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Detention centres branded third world jails
By Steve Cannane for Lateline
ABC TV

An Australian film-maker who visited several Indonesian detention centres has described the "appalling" conditions asylum seekers are being held in.Jessie Taylor has told ABC's Lateline program that conditions in some of these centres are akin to "third world jails".Ms Taylor visited 11 camps and spoke to 250 asylum seekers across Indonesia. She says she saw people with rampant skin diseases and infections caused by poor conditions.

At one site in Lombok, the drinking water was polluted.

"Their water is full of these awful chunks of stuff which they described to us as being faeces and fungus," she said.

She also criticises the size of the cells and the numbers of detainees incarcerated there.

"The jail at Pontianak, which is an equatorial city in West Kalamantan, is one of the worst that we saw," she said.

"There are very large numbers of male detainees - many of them under the age of 18 - in a tennis court-sized cell, which is just a concrete block with your steel bars on it.

"A lot of the faces looking out of the bars were 13 or 14-year-old boys."

She says she met one asylum seeker who had been stuck in Indonesia for nine years.

A moral responsibility

The Rudd Government claims the so-called "Indonesia solution" is both humane to asylum seekers and tough on people smugglers.

Last night on Lateline, Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese said Australia could not take responsibility for those detained in Indonesia.

"Australia had responsibility for Australian law and what occurs within Australia. We cannot, with due respect, take responsibility for everything that happens offshore in other countries," he said.

But refugee advocates claim the Government still has a moral responsibility to those asylum seekers who were seeking refuge in Australia, but ended up detained in Indonesia.

Ms Taylor believes Australia should take more responsibility because it is financially involved in the detention centres.

"The most obvious thing that makes it Australia's responsibility is that we are paying for it. The other thing is there are so many people in Indonesia who have families here," she said.

Waiting behind bars

Somayeh Rezai, a medical science student from Perth, has told Lateline her sister is stuck in Indonesia.

"It's a really hard situation. She is in jail with her husband and two kids. She's the only member of our family who lives outside of Australia," she said.

"During this time my mother got depression and has had a heart attack. I hope the Australian Government can help them to come to Australia."

Dawood Nadiri, a small businessman from Dandenong, has a brother living in detention in Indonesia.

Mr Nadiri is willing to sponsor his migration to Australia and give him a job.

His brother, Khaliqdad Nadiri, was kidnapped by the Taliban nine years ago. His family presumed he was dead, but he escaped from the Taliban and made it to Indonesia.

Dawood Nadiri realised his brother was alive when he saw footage of him on ABC news.

"It's my dream day to see each other. After eight or nine years it's a long time. I miss him," he said.

"I thought the Taliban had killed him. Now we are feeling lucky he is still alive."

Ms Taylor visited Khaliqdad Nadiri in Pontianak and was able to show him footage of his brother on her mobile phone.

She is seeking funding to turn the footage she captured in Indonesian detention centres into a documentary.

"In order to stop the boats, all the Rudd Government needs to ensure [is that] there is a well-run, well-managed processing procedure in Indonesia," she said.

"And secondly, to increase our resettlement intake slightly to accommodate these people."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/27/2725761.htm