>
<p>Dutton, a former policeman, says he has “zero tolerance for any form of criminal activity” and all allegations of serious assault, including sexual assault, reported to the department are referred to the authorities for investigation. This declaration of the minister’s “zero tolerance” should be seen as nothing more than a statement of the obvious – it would be news if his position were anything else.</p>
<p>The Moss report found many asylum seekers apprehensive about their safety, and noted under-reporting (for various reasons) of sexual and other assaults – although it also said that when formal complaints had been made contract service providers had for the most part acted appropriately in dealing with them. It found both reported and unreported allegations of sexual and other physical assault on minors.</p>
<p>Moss found no substantiation for allegations that Save the Children staff ordered out of Nauru by the Immigration department had been fomenting trouble.</p>
<p>One difficulty in how the situation on Nauru tracks post Moss is that the government’s secrecy means there is relatively little media reporting on what’s happening. The picture must be filled in patchily, relying on leaks.</p>
<p>Given both the problems and the information void, there should be an independent ombudsman (who’d have to be appointed by the federal government), based on Nauru, who monitored both complaints and conditions, and reported regularly to federal Parliament. But don’t hold your breath for that.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://michellegrattan.podbean.com/e/nick-xenophon-1432035989/?token=ec56ffede52774bbd49f7530c79fb413">Listen to the latest Politics with Michelle Grattan podcast, with guest, Nick Xenophon, here or on iTunes.</a></strong></p>
<iframe id="audio_iframe" src="https://www.podbean.com/media/player/ba3sp-561dab" width="100%" height="100" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42171/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australian taxpayers are providing Transfield Services with $1.2 billion over 20 months to operate the detention facility on Nauru.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/343562014-11-20T03:38:43Z2014-11-20T03:38:43ZManifesto for a pogrom: hostility to resettled refugees grows on Nauru<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65057/original/image-20141120-29216-bbndnz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nauru's culture of hospitality once applied to all, including the asylum seekers who arrived in 2001 to a dance of welcome, a tradition depicted on this stamp. Refugee resettlement has changed all that. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Refugees settled on Nauru woke on Monday to find an ominous letter, signed “Youth of Republic of Nauru”, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/17/locals-tell-refugees-to-leave-nauru">had been delivered overnight</a>. Copies had been left at shops, homes, workplaces employing refugees and a restaurant, as well as at <a href="https://theconversation.com/here-the-word-future-is-not-a-word-life-as-a-refugee-on-nauru-30079">Fly Camp</a> where male refugees are held and at the family camp and houses where young unaccompanied refugees live. Copies were thrown over the detention centre fence, erasing the distinction between recognised refugees settled outside and those still in detention under <a href="https://www.dfat.gov.au/issues/people-smuggling-mou.html">an agreement</a> between the Australian and Nauru governments.</p>
<p>The distribution of the letter points to an orchestrated campaign, rather than a spontaneous individual act of intimidation.</p>
<p><a href="http://static.guim.co.uk/ni/1416204868394/Youth-of-Republic-of-Nauru-.pdf">The letter</a> states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“… we warn Refugees to Go Away of our country and just to hell with all your concerns if not, get ready for the bad things happening and waiting ahead.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It contains disturbing resentments and accusations:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our women, girls and daughters are having contact with refugees and having affairs with them and we can never see our women having fun with refugees and neglecting locals.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It warns that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… we can see clearly in near future refugees will be the leading and ruling people and will make local community people their slaves.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Such charges are characteristic of hate manifestos designed to mobilise communities against targeted groups. They are recognisable as the grievances that historically inform racist propaganda. The aim is to scapegoat and intimidate target groups and incite violence against them with the objective of removing them from the community.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We warn our Corrupt Government as well Australian Government to take away your rubbish (refugees) and leave our country, otherwise there can be worse situations for refugees as you can see these days.