A veil of secrecy over detention centres and a lack of willingness by media to challenge this, has resulted in ignorance about the conditions.
No asylum seeker in detention is allowed access to his/her mail until it has been opened and read by DIAC staff.
Letters arriving in another language are sent to a department where interpreters read the mail for DIAC before it can be handed over.
People tell us that sometimes they are told up to 10 days in advance that a letter has arrived for them but they have to wait until it has been read and released.

Life in detention is observed by cameras. People’s names are checked off at every meal. If they do not eat they are asked why. If they miss a few meals they are placed on a watch list and interviewed about their ” non compliant behaviour”. Their names can be sent to Canberra and this will be enough for the Minister to refuse a Bridging Visa or Community detention.
Guards are required to enter the rooms and check people around midnight and again before dawn. Sympathetic guards “dont shine the torch in our faces ” – but others do. Families are included in this checking system. It is a cause of distress for children having strangers enter their rooms in the night. SERCO dictate to staff that these are now called “welfare checks”.

Every morning in detention camps and centres there is a meeting at which lists are updated about people who are non-compliant i.e. suicidal, psychotic , depressed
or who are on VS (voluntary starvation)i.e. hunger strike. The Non compliant are put on PSP- Psychological Support Program – renamed from SASH (Suicide and Self Harm) or suicide watch. The suicide word is banned now. Lists are sent to Canberra of the “offenders”.

Advocates re continually fighting for the right to take food into the centres- this is allowed and disallowed on some wierd sort of rotation. When the privilege is won in one place it will be removed in another. A nun renowned for taking her home cooking of biscuits , cakes and other treats to those in need of cheer and who “has not poisoned anyone in 50 years” was blocked until wiser heads prevailed but now we learn that Families in another camp are being denied their own special foods prepared by family and community members.
The bottom line is that Canberra dictates and controls every aspect of the lives of the vulnerable people in our detention camps and centres ( see below ).
Is it any wonder that these places are in the words of eminent psychiatrist Professor Pat Mc Gorry – “factories for producing mental illness”.

pamela curr

Shane,

With respect my brother, Yagera elders agreed to run the sovereign embassy.

People should not disrespect the aunties and uncles.

35 had been arrested, there was a lot of weariness and tension about what to do next.

Thankfully, the aunties stayed until what was a difficult five hour meeting where we discussed sovereign business, rules of the camp, the legal strategy, the political strategy and much more.

Despite all the yelling and upset at the end the aunties brought us together and we stood and hugged each other in unity.

We should not fight against each other — but, believe me, nothing is worse than working with Quirk, Seeney, Gamin Newman and all the fakers and liars in the government.

Ian
19 May 2012

As many are no doubt aware, on the 16/5/12, 200 Police Officers, on the orders of QLD Premier Campbell Newman, and Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk descended upon Musgrave Park to forcibly remove the Aboriginal Tent Embassy that had been there since March 2012. The reason given by both parties was that the area needed to be cleared for a festival. The attitude of these politicians towards the Tent Embassy participants was appalling and offensive, with Newman referring to them as “squatters”, and the BCC threatening arrest for “trespassing”… read more @ http://www.nteu.org.au/indigenous/article/Indigenous-business-is-Union-business—Musgrave-Park-Tent-embassy-12725/replySubmit/1

http://www.childrenslegalcentre.com/userfiles/file/19-04-11heathrow.pdf

Age assessment by x-ray: “imprecise, unethical and potentially unlawful”

New Scientist:
Attempts to assess age with X-ray scans of teeth or wrists are doomed
to failure, according to work to be published this week in the British
Medical Bulletin. The fundamental flaw with such tests is that, because
children grow at widely different rates, skeletal maturity shown on
X-rays – which is used to gauge age – doesn’t necessarily match
chronological age. [10]Read more
Links:
10.http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21428644.300-with-no-paper-trail-can-science-determine-age.html

British Medical Bulletin:
There is evidence that radiography (X-rays) of bones and teeth, which
is increasingly relied upon by immigration authorities, is imprecise,
unethical and potentially unlawful, and should not be used for age
assessment. [11]Read more (subscription required for full download)
__________________________________________________________________

–
Pamela Curr
Campaign Coordinator
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre
12 Batman st West Melbourne 3003
ph 03 9326 6066 / 0417517075

“NO ONE CHOOSES TO BE AN ASYLUM SEEKER”

theft , break ins , robbery and armed robbery , drug dealing and importation , running prostitution ,

assaults , rape , murder and so on .

