An Inside Story: Isobel Blomfield and the Villawood Detention Centre
Photo source: < https://www.facebook.com/HumansOfDetention/photos/pb.993285930731227.-2207520000.1464845161./1098948093498343/?type=3&theater >
Art Artwork: by Miri Badger, artist link: < https://www.facebook.com/badgerart/ >
We don’t hear a lot about detention centres. Australia’s approach to onshore and offshore processing is often so degrading and inhumane that it’s easy to imagine why government would prefer that we remain in the dark. However, for Isobel Blomfield the struggles and hardships of asylum seekers detained in detention centres is a stark, confronting reality. On Friday last week I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to speak with the 3rd year UNSW law student about her experiences volunteering at the Villawood detention centre in Sydney, NSW. I was astonished by how much I learned over a short cup of coffee. Indeed, there is only so much you can discover through the occasional news report. It is so frighteningly easy to remain blind to the issues that I think we all have a responsibility to learn as much as we can about the asylum seeker experience. Hopefully the insight Isobel provides in the following piece is a step towards this.
Introducing Isobel: Volunteering and the evolution of her role at the Villawood centre
Isobel started volunteering at the Villawood detention centre in January last year. Initially she served as a member of a group supporting Asylum Seeker Sydney. Wherever possible, Isobel and her team extended a compassionate hand to detainees. Her group provided a base of social support to asylum seekers who often lacked a network of family and friends to rely upon in Australia. Each week, Isobel and her group members aimed to provide a sense of calm and normality to the otherwise alienating environment at Villawood, often by bringing food and sharing a meal with asylum seekers held at the centre. While Isobel was satisfied in this role, over the course of her work she began to notice systemic issues at the Villawood Detention Centre. Case managers handling the affairs of asylum seekers were often not as responsive to their concerns as Isobel and her team thought appropriate, and displayed a general lack of attentiveness to individual cases overall. These issues exacerbated pre-existing issues already associated with new arrivals at the Villawood detention centre. These individuals were extremely traumatised from past experiences in their homelands, had a limited grasp of English and were systematically deprived of their rights and detained by a government system that they largely did not understand. If case managers could not always provide adequate assistance, who would?
In response to these concerns Isobel began collaborating with other law students. Together they sought to use their legal expertise to provide greater assistance to asylum seekers detained at Villawood. To bridge the gap in the legal knowledge and assistance that is often available to asylum seekers at the detention centre, Isobel works with criminal lawyers, migration agents and advocates to provide as much support as possible to detainees. While Isobel notes that it may be difficult to always act as a “middleman” between asylum seekers and legal and health professionals, she still enjoys the supportive role she and her fellow law students continue to play in their lives. Isobel and her team spend their time building up a rapport with residents at Villawood, and use this strong relationship to bolster their wellbeing as they attend court and tribunal hearings together and act directly as their support persons during these proceedings.
Inside the Villawood Detention Centre
Much of Isobel’s time is spent working inside the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre with asylum seekers directly. Her experience at the centre provides unique insight into the conditions inside and the wellbeing of those detained within. From a practical standpoint, facilities are adequate. Isobel believes that it is not the conditions themselves that are of issue. Rather, the most significant concern is Australia’s use of indefinite detention. This has disastrous consequences for the psychological wellbeing of asylum seekers. Many feel as if they cannot move on or begin a new life in Australia. They are unaware of when they will be released and this makes planning for the future very difficult. As a consequence Isobel has described how residents behave as if they are in limbo. They often cannot sleep at night and fall into irregular sleep cycles. Some stay up to 5 am in the morning, and spend the evening ruminating on their past experiences. There is considerable time for asylum seekers to think and reflect. Where this might be conducive to rehabilitation for a prisoner convicted of an offence, asylum seekers are innocent individuals who have faced extensive periods of trauma and abuse. And yet, they are often made to feel like criminals themselves. Isobel has described how asylum seekers are detained alongside convicted offenders. The government clearly has a hand in taking those who have legitimately fled persecution and placing them in a situation where they are again subject to abuse and vilification.