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64950/original/image-20141119-16205-1qvn4ek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64950/original/image-20141119-16205-1qvn4ek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64950/original/image-20141119-16205-1qvn4ek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64950/original/image-20141119-16205-1qvn4ek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64950/original/image-20141119-16205-1qvn4ek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64950/original/image-20141119-16205-1qvn4ek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64950/original/image-20141119-16205-1qvn4ek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64950/original/image-20141119-16205-1qvn4ek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The letter threatening refugee settlers, which was circulated on Nauru.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The reference to "rubbish” articulates precisely the logic of ethnic cleansing.</p>
<p>The phrase “as you can see” is a chilling reference to acts of thuggery against unaccompanied juvenile refugees, to whom a particular duty of care is owed. Living on their own in isolated locations, these vulnerable young refugees have reported being harassed, intimidated and physically <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/10/29/we-will-fg-kill-you-beaten-nauru-refugees-fear-their-lives">beaten by groups of men</a> on motorbikes. </p>
<p>These attacks <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/oct/28/child-refugees-australia-sent-to-nauru-report-beatings-and-death-threats">were reported</a> to authorities, including police and Save the Children, which is contracted to care for the refugees.</p>
<p>After seeing the letter, refugees again reported their fears to these authorities. The government has <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/11/18/nauru-denies-refugees-danger-after-letters-threatening-bad-things-sent">dismissed their concerns</a>. They have not received any guarantees to safeguard their welfare and remain in great fear.</p>
<h2>Australia in denial of its responsibility</h2>
<p>Nauruan authorities reportedly responded that Australia’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) should be the one to address the refugees’ concerns. Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has already washed his hands of his obligations. His spokesman <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-28/teenagers-fear-for-lives-on-nauru/5848700">has stated</a> that any attack on a person settled on Nauru “is wholly a matter for Nauru”. </p>
<p>This is a blatant abrogation of responsibility. In the international context, it demonstrates a total disregard for the spirit of the Refugee Convention. Regionally, it evidences a disturbing indifference to the volatile and increasingly violent conditions that Australian policy has generated in neighbouring states such as Papua New Guinea and Nauru. </p>
<p>By exploiting its political and economic power over former Australian protectorates for domestic political ends, Australia has created conditions that serve to foment unrest with potentially lethal consequences.</p>
<p>The letter states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… we cannot see and tolerate that Australia Government headache (refugees) [is] making our lives crashing and bringing down to the ground.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, even as the letter scapegoats refugees, it holds Australia responsible for the new elements introduced to “our small and congested community”. It argues that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Nauru is a conservative country, it is not a multicultural country so resettling refugees means that inducing [sic] culture from different countries and we think that we are never been ready for that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Detention camps and their social and physical infrastructure – personnel, equipment, environmental features – are visible markers of Australian power. Their imposition compounds the legacy of Australia’s colonial impositions, one of irreversible environmental destruction and serious economic and political damage.</p>
<h2>A once welcoming culture poisoned</h2>
<p>In diagnosing the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nativism_(politics)">nativist</a> sentiment of this letter, we wish to emphasise the dangerous conditions Australia has irresponsibly engendered in a small and vulnerable neighbour. Already disadvantaged, Nauruans are being called upon to assume Australians’ responsibilities. Our failure to fulfil our international obligations to refugees within our own expansive borders and our outsourcing of these to small, resource-poor societies lies at the heart of the ugly and violent sentiments expressed in the letter.</p>
<p>Such sentiments represent an erosion of Pacific communities’ traditional values of hospitality. At a recent Australian Studies conference, colleagues from the region voiced distress at this perversion of core aspects of their societies and cultures. In 2001, when the first asylum seekers landed on Nauru under the <a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-were-70-of-people-sent-to-nauru-under-the-pacific-solution-resettled-in-australia-16947">Pacific Solution</a>, Nauruans greeted them with a welcome dance. Today Nauru and Australia are both harsher and lesser societies.</p>
