BY SARAH STEPHEN
Woomera detention centre is hell on Earth. Located in the middle of the South Australian desert, it can reach 40 degrees in summer and is freezing cold in winter. There are no trees or shade, nothing but the scorching sun. Opened in November 1999, Woomera has the capacity to hold 1400 asylum seekers, five times the size of the Woomera township's population.
Suicide Prevention Australia chairperson Michael Dudley describes Woomera as a concentration camp that could cause irreparable psychological damage to children held there. "Kids there are exposed to episodes of violent behaviour, tear gas and sometimes there are night raids and searches, they're in solitary confinement at times and separated from their parents", he told John Laws' radio program on January 21.
Ziyad (not his real name), a refugee from Iraq recently released from Woomera who now lives in Adelaide, recounted the effect of detention on some of the children he knew. One friend's child weighed 11kg when he arrived in Australia, Ziyad explained. That child was still 11kg nine months later, and he doesn't talk. "He used to love cars, but after seeing the water cannon trucks pounding detainees with water, he is now afraid at the sound of a car. I have other friends whose 10- and 13-year-old daughters have started to wet the bed."
91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly also spoke to Barbara Rogalla, a nurse at Woomera detention centre until June 2000. She is now a refugee rights activist. "I remember on the hottest day in 2000 it was 48 degrees at 8pm in Port Augusta. It would have been hotter in Woomera. Wind blows grit into your eyes. There is no privacy, detainees can't lock up their rooms. Patrols can come in at any time of day or night."
Rogalla explained that room checks often mean everything gets turned upside down and guards walk away to leave residents to clean up.
Ziyad added, "There is nothing to do. It is almost indescribable. Each day is the same, every minute passes slowly. You live the same life as a plant — you sleep, eat, pass the time until you can sleep again. You stop thinking. The rooms are so small, you feel choked. You feel like you can't breathe. Flashlights are shined in your eyes at night when they do a head count.
"After buildings were burnt in December, riot officers forced people to stay in their rooms. Nobody was allowed to leave their rooms at night. One officer tried to bash a woman who wanted to go to the toilet."
Federal immigration minister Philip Ruddock has said that asylum seekers can go home if they don't like conditions in detention. The Australian government has decided conditions are suitable for them to go back to Afghanistan.
"I think Ruddock should convince everybody by going there first, preferably in a landmine infested area. He can then set an example by demonstrating the level of safety", Rogalla remarked.
"If there were no problems in our countries", Ziyad added, "there is no way we would risk our lives fleeing to Australia, then put up with one or two years in detention. If we could go back to our countries without fear for our lives, we would! I had a good job in my country, I was a first-class citizen; now I'm a second-class citizen in Australia."
"Human rights abuses are just as unacceptable for adults as they are for children", Rogalla told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly. "When I first set eyes on the Woomera detention centre, I said to my work colleagues, 'These are concentration camp conditions. We are calling people by a number and we are locking them up behind fences topped with razor wire. One day this will come back to haunt us'.
"It reminded me of a Nazi concentration camp I visited in Czechoslovakia, now a museum. The only thing that was missing from the gate, at the top near the razor wire, was a sign saying 'Arbeit macht frei' ('Work sets (you) free')."
"There have been many hunger strikes and buildings burnt at Woomera. People should ask why. What is the reason?", declared Ziyad. "The immigration department guidelines say that each detainee must be informed about processes in his or her own language. This doesn't happen! The government breaches every human right in Woomera."
"Some are ready to die. For some it is the only choice left. You are either free or dead. Being in detention you might as well be dead. One man I know, who has finally been released with his family, his children don't trust him and his wife anymore, because they were so traumatised in the detention centre. They are receiving psychiatric treatment, but every night they have nightmares."
Ziyad estimated that if Ruddock was put in Woomera, with no information about why he was there and what he had done wrong, and not told what he needed to do to be released, he would last a maximum of a week before he, too, would start to protest.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, January 30, 2002.
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