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June Monthly Luncheon with Sister Brigid Arthur
June Monthly Luncheon
Wednesday, 1st April 2022 Sr Brigid Arthur CSB AO Justice for the people seeking asylum in Australia
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Sister Brigid Arthur gave a presentation on the topic “A reflection on Australia’s response to asylum seekers” at the October 2011 Monthly Luncheon. We are pleased welcome her back again to Graduate House. At the June 2022 Monthly Luncheon, Sister Brigid shared her ongoing work in seeking justice for the people seeking asylum in Australia.
Let me start by reminding us all of a quote from Malcolm Fraser who said that “As long as there is war and persecution anywhere in the world, there will be people fleeing to safety no matter how or when it happens”. It is the inalienable right to seek safety which was recognised after World War II, though Australia has never enforced that right in our domestic laws, and as a result, we are unable to bring cases to court on the basis of the rights of people being here. How did I came to be doing this work? I have always been a teacher, teaching in primary and secondary schools in Country Victoria (Horsham, Kyabram) and Mebourne (Hawthorn, Albert Park, Geelong, Sunshine West). I loves teaching and would find ways to engage with kids. At the time when I was working in Sunshine West, new waves of different people were coming and immersing into our racially diverse community and I was interested in these new arrivals. Within the ethnic mix, mainly dominated by Greeks, Italians and Maltese, the Vietnamese started arriving in the 70s, many working in textile factories. A few decades later, the Vietnamese were accepted into the community because they have been here long enough. And now, new groups of people are arriving, some from wartorn countries like Bangladesh, Afghanistan or Syria. I was living in nearby Ardeer which was full of older women who had survived the 2nd World War. They were Ukrainians, Russians and Polish women, mainly widows who came with their husbands and later died. The women had then been forced across borders or lived under the houses of German farmers with their animals. Because I lived among new migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, I learnt about the difficulties that many faced and I got to know them and was fascinated by their stories. I was part of a justice group who worked on social issues where one of the group people was a refuge, and it was then that we began to realise that there were actually refugees here in Melbourne. We decided to visit the MIDC (Maribyrnong Immigration Detention Centre), to offer help and find out more. However, we were refused entry unless we had a particular person to visit and by sheer chance, a member of this justice group met the cousin of the cook at the MIDC, and through that cook, we obtained a spreadsheet list containing the names of the detainees, their country of origin and their occupation before they got here. I wrote to some of them, mainly to those from Pakistan in the hope that they understand English, and eventually managed to get hold of one contact who was still in detention. I went to the centre in clutches because of an accident and he met me and was using the exact same clutches as me and we had a good laugh. He told me that I was the first person he spoke to in six months, except for the guards and he made me promise to come back to visit, which I did and I got to know him until today. We also learnt of another young Pakistani detainee who was psychiatrically disturbed and was falling apart and that this young man had the opportunity to be released if he paid money. It was later learnt that those who came by boat had to be detained but those who came by plane — and had been in the community for a while, and then put back into a detention centre — could be let out with a fee! I approached immigration and was told that it would cost AU$3000k to have
him released and then later, I realised that with this loophole, we could get more detainees out. By then, the amount was hiked up and the amount had eventually reached AU$50k per release! This man was finally released and we housed him (we were fortunate to find a house in between rentals) and it became apparent later that more was needed to be done for him. He needed care and he was lonely (24 years old) — and that’s when we decided to house more people — not with the idea that we will be looking after more people but that was one need that had to be satisfied. By that time, the Brigidine Asylum Seekers project was housing 300 people, and this is where the huge gap is — these are people who are destituted with nowhere to go unless they got housing and housing was the first step for them before they started looking for employment. So that was how it has grown. As I gradually evolved away from teaching, asylum seekers became my focus. The Brigidine Asylum Seekers Project, which does four things: 1. Provide hospitality and practical support for people seeking asylum; 2. Actively network with like-minded individuals and groups who are working for justice for asylum seekers; 3. Promote advocacy for the rights of people