Withheld Nauru letters designed to 'break' spirits

Transcript

Asylum seekers on Nauru Photo: AFP

An Australian barrister has accused immigration authorities of intentionally withholding 2000 letters of support for asylum seekers at the detention centres on Nauru.

Julian Burnside says the letters were sent by Australians throughout the course of last year, but were returned unopened in bulk to his office in December.

He told Koroi Hawkins he is calling on the immigration department to explain why it repeatedly assured him that the letters were getting through to detainees when they weren't even being processed.

JULIAN BURNSIDE:  After a couple of months, I was contacted by a number of people who had written letters saying that they hadn't received a reply and what was going on, I got into correspondence with the immigration department and they assured me the letters were being received and were being distributed and so then the question became well why are there not any replies getting out, and there was a lot of discussion about that, by Christmas last year I had sent over 2000 letters to people on Nauru and two days before the Christmas break, 2000 unopened letters were sent back to my address by the department of immigration, all the letters had been sent were returned to me unopened, all marked return to sender, no explanation.

KOROI HAWKINS: Do you think this was intentional blocking or more likely a stuff up in the sending of the letters?

JB:  I'm usually inclined to assume that things were a stuff up, but our immigration department is so malevolent that I actually believe that they were deliberately blocked and in so doing, of course, they have committed a criminal offense against the law of Nauru and probably against Australian law as well, but since Nauru is so financially dependent on Australia, I'm sure nothing will be happen as a consequence, but frankly I think the Australian Department of Immigration should be publicly pilloried for its utterly disgraceful behaviour in the way it treats detainees held on Nauru and Manus, and in this particular detail preventing them from getting letters.

KH:  And what would be achieved by isolating refugees from the Australian public in this way?

JB:  The purpose is twofold, first:  to prevent Australians from having any sense of empathy with the people who are held in offshore detention, and second, perhaps this is the primary one, to prevent the detainees from having any sense of hope for their future.  It is a calculated way of breaking their spirit, I've recently been speaking to people who are working with Transfield on Manus, and it is quite clear that everything that is being done there is done with the purpose of breaking the spirit of the people detained there.  I am pretty confident that something similar is happening on Nauru, although I don't have firsthand evidence of it.     

KH:  And going back to the legality of this, can the government be taken to court on stopping letters from reaching people in other islands in this unique detention situation?

JB:  You mean for blocking the letters or for their treatment generally?

KH:  Both

JB:  Ok, for blocking the letters, of course in theory the answer is yes, but both Papua New Guinea and Nauru receive buckets of money each year from the Australian government, and so I think it's reasonable to predict that no action will be taken against them, on the other hand I have worked out a legal theory which would enable the Commonwealth government to be taken to court in Australia for criminal offences constituted by their conduct of affairs in Nauru and Manus island, and I'm not at liberty to explain anything more than that.   

KH: There was a part in the article that said stamps had to be bought in Nauru for letters to be sent back, but it seems to be putting the cart before the house in the fact that the letters were returned unopened?

JB:  Exactly right, for about four months of my correspondence with the department last year, the focus of the correspondence was whether the letters written in reply could bare Australian stamps because as I say with every letter from a member of the Australian public I enclosed an envelope to the letter writer and stamped with the appropriate postage, but in Australian stamps because Nauru does actually recognise Australian stamps, just as they recognise Australian currency, so a great deal of the correspondence the Department of Immigration last year concerned well what's wrong if these letters, if the reply envelopes got Australian stamps, won't Nauru recognise that, well yes they do recognise Australian stamps, but only if those stamps are being bought in Nauru.  How the Post office in Nauru can tell whether a stamp has been bought in Nauru or in Australia is a really interesting question, but it seems all to be part of a diversionary strategy by the Department of Immigration to continue the reassurance that the letters were in fact being distributed to the people to whom they are addressed.

KH:  Finally, just wrapping it up, what are the courses of action from here, does this sway you from sending more letters maybe to the detainees?

JB:  I'm not willing to talk about that publicly, one thing is for sure the government of Australia can be confident that I will not give up on this issue.