This organisation has long tradition of harbouring the criminal elements , they treasure and cherish

the individuals acting against the society .

And – the mother of all crime – FRAMING OF PETER MARKAN .

There have been attempts to declare as ‘ criminal organisation ‘ and ‘ to ban the existence ‘

of motorcycle enthusiasts clubs unsympathetically called by proponents of such solution as

‘ bikies gangs ‘ .

The prominent arguments is that – ‘ if 1% of members of an organisation committed criminal offences

that is sufficient to deem the whole organisation as potentially criminal ‘ .

In the view of the above , I am proposing to declare Queensland Police Service

as criminal organisation and to disband it !

There shouldn`t be much objections !

All those people proposing such action towards motorcycle enthusiasts clubs should support it ,

otherwise they might be called hypocrites by not wanting to apply the same law for everybody and

every organisation within the same jurisdiction .

Many lawyers , judges , journalists and people of public importance expressed support for such laws ,

legislators are in favour as well .

Previously similar actions towards organisations considered harmful for a society have been successful –

best example is Russian Communist Party .

If such action succeeded with the multi million members strong , politically , economically and

militarily powerful organisation – there should not be problem with few totally corrupt misfits .

So everything is kosher , lawful , legal and possible !

Lets do it !

I received a letter from a person saying that ‘ not all police are bad ‘ . Yes , statistically that should be correct .

Among over 10 000 police in Queensland ( plus thousand others serving in the last 50 years ) there should be

at least one shining example of someone courageous and honest standing up to corruption and rottenness

in their ranks – WHO IS THAT PERSON ???????

It should be shamefully embarrassing that I found stories of honest police in NSW

( Simon Illingworth and Deborah Locke – and I am paying my respect to them in aaalinks.html ) ,

in Victoria BUT NOT IN QUEENSLAND !!!!

All I found are stories of their crimes and corruption . The most hideous for me was the case of colleagues showing ‘ solidarity ‘ when policeman rapist – Peter Anthony Buxton – was sentenced in Maroochydore court

for sexual assaults on several arrested women held in Maroochydore POLICE STATION !

Queensland protectors of community safety ?!

.

Information about my battle with the devilish forces in barbaric Queensland

( with the copies of relevant documents ) is on

- http://www.petermarkan.org

- http://www.queenslandinstitute.org

and some others .

.

You are receiving this email as the person of public importance and

the matters this message refer to are not only personal but also public

importance as well .

Respectfully

Peter Markan

ACTU (Australian Class Traitors United) Congress in Sydney 2012 : Priceless … Bon Hawke as Prime Minister was the union buster who fucked over the BLF in 1986, sent in the air-force to break the pilot’s strike in 1990 has the bloody nerve to sing Solidarity Forever ? “Bump Me Into Parliament” wold be more appropriate.
Note: The song was written by Ralph Chaplin IWW.
The IWW in Australia was made illegal in 1917 for anti-Trade War conscription campaigning. Persecuted and jailed organisers by Billy Hughes the ALP Prime Minister – like Hawke former union bureaucrat.

Socialist Alternative Marxism 2011′s Got Talent Star sings “Bump Me Into Parliament”

That the UQ branch of the NTEU stands in solidarity with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people struggling for their sovereign rights at the Musgrave Park Tent Embassy.

The branch deplores the action by the Brisbane City Council and Queensland Police in forcibly removing the Tent Embassy.

We call on the union movement to engage in a dialogue with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander activists at the Embassy and their respective organisations, in order to mobilise unionists in support of their just cause.

Passed unanimously

The State Secretary will raise the issue with the QCU (Queensland Council of Unions) at their next meeting.

In solidarity
Lachlan Hurse
NTEU Organiser

http://www.scribd.com/doc/82859010/Direct-Action-Autumn-2012

This may be of interest to some of your readers.
http://www.radicalsocialist.in/articles/statement-radical-socialist/news/481-magan-desai-1929-2012?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+radicalsocialist+%28Radical+Socialist%29

“Brisbane City Council has threatened to move Aboriginal Sovereign Embassy in next 12 hours. People needed at Musgrave Park now. Bring friends and cameras.”