<p>The cultivation of nativism in place of values of generosity has taken a disturbing turn on Nauru. Several refugees have expressed the sense that underlying political agendas are driving it: “we are just being kicked around for politics”.</p>
<p>We call on Minister Morrison and DIAC to assume their ethical and legal responsibility to protect unaccompanied minors and other recognised refugees whom the Australian government has placed on Nauru. Australia should immediately reassess a policy that has proved so destructive in its effects, as refugees continue to be resettled in a climate of fear and uncertainty. </p>
<p>The letter campaign is the latest chilling symptom of the toxic effects of Australia’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-no-advantage-myth-in-refugee-processing-10940">“no advantage” policy</a>. That it invokes the horrific spectre of ethnic cleansing is an indictment of the great wrong we have perpetrated in our region.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34356/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Suvendrini Perera receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is affiliated with the group Writing Through Fences, whose members are mostly writers in immigration detention.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph Pugliese does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Refugees settled on Nauru woke on Monday to find an ominous letter, signed “Youth of Republic of Nauru”, had been delivered overnight. Copies had been left at shops, homes, workplaces employing refugees…Suvendrini Perera, Professor of Cultural Analysis in the School of Media Culture & Creative Arts and Deputy Director of the Australia-Asia-Pacific Institute, Curtin UniversityJoseph Pugliese, Professor of Cultural Studies and Research Director of the Department of Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/255192014-05-09T05:32:50Z2014-05-09T05:32:50ZViolence in Britain: behind the wire at Immigration Removal Centres<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48078/original/prvsxyzy-1399559120.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Yarl's Wood. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/78530">Oliver White/Geograph.org.uk</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Late in 2013 Lib Dem MP, Sarah Teather, <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmhansrd/cm131015/text/131015w0001.htm#131015w0001.htm_wqn65">challenged the government</a> to ensure that any reports into allegations of sexual assault at Yarl’s Wood detention centre compiled by private operators Serco are made public.</p>
<p>Teather’s demand followed a stream of allegations from former detainees that people held in detention had been subject to inappropriate sexual contact with staff. One woman claimed attempts were made to deport her within days of her informing Yarl’s Wood’s management of the incidents. She also said that one security guard had “inappropriate” relations with at least four women.</p>
<p>We need only scratch the surface of the asylum system in Britain to see that violence has become integral to the way we treat those seeking refuge. <a href="http://pun.sagepub.com/content/7/1/53.abstract">Detention</a> without criminal charge, <a href="http://www.irr.org.uk/news/public-spending-cuts-savage-dispersal-system/">dispersal</a>, <a href="http://www.jrct.org.uk/text.asp?section=0001000200030006">destitution</a>, and fear of deportation are central to the lives of those seeking asylum here. As recent reports indicate, violence against female refugees is often sexualised – <a href="http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/assets/0001/5837/Briefing_-_experiences_of_refugee_women_in_the_UK.pdf">including sexual abuse, sex trafficking, and so-called “transactional sex”</a>.</p>
<p>It has been an awkward few years for the Home Office and UK Border Agency (UKBA), which was <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21941395">abolished in spring 2013</a>. UKBA was long berated by right-wing commentators who complained it did not keep enough immigrants out and failed to closely monitor those who did make it here – but human rights organisations have produced ample evidence that the British state’s methods of immigration control, including detention and dispersal, can seriously affect the mental and physical health of asylum seekers. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.irr.org.uk/news/another-preventable-death-in-immigration-detention/">The recent death of Christine Case</a> is the 14th death in an Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) in the past 10 years. Emma Mlotshwa, co-ordinator of the campaign group Medical Justice, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/mar/30/yarls-wood-immigration-centre-detainee-dies">responded by saying</a>: “The only thing we are surprised about is that there have not been more deaths.”</p>
<h2>Rendered vulnerable by the state</h2>