seeking asylum; 4. Engage in education about asylum seekers’ issues Australia has a system of mandantory detention which means if anyone picked up is staying illegal here, they will be put into detention. We are the only country in the world with mandatory detention. We now use remote places like Manus Island, Nauru and Christmas Island. In the past, most were sent to remote places in north of Queensland and Western Australia. I would like to share some stories of the people I have met while doing this work. I first met Ali at MIDC. He was released from detention and had returned to Afghanistan, and when he came back, he was put into detention again, and this time it was in the MBDC (Maygar Barracks Detention Centre) in Broadmeadows. On my first visit, I thought he didnt look that bad, but on this visit, he was shuffling across the room and was barely remembering that he has met me even though it hasn’t been that long ago. I had tried to arrange for a health service for him from IHMS (International Health and Medical Services). IHMS is a health service system contracted by the Australian government to provide primary and mental health care to people in immigration detention in
Australia, and to asylum seekers and refugees residing in Nauru. IHMS also manages the health care of people in community detention through its network of community providers. He was then sent to the Broadmeadows Medical clinic, which I realised was a mistake. His condition will not improve there, and that of the other 15 detainees sent there weren’t either. Most asylum-seekers were given Panadol to treat every ailment with no real consultation. I then advocated very hard for him to return to the MBDC as it was a little better for him than the clinic, and we eventually managed to get him released. Another story is of a man who managed to move his wife and 3 children (a daughter and 2 sons), from Afghanistan to Quetta, Pakistan, thinking that it would be safer there and he was desperate to be reunited with them. He was first granted a bridging visa, and then a TPV (Temporary Protection Visa). TPV holders are not allowed to bring their family along with them. He was in the community, trying to survive with bits of work, and was excited to one day receive a call from his daughter who said that she is “here” in Australia. “I don’t know where she is but I know she is not in Pakistan. Can you find out where she is?” And so we traced that call and found that she had been in Indonesia and had got into a boat from there to Christmas Island. So the first “’here” was in Indonesia and the second “here” was when she rang again from Christmas Island. She had told her father, “They told me this is an island and you can come to see me because its in Australia” and he had to say, “No, its not really Australia and I can’t come but you can ask them to send you to Melbourne.” She did eventually ended up in Melbourne, in a detention centre and I accompanied him to see her and saw that she was the smartest little kid - she was 14 at that time, and had come by herself. We learnt that she tagged behind a family and pretended to belong to that family. That girl went into Year 9, finished school and went onto Deakin University. She finished a Biomedical Science degree...and she never got anything less than a distinction…and if she didn’t get a high distinction, she thought she failed! She was doing a Masters in Clinical Research and working in clinical research at St Vincents Hospital. In the meantime, his wife and 2 sons, while still in Pakistan, survived solely on the money sent to them by their father from here which was hardly enough for them to get a room on their own. The family where they were staying with treated her like a slave but she put up with it and did all the hard work. Being an enterprising person, she eventually applied for an American tourist visa, and had ended up in New York. Both their sons attended school, and with the eldest now nearly 18, the family is closer to obtaining a “Number”, which means, a legal permit to work. Ali was relieved with the news because his daughter and him had been sending money over, and his daughter had been working and studying masters at the same time. With the new government, Ali holds much hope that the TPV he currently holds will be automatically converted into Permanent Visa so that his family can be united with him here. For the first time, there was a spark in his eyes. So in conclusion, detention is a disaster, and in my opinion, unnecessary. Why do we get so much red tape about people coming by boat? I believe detaining people solely due to their immigration status is harmful, expensive and ineffective as a deterrent to migration and the Australian government should stop punishing those who have fled violence in search of a safer life. While the ALP (Australian Labour Party)’s refugee policy includes some positive and welcome changes, such as ending temporary protection and increasing the refugee and humanitarian program, the ALP continues to support the offshore processing policy introduced under Kevin Rudd’s leadership in 2013, and the new government’s plans do not include any change to the cruel offshore processing policy for people seeking asylum.
