The average time that an asylum seeker can expect to languish in Australia’s concentration camp system has quadrupled in a year, according to figures from the Department of Immigration. In July 2013, asylum seekers spent an average of 75 days in detention. Now the figure is 305 days.
Australia’s immigration detention regime is a world leader in cruelty. In the US, the average detention period is 30 days, in Canada it’s 25 days and in France it’s 10 days, according to the Global Detention Project.
“This minister is not only trying to deter people by interdicting boats, turning them back, and so on. He’s also instituting a policy of punishment for those that are here already”, says Pamela Curr from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.
Seeking asylum is not a crime. Yet people are doing hard time for fleeing persecution. Is it any wonder that rates of anxiety, depression and self-harm are so prevalent in detention camps?