<p>In general, detained and incarcerated people can be made vulnerable to <a href="http://www.freedomfromtorture.org/sites/default/files/documents/rape_singles2.pdf">physical and sexual abuse</a>. Their vulnerability often arises from the unequal distribution of power between the incarcerated and those charged with securing them. Particular issues arise in holding women in detention, since women are disproportionately victims of sexual abuse in society more generally. These specifically include the potential for re-traumatisation based on earlier instances of sexual abuse and torture, and the threat of further sexual abuse.</p>
<p>Women for Refugee Women’s latest report, <a href="http://refugeewomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/WRWDetained.pdf">Detained</a>, found that of 46 female interviewees who had been held in detention in the UK, 33 had been raped in their home country. In its earlier 2012 report, <a href="http://www.refugeewomen.com/images/refused.pdf">Refused</a>, 66% of the women in the sample had experienced gender-based violence, and 32% of those women had previously been raped by soldiers, police or prison guards.</p>
<p>When I interview medical doctors, support workers or psychologists about the impacts of sexual violence on women seeking asylum, I often find a recognition that many women have left countries where sexual violence in detention is endemic, or where rape is widely used as a weapon of war – and from this, the assumption arises that they have made it to safety. As one interviewee once commented: “They don’t trust police or prison guards here because they don’t know it is different to their own country.”</p>
<p>After <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/sep/21/sexual-abuse-yarls-wood-immigration">allegations of sexual abuse</a> at Yarl’s Wood were made last year, the Home Office – as enforcer of border controls – was widely condemned over, but the outsourced management of the IRC to Serco allowed the government to put some distance between itself and the guards’ abuse.</p>
<p>Yet the government is not wholly innocent. Of course, there are individuals’ accountable for perpetrating sexual violence against women in Yarl’s Wood, and not all guards abuse their power in this way. Private security companies <a href="http://www.irr.org.uk/news/g4s-and-housing-abuse-of-asylum-seekers-the-truth-emerges/">have received criticism</a> for various other abuses. But it was government policy that allowed for women to be detained in situations that made them vulnerable to a specific kind of sexual violence. </p>
<h2>Wall of silence</h2>
<p>It was the Home Office that’s <a href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/clare-sambrook/uk-government-deports-sexual-assault-witnesses">first response</a> was not to gather evidence and move forward to hold those accountable, but to deport witnesses to their country of origin. It was the Home Office that moved to silence women survivors of, and witnesses to, sexual abuse.</p>
<p>Survivors of sexual violence are often faced with a wall of silence, be it through social stigma, shame or fear of reporting. Add to this a perpetrator who has the power to detain, restrain, search or report you, and who can exploit a fear of forced return to the country you have fled. It is a braver woman than I who stands up to this level of state power.</p>
<p>Women in Yarl’s Wood face indefinite detention, forced removal, use of restraint, roll call four times a day – and <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/02/detention-centre-shames-britain">the threat or use of sexual violence</a>. More broadly, and as already discussed, dispersal has been shown to impact on women’s safety in relation to trafficking, sexual exploitation, and even perinatal care.</p>
<p>Women who have fled domestic and/or sexual violence, conflict-related sexual abuse, female genital mutilation or so-called honour-based violence, live in fear of forced return to their country of origin and the persecution that they migrated from in the first place.</p>
<p>Thus, when we speak of state violence, or teach younger generations about violent governments and institutions, we should not limit our attention to other countries in other times. We need only look at our own government’s treatment of those seeking political or economic refuge – survivors of torture, sexual violence, and persecution – to see state power manifest as degrading, dehumanising violence.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>A conference in Liverpool on May 16 – <a href="http://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/civicrm/event/info?id=35">How Violent is Britain?</a>– will examine this issue in detail. This is part of a series of articles on this theme on The Conversation.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25519/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victoria Canning does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Late in 2013 Lib Dem MP, Sarah Teather, challenged the government to ensure that any reports into allegations of sexual assault at Yarl’s Wood detention centre compiled by private operators Serco are made…Victoria Canning, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Liverpool John Moores UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.