You've been detained for years and nobody can tell you when you'll get out. You are known by your number and you are a refugee, ALISON BEVEGE reports.
EVERY day you wake around 2pm.
Not because you're lazy but because it doesn't make a difference if your eyes are open or closed.
There's nothing to do and nowhere to go.
It was the same yesterday. Tomorrow and the day after will be the same.
You've been detained for years and nobody can tell you when you'll get out.
You are known by your number, the number of the boat you washed in on, and you are a refugee.
Not an asylum seeker or an economic migrant, but a bona fide refugee.
That is what one man says life is like in the Northern Immigration Detention Centre for him and for others who have had their refugee status officially granted, but who await security clearance from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).
It is necessary to check.
In July, federal police were called in to investigate Burmese refugee Htoo Htoo Han who said he had been a war criminal and had killed 24 people in Burma. The Department of Immigration says it won't release any detainees into the community unless they pose no risk and won't abscond. It says it gives priority to unaccompanied minors, families and vulnerable low-risk clients.
But the wait is too long for some.
This month a Sri Lankan Tamil man - granted refugee status but awaiting security clearance - died in Villawood detention centre in New South Wales after drinking poison. He was the sixth person to kill himself in detention in little more than a year.
The man was one of 462 certified refugees around Australia that federal Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has said are awaiting security clearance.
Nestled in the scrub off the highway near Berrimah on the outskirts of Darwin, the Northern Immigration Detention Centre (NIDC) houses 366 detainees, including 35 foreign fishermen.
Morale has been drifting lower over the years as numbers of unauthorised arrivals increased and cases drag on.
"We don't know why it takes so long," a male detainee, who cannot be named, told the NT News. "We don't know exactly what's going on - it never ends.
"You cannot understand what is going on with the process - not even (get) updated info about the case."
The Immigration Department assigns case managers to resolve clients' immigration status and to answer any questions they may have about their case. But those who work at the centre say often the case managers don't have the answers, so clients remain in limbo.
"If I can have two lives and be reborn again, then I would want to kill myself. I'm very distressed and very upset. I'm not happy to be alive in this system," the man said.
He is not alone in his despair. There were 42 threats, three attempts and 23 cases of actual self-harm among detainees at the NIDC from April to June this year, according to Senate Estimates figures. There have been 47 hunger strikes and 16 assaults.
It has been described as a pressure cooker.
Those who visit the centre regularly say sleeping tablets and anti-depressant medication are being prescribed en masse with a majority of inmates taking the drugs.
The Department of Immigration denied a majority are taking anti-depressants but have refused to give the number. Neither would they say how many have been prescribed sleeping pills. They said all medication is prescribed by doctors for legitimate clinical reasons.
The NT News has filed a Freedom of Information request to find the truth.
The NIDC is home to three Rohingya Burmese men, all granted refugee status in early 2010 and who await ASIO clearance.
Two of them have been in detention for two years, the third, 22 months.
The men have a special insight into despair at the centre after they were moved to a small compound in the facility where people who have attempted self-harm are also transferred.
They were involved in a melee earlier this year and as a result, they face Darwin Magistrates Court on January 31.
"Two months in here and (I've seen) more than 30 people here for self-harm and then attempted suicide," said one of the men who cannot be identified. "They attempt self-harm, hanging - they come from hospital here for one to two weeks.
"All are related to mental health. They cannot control what's going on so they try to do something.
"Because they have been a long time in detention they can't find any alternative way to get out and they express it by hanging themselves.
"Even you write to immigration or the immigration minister and they don't care, so they show something. They cannot hold on more and that is the way that they show."
Care workers are concerned for one of the Rohingya men in particular.
Unable to support his family overseas, his wife left him and married another. He has become deeply depressed and worried about his children, believed to be in Malaysia.
He has been sitting on the NIDC roof on and off for the last two weeks.
Care workers say security guards throw tennis balls at roof-top protesters every 10 minutes to encourage them to come down but the distressed man doesn't care.
The unnamed detainee, not on the roof, told the NT News that most inmates at the centre are afraid to speak to the media in case it affects their case - but he has despaired.
