“Hello my oppressors and heartless prison officers … Do you know me? I am the same suffering and miserable mother who repeatedly begged you to help … My 26-year-old son had his last breaths in your mouldy tents and closed his beautiful eyes to your abomination, injustice, and disgusting policies. You even hesitate to provide him a bottle of cold water.” – Fazileh Mansour Beigi, mother of the deceased Fariborz, Nauru, 24/6/2018.
In June 2018 I received a press release from the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) in Sydney titled:
‘THREAT LEVEL RAISES ON NAURU AFTER ASLUM SEEKER DEATH.’
It read in part: “RPC 3 is the detention centre (on Nauru) where around 250 people including children live in mouldy tents. Farhad’s (his real name is Fariborz) body was found in a tent in RPC 3.
The Nauru government has said that they are waiting for a doctor to come from Australia to perform an autopsy to confirm the cause of death.
“But we already know that Peter Dutton and offshore detention is responsible for Farhad’s (Fariborz) death,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson from the Refugee Action Coalition”.
The death toll in detention on Manus and Nauru was already high, I received these sad details from my sister who is a refugee activist in Melbourne.
On Manus
Reza Barati, 23-year-old Kurdish-Iranian asylum seeker, murdered, 17 February 2014
Hamid Kehazaei, 24-year-old Iranian asylum seeker, died after medical neglect,
5 September 2014
Kamil [Hussain], 34-year-old Pakistani, died at waterfall, 2 August 2016
Faysal Ishak Ahmed, 27-year-old Sudanese, died of seizure after medical neglect, 24 December 2016
Hamed Shamshiripour, 31-year-old Iranian, suicide, 7 August 2017
32-year-old, Sri Lankan Tamil, suicide, 2 October 2017
and today a 32 year old Rohingyan refugee, fell from bus, 22 May, 2018
On Nauru
Omid Masoumali, Iranian refugee, 29 April 2016 after setting himself on fire
Rakib, Bangladeshi refugee, suicide by pills, 11 May 2016
Bangladeshi refugee, killed on a motor bike 2 November 2017
Late last night I received this email from a teacher of English as a second language:
“On June 15 2018 Fariborz Karami suicided on Nauru after years in Australian created migration limbo.
For months his body was held in a makeshift morgue as his mother pleaded for his body to be moved and buried in Australia.
His body can now be buried in Australia, and the Refugee Action Coalition are collecting money to assist with the cost of burial.
Fazileh Mansour Beigi in the
slaughterhouse and torture house of Nauru
24/6/2018
‘You hate us that much?’ This what the mother of Fariborz asks in her letter to the authorities. I think it can be safely concluded that Muslims have replaced aboriginal people as the most scorned and reviled people by ‘mainstream’ Australians.
Aboriginal people were scorned by the mere fact that they were already here when Australia was colonized by the British.
Settlers would use any excuse to absolve their crimes of dispossession. And they still are making the same absurd claims such as Aboriginal people don’t look after their children.
However if you watched the AFL Grand Final last week you could see how Aboriginal people have won some approval from mainstream Australians, mainly through their prowess at sport and through the arts (Music, Dance, Film).
The most recent arrivals, Muslims, are not so lucky, they are most scorned and reviled. Why? Because they fled war and famine? Religion? Race? Culture?
We are not a multicultural society while we scorn people fleeing from developing countries.
The RAC June press release went on:
“Mental illness and medical neglect is deliberate government policy. Peter Dutton is quite willing to let people die and pretend that the Nauru government is responsible, ” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.
This must change. Those who claim stopping the boats is saving lives are wrong.
Ian Curr
3 October 2018
A letter from Karami’s mother to the Australian government: