BY QAMAR NASEEB KHAN
PERTH AIRPORT DETENTION CENTRE — I was born in Kashmir, which has been disputed territory between India and Pakistan for 54 years. Since 1989, 70,000 people have been killed, 12,000 women have been raped and 200,000 are held illegally in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir by Indian authorities.
My father owned a printing press which was sometimes used to publish political material by one of the groups campaigning for independence from India. He was tortured and killed by Indian security forces in 1994. They claimed he had weapons hidden in his press. I went with my mother to see my father's body, which was very distressing as the torture he'd been subjected to was clearly visible. My mother collapsed in a coma and died three months later.
I was very depressed, but returned to my studies with the help of an uncle. My uncle later turned on me because of my father's association with the independence movement. I then went to stay with my best friend, and started to get more involved in the independence movement. We participated in protests.
In March 1996, our house was raided by Indian security forces and we were taken away for questioning and tortured. After 10 days, we were moved to a central prison but were able to escape on the way. We believed we were likely to be executed. We hid in Kashmir for nine months, then went to Punjab in Pakistan. The security forces were still looking for us.
We arranged false travel documents, flew to Thailand and then to Singapore. I travelled to Papua New Guinea, where I planned to seek asylum. Unfortunately, PNG immigration laws have no provision for asylum seekers. I received help from PNG church groups and non-government organisations and stayed there for more than a year, although I regularly informed the immigration department of my whereabouts.
Surviving in PNG was extremely difficult. Being illegal, hardship was an everyday situation. Without proper documents, I couldn't seek employment. I regularly went without food every week. Relying on other people to support me was very depressing. The PNG government left me with no alternative but to seek asylum in another country.
Australia
A friend informed me that a boat was leaving for Australia. It was a terrifying journey as I had never learned to swim and several times we were caught in storms. We arrived in Queensland on September 9, 1998. We gave ourselves up to the authorities and applied for protection visas. I spent a year at Port Hedland detention centre.
After my initial application for refugee status was rejected, I appealed to the Refugee Review Tribunal. This appeal was rejected on January 11, 1999. I have since appealed to the immigration minister, Philip Ruddock, who has rejected my application. After my second appeal was rejected, I escaped over the fence of the Port Hedland detention centre. I was caught and sent to Roebourne prison, then Geraldton and finally to Casuarina prison in Perth. I have been at the Perth Airport detention centre since then.
I have received letters from the immigration department (DIMA) advising me that I don't have any problems in India and can go back. They want me to make a statement to this effect and sign it, but that would be suicidal for me. I am between life and death, after having spent years in detention waiting for my uncertain future.
I think the immigration department deliberately keep us refugees in a condition of physical and psychological hardship for so long, to deter others. My psychologist has stated that, "Mr Khan suffers Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and his mental condition is aggravated by the length of time he has been in detention and the restrictions imposed upon him in that environment."
They are keeping me alive but have taken away my youth, my freedom, my self esteem and my dignity. If I am deported to India I am positive that I will be arrested and detained for questioning as to how I left India illegally. I have very strong Kashmiri physical traits and it is well known from the information provided by Amnesty International and the US State Department that Indian security officials use torture and violence in questioning detainees. I feel my life is at risk.
Conditions
At Perth Airport detention centre, people sleep 10 to a room, with no windows for fresh air. Most people have trouble sleeping because of snoring, teeth grinding and horrible nightmares. There is no privacy. Even criminals have their own cell in prison. The detention centre is secured with walls and electrified fencing. We are surrounded by surveillance cameras.
The conditions in detention amount to mental torture and are an insult to human dignity. The days seem endless. We are desperate and frustrated. There is an inability to concentrate which makes reading, writing and conversation difficult.
Many detainees take sleeping pills and anti-depressants. I have seen a few detainees become psychiatric patients. Self-harm and suicide attempts are common. We feel like we are in a grave with four walls.
Many of us suffer PTSD, and our mental conditions are aggravated by the length of time we have been in detention and the restrictions imposed on us. There is no systematic assessment by trained psychiatrists and as a result many detainees have embarked on protest hunger strikes, break-outs and suicide attempts.
We have one Albanian man here whose wife is in Graylands psychiatric hospital and their children have been removed from them.
Perth Airport has a TV, radio and a copy of the daily newspaper. Woomera only has one newspaper for 1000 detainees, with pages missing where the immigration news has been snipped. There is one TV for the whole centre, but watching the news is prohibited. Groups of detainees are rotated by force to watch one movie once a week. Curtin detention has no TV.
Whenever there is a protest, DIMA and Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) collude to cut all avenues of communication. The TV is cut off if there is a protest at another detention centre. Incoming and outgoing calls are blocked so that the media and human rights organisations have to rely on the official version of events.
Behaviour of guards
Guards make derogatory remarks to detainees. I also have heard racist remarks. Several guards' behaviour have distressed and exasperated detainees. Most treat us like animals and they enforce every regulation with threats and intimidation. After an argument with a detainee, an ACM guard searched the detainees belongings and confiscated everything, including shampoo. The detention environment and guards' behaviour create the circumstances in which detainees lose their temper.
They were clearly attempting to humiliate us and crush our spirit. Most detainees are scared to make complaints because they think it will affect their cases.
We have a detainee from Iran here who was transferred from Woomera detention centre. While he was in Woomera, he was beaten with batons in the back of the head by ACM guards. As a result, he suffers partial blindness in one eye and it has affected his nervous system due to the head injuries he sustained.
We have to "muster" twice a day. Every detainee has to go to the exercise yard, whether they are sick or old. This is a form of torture, showing us who is in command and reminding us that we are prisoners. In other detention centres there is a head count. In this centre, where there are only 28 people, they do the muster unnecessarily.
A few detainees have been wearing one set of clothes for more than a year because ACM provides only emergency clothing if you have nothing to wear. Several detainees have sore or injured feet, yet they have no shoes, and are not provided with any.
A plea to Australian people
The harsh policy of mandatory detention is being brutally administered. Our conscience dictates that we must protest against it, that we must oppose it and we must attempt to alter it!
The detention centres demonise refugees and fuel racism. Nobody should be placed in detention for a long time without having committed any crime. We are human beings. We are branded as "boat people", "queue jumpers" and "illegal migrants" so we feel ashamed. But the truth is that we have had to do this to save our lives.
If the Australian government was persecuting its people on the basis of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or for having a particular political opinion, would it let those people leave legally? Please ask yourself.
[Qamar Naseeb Khan can be contacted by writing to Perth Immigration detention centre, PO Box 286, Belmont WA 6984, or by phone at (08) 9479 1257.]