"All the facilities are better than Curtin, toilets, showers, television. But one big problem, we cannot move out or visit other friends, we have to write a request form every couple of days. it is very hard, like a prison. All over the detention are electric doors and cameras. The cameras move and look at you all the time. There is systematic control - a high level of security - like they have learned from the camps. They have more experience and can really defeat us. They want to make people give up, now they can really make us mad. You have to see everything in front of your eyes, you cannot imagine, its really hard to describe. They say one fence has a strong electric current. we can't see anything but the sky. In Curtin we could see