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Workers Power Global, Melbourne
In a heroic protest against barbaric conditions and government refusal to even process their claims for asylum, hundreds of Afghan refugees went on hunger strike in January. With their lips sewn together to prevent force feeding, the detainees prepared to face death to bring attention to their plight.
The hunger strike began at Woomera and spread to detention centres around Australia. After months of rising tension and rumours of harsh treatment, the final straw came when the refugees discovered that the Immigration Minister, Philip Ruddock, had called a halt to the processing. Cynically declaring that he would not give in to "duress", Ruddock defended the governmentâs policy by arguing that, with the Taliban defeated, the refugees no longer had any reason not to go back.
He clearly hasnât read the UN report that admits that Afghanistan remains the hardest country in the world in which to survive.
After several days, Ruddock had to relent and agree to continue processing claims. But this was only after several people in Woomera, including teenagers, had tried to commit suicide by poisoning themselves and another group attempted to hang themselves with bed sheets.
Statements smuggled out of the detention centres paint a harrowing picture of life inside. Woomera is in the middle of the South Australian desert temperatures up to 40 degrees are not uncommon. Until recently, none of the buildings had air conditioning only a few do even now. There is little shade and even less to do. There is not enough work to go round and reading material is strictly limited. The food is not good and there is insufficient education for the many children, some of whom are unaccompanied.
On top of this, detainees report regular verbal abuse from the guards and beatings and other ill treatment. In Maribyrnong, in central Melbourne, detainees complain of being woken at regular intervals each night, with torches shone in their faces. Letters must be written where the guards can see, visits, even by relatives, are difficult to arrange and people report that even their phone calls are monitored and cut off by the guards.
All of this means that the detainees, people who have done nothing more than escape their own countries without their passports, are kept in far worse conditions than those in the countryâs prisons.
Ruddockâs answer to all of this has been simple if people donât like it they can go home! But, of course, this simply is not true. For a start, they have no money and the Australian government certainly wonât give them any. He also forgets to mention what would be waiting for them if they could return.
Quite apart from the destruction of their homes and jobs by indiscriminate US bombing in Afghanistan, many would face persecution and death just because they fled. Ruddock also forgets to mention that almost all the people currently in detention camps will eventually be deemed refugees, even by the UNâs extremely stringent criteria that exclude people who are "only" escaping poverty.
Perhaps most seriously, Ruddock forgets the fate of Iraqi and Palestinian refugees who have their requests for asylum turned down. They have absolutely nowhere to go. There are no diplomatic links with their countries they canât even be sent back. They are left in limbo, a life sentence in the camps.
Ruddock and the Howard government have come under increasing pressure in the past few weeks. Not only have the media begun to speak out against the lack of access to the camps and the conditions that detainees endure, but a prominent immigration advisor resigned in disgust and a growing range of church and community groups have begun to speak out.
But most important of all have been the demos in solidarity with detainees in general and the hunger strikers in particular. There have been large demos all over Australia for the last couple of weeks, in the major cities and outside the detention centres. It has been this show of support that has encouraged detainees at Maribyrnong to call off their six-day hunger strike.
But they have not yet been enough to make Ruddock or Howard rethink their policy of mandatory detention.
The Socialist Alliance across Australia has promised to continue to struggle with the Refugee Action Collective and the wide range of other progressive groups who are part of the struggle to close the camps, to end mandatory detention and to open the borders. Socialist Alliance is the only political party in Australia with a clear open the borders policy and its continued support and activism is essential.
The most important task now is to win the bulk of the trade union movement, which has a proud history of involvement in social and political struggles, to the task of freeing the refugees and winning a real working class and internationalist solution.
Given the racist backlash that Howard whipped up to gain re-election, this may be a harder task than it should be.
Meanwhile, the demonstrations will continue and, inside the camps, people remain on hunger strike, with new threats of mass suicide appearing all the time. The continued show of solidarity from outside is vital to support the detainees and to mobilise opposition to the racist bigotry of the government and its supporters.
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