Australia has had its own Guantanamo Bay since 2013 and we had no idea. Volv Follow Nov 12, 2018 · Unlisted

For years, Australia has employed a controversial policy for illegal immigrants coming in by sea: it sends them to offshore-holding facilities near Papa New Guinea. Or what the government calls “processing centers”. A quick name change won’t conceal the fact that Australia is holding asylum-seeking refugees in conditions worse than prison.

In 2012, former Australian PM Julia Gillard set up an ‘expert’ panel to investigate and report on the country’s policy options for migrants… and this is what they came up with.

The law was perfectly timed to pass in 2013 when hundreds of refugees were fleeing from violence in Indonesia. Many died or went missing en route. Those caught by Australian authorities were transferred to centers on remote Australian islands, cut off from the rest of the world.

The operation, which has largely been kept under wraps, violates its own human rights agreements due to numerous reports of torture and degrading treatment, lack of health care and other facilities that are leading to grave mental and physical health problems. Experts found rates of depression or anxiety disorders and PTSD among refugees on the island “amongst the highest recorded rates of any surveyed population”.

It’s unclear how Australia got away with their Shutter Island style project for 5 years but their plan was thwarted due to social media. Refugees tweeted gruesome images of their plight using smartphones that were smuggled onto the island helping journalists gain insight on the conditions. A charity called Gifts for Manus and Nauru helped out by sending phone credit to refugees to help them contact family and stay connected with the outside world.

Luckily, the word ‘democracy’ still means something in Australia. The upcoming 2019 election is making political parties clean up their act. With 65% of voters disapproving the inhumane treatment of refugees, politicians are now changing their tune with grand promises of a better future for migrant children. This might prove difficult to accomplish considering at its peak in July 2013, there were more than 10,000 people detained including 2,000 children.

One of the most prominent detention islands was forced to shut down in 2016 after Papua New Guinea’s government finally came to the conclusion that detaining human beings on remote islands was ‘unconstitutional’. But reports show that there is still no timeline for moving detainees off the island. That’s because refugees are being forced to go back to their war-torn countries or risk being shifted to worse conditions. Making them literally choose between the devil or the deep blue sea.