"If you follow the rules and wait quietly, nothing," he said. "We have to wise Australian people as to what's going on."
Support is available for anyone who may be suffering depression or other mental illnesses by calling Lifeline on 131 114
Source : www.ntnews.com.au
Not an asylum seeker or an economic migrant, but a bona fide refugee.
That is what one man says life is like in the Northern Immigration Detention Centre for him and for others who have had their refugee status officially granted, but who await security clearance from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).
It is necessary to check.
In July, federal police were called in to investigate Burmese refugee Htoo Htoo Han who said he had been a war criminal and had killed 24 people in Burma. The Department of Immigration says it won't release any detainees into the community unless they pose no risk and won't abscond. It says it gives priority to unaccompanied minors, families and vulnerable low-risk clients.
But the wait is too long for some.
This month a Sri Lankan Tamil man - granted refugee status but awaiting security clearance - died in Villawood detention centre in New South Wales after drinking poison. He was the sixth person to kill himself in detention in little more than a year.
The man was one of 462 certified refugees around Australia that federal Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has said are awaiting security clearance.
Nestled in the scrub off the highway near Berrimah on the outskirts of Darwin, the Northern Immigration Detention Centre (NIDC) houses 366 detainees, including 35 foreign fishermen.
Morale has been drifting lower over the years as numbers of unauthorised arrivals increased and cases drag on.
"We don't know why it takes so long," a male detainee, who cannot be named, told the NT News. "We don't know exactly what's going on - it never ends.
"You cannot understand what is going on with the process - not even (get) updated info about the case."
The Immigration Department assigns case managers to resolve clients' immigration status and to answer any questions they may have about their case. But those who work at the centre say often the case managers don't have the answers, so clients remain in limbo.
"If I can have two lives and be reborn again, then I would want to kill myself. I'm very distressed and very upset. I'm not happy to be alive in this system," the man said.
He is not alone in his despair. There were 42 threats, three attempts and 23 cases of actual self-harm among detainees at the NIDC from April to June this year, according to Senate Estimates figures. There have been 47 hunger strikes and 16 assaults.
It has been described as a pressure cooker.
Those who visit the centre regularly say sleeping tablets and anti-depressant medication are being prescribed en masse with a majority of inmates taking the drugs.
The Department of Immigration denied a majority are taking anti-depressants but have refused to give the number. Neither would they say how many have been prescribed sleeping pills. They said all medication is prescribed by doctors for legitimate clinical reasons.
The NT News has filed a Freedom of Information request to find the truth.
The NIDC is home to three Rohingya Burmese men, all granted refugee status in early 2010 and who await ASIO clearance.
Two of them have been in detention for two years, the third, 22 months.
The men have a special insight into despair at the centre after they were moved to a small compound in the facility where people who have attempted self-harm are also transferred.
They were involved in a melee earlier this year and as a result, they face Darwin Magistrates Court on January 31.
"Two months in here and (I've seen) more than 30 people here for self-harm and then attempted suicide," said one of the men who cannot be identified. "They attempt self-harm, hanging - they come from hospital here for one to two weeks.
"All are related to mental health. They cannot control what's going on so they try to do something.
"Because they have been a long time in detention they can't find any alternative way to get out and they express it by hanging themselves.
"Even you write to immigration or the immigration minister and they don't care, so they show something. They cannot hold on more and that is the way that they show."
Care workers are concerned for one of the Rohingya men in particular.
Unable to support his family overseas, his wife left him and married another. He has become deeply depressed and worried about his children, believed to be in Malaysia.
He has been sitting on the NIDC roof on and off for the last two weeks.
Care workers say security guards throw tennis balls at roof-top protesters every 10 minutes to encourage them to come down but the distressed man doesn't care.
The unnamed detainee, not on the roof, told the NT News that most inmates at the centre are afraid to speak to the media in case it affects their case - but he has despaired.
"If you follow the rules and wait quietly, nothing," he said. "We have to wise Australian people as to what's going on."
Support is available for anyone who may be suffering depression or other mental illnesses by calling Lifeline on 131 114
Source : www.ntnews.com.au
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