However, Isobel noted that that the situation at Villawood is not as dire as other detention centres. Over the summer break Isobel visited the Wickham Point Immigration Detention Centre near Darwin in the Northern Territory. While detainees at Villawood may be slowly progressing with their cases, most of the asylum seekers at Wickham point have been detained for years with little to no contact with case managers from the Immigration Department. Isobel recalled how surprised they were when they received legal advice and assistance. Some of the men at Wickham Point have been held for 3 years or more, and Isobel recalled that many of the individuals she spoke to felt as if they were “invisible,” as they believed they had been largely forgotten about and may not even be released from detention.
When considering the alternatives to detention, namely community detention, Isobel described how any greater freedom conferred upon asylum seekers is often illusory. While it is a substantial improvement upon indefinite detention, the government still exerts a considerable amount of control over the lives of asylum seekers. Aasiya, a close of friend of Isobel’s who had previously been detained on Nauru, at Villawood and has since moved on to community detention, has described to Isobel the difficulties she continues to face within the community detention program. Even though she desires to study and pursue a career in social work, the restrictions imposed on Aasiya mean that she cannot be employed and cannot enrol in education programs. Participants in community detention must regularly report to case managers and subsist on centre link payments, which is often difficult considering that all asylum seekers released into the community have a strong drive to live their own lives independently after being detained and deprived of their personal autonomy for so long.
The asylum seeker experience
I asked Isobel about the factors that may contribute to an asylum seeker’s decision to leave their homeland and seek refuge in Australia. She described how there are a number of different considerations driving this decision that are ultimately unique to the individual. For example, Villawood houses a number of Tamil Sri Lankan asylum seekers who have been subjected to persecution in their homelands. Isobel recalls how many of these residents often have extensive scarring over their arms from long periods of government-sanctioned torture. They have all fled their homelands and may have left their families behind because they were in fear of their lives. It is a complete fallacy to suggest that any of the individuals detained in Villawood have decided to come to Australia to seek economic advantage. This is the case simply because the journey that these individuals have to make is often fraught with extreme danger and sacrifice. Travelling to Australia is a considerable undertaking and involves shifting from one nation to the next. Many might be forced to travel to Malaysia or Indonesia and stay there until they are able to complete the next stage of their journey.
However, considering Australia’s boat interception policies, an individual seeking asylum in Australia may be transported to Nauru. Isobel described a conversation she had with Aasiya about the time she spent detained on Nauru. Aasiya recalled how new arrivals at the Detention Centre were sat down in front of a television set and shown a video of a minister of parliament telling them not to “waste their time” and that they will “not call Australia home.” They were advised to make the ‘best decision’ for themselves and their families and return home. The film wreaked havoc across the detention centre. There were multiple suicide attempts by detainees. The pain and anguish that these individuals must have experienced is unfathomable. Each asylum seeker made countless sacrifices to seek refuge in Australia, and yet they were told that all their efforts were in vain.
Interviewing Isobel was an eye-opening experience. Yet it also fills me with a sense of frustration. I felt completely ignorant of the kind of pain endured by these individuals, and I was ashamed of how little I knew of what is really going on. As I have said before, we have a responsibility to at least know about the kinds of experiences that asylum seekers go through. In Australia we quickly take for granted the freedoms that we enjoy in our society, and for whatever reason we view individuals seeking the same kinds of basic human rights and liberties with distrust and animosity. Changing these kinds of xenophobic attitudes must begin with learning more about the asylum seeker and refugee experience. I definitely recommend taking a look at Isobel and her team’s “Humans of Detention” Facebook page. There is some incredible artwork by asylum seekers held at Villawood and some short excerpts detailing their personal stories. Hopefully these might encourage people to endeavour to understand the refugee experience with more compassion and insight.
If you would like to find out more about Humans of Detention, click here.
