Personal accounts from over fifty Australians who became involved with the lives of refugees held in Australian detention centres.
'In recent years, thousands of Australians from all walks of life have been moved to act in support of asylum seekers and refugees and against the Australian government's immigration policy and practice. In 'Acting from the Heart', over 50 people who reflect the diversity of this movement describe how and why they became involved. The contributors shared a sense of disbelief and outrage that 'Australian values' suddenly appeared to include callous self-interest and a disregard for human suffering.
(...more)Editor's note: Writer Rosie Scott outlines the process and the meaning of publishing an anthology of detainees' writing [Another Country].
Scott's piece also includes comment on Tony Zandavar, one of the contributors to Another Country, who was released from detention in 2004.
(...more)Sandy Thorne has written about her experiences working as a detentions officer at Woomera and Curtin (near Derby, W.A.). She describes the conditions the detainees lived under, the facilities and handouts they enjoyed, the constant violence that warranted a large security presence. Riots, lip-sewing, attempted suicides, assaults, extreme clashes of culture, were a constant aspect of detention centre life.Many incidents in this book will shock many Australians, particularly the reaction of some detainees to the September 11 events.
From author's website.
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Biography of an Iranian family fleeing religious and political persecution who were detained in the Woomera Detention Centre.
'Is the life of a child worth the price of freedom? To escape religious persecution in Iran, Zahra and Saeed Badraie made the heart-breaking decision to leave their home behind and find a better life for their family elsewhere. The agent they approached to help them flee told the Badraies that there was only one place the people smugglers could take them: Australia, a far away country, but a generous one that would give them refuge.
(...more)'The book includes extracts from diaries, letters, and other testimony of former UNHCR officers located in Canada, Indonesia, the US and Australia. Among them is 84-year-old Talbot Bashall, who served as Controller of the Refugee Control Centre in Hong Kong. After so many years, these privileged perspectives on the exodus can finally be shared.
'Carina Hoang has also assembled a powerful collection of photographic images, most of which are published for the first time. They are vital to the book's first objective, which is to preserve the historical record for the education of future generations of the global boat-people diaspora.
(...more)'Politicians outdo each other with tough measures to deal with asylum seekers and illegal immigrants. But someone has to look people in the eye and do the questioning, the arresting, the detaining and the deporting. For a time, that someone was Peter Mitchell.
'Hoping for a quiet public-service job, Mitchell walked into the Department of Immigration in 1990 and quickly found himself on the frontline of one of the nation's most divisive issues.
'With the wry humour shared by those in uniform, Mitchell describes his early years collaring illegal workers and visa overstayers.
(...more)'Anh Do nearly didn't make it to Australia. His entire family came close to losing their lives on the sea as they escaped from war-torn Vietnam in an overcrowded boat. But nothing - not murderous pirates, nor the imminent threat of death by hunger, disease or dehydration as they drifted for days - could quench their desire to make a better life in the country they had dreamed about.
'Life in Australia was hard, an endless succession of back-breaking work, crowded rooms, ruthless landlords and make-do everything.
(...more)Published in the anthology Acting from the Heart.
'In this book, 35 refugees, all temporary protection visa (TPV) holders and mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan, talk directly about their quest for asylum in Australia. They provide poignant details of persecution in their home country, their journey to Australia, prolonged periods of mandatory detention, and life under Australia's controversial temporary protection regime.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
(...more)Author's note: In 1991, fleeing the first Gulf War, Batool Albatat's family joined many other Iraqis fleeing their homeland, becoming refugees in Iran. Written when she was fifteen and at school in Melbourne, this is the story of how she travelled from Iran to Australia in 2001.
(...more)Gyzele Osmani fled Kosovo in 1999 with her husband and five small children. Accepting temporary refuge in Australia she was housed in the Bandiana Safe Haven where her youngest daughter received medical treatment for a dislocated hip. Refusing repatriation in March 2000 because the situation in the Presevo Valley was unsafe and her daughter needed further medical treatment, the family was interned for seven months in the Port Hedland Detention Centre before being released to settle in Canberra. Now an Australian citizen, Gyzele is studying Business Administration and her story is the subject of a prize-winning essay and radio program.
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An educated girl from a prosperous family in Iraq finds her world turned upside down by circumstances arising from the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein.
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From the anthology Acting from the Heart.
'I am homeless, I am without a country, without a place, without a family. I'm nothing.'
Since the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, millions of Afghan people have died and millions have fled. The Taliban promised hope, but brought violent oppression and a regime of discipline that saw more people escaping to save their lives. A tiny proportion of these people have found themselves in Australia and these are some of their stories.
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