Excerpt from the Saturday Paper:
When Graham Thom started advocating for refugees held in onshore immigration detention centres more than 20 years ago, visitors were allowed to take detainees out on excursions and could deliver home-cooked food.
But during his time as a refugee adviser at Amnesty International Australia, Thom saw security increase and the immigration detention network become more like the prison system.
…
Justice and Equity Centre principal solicitor Jonathan Hall Spence says under Serco’s operations there has been “a distinct lack of safety for people in immigration detention”.
The centre settled a claim against Serco and the federal government in 2023 on behalf of an asylum seeker, known as Yasir, who was forced to wear handcuffs when leaving a detention centre to access medical treatment, despite Serco’s own policy stating this should be done only as a last resort.
“For many people in immigration detention they’ll refuse to attend offsite medical appointments because they don’t want to be handcuffed,” says Hall Spence. “That’s degrading and quite distressing for many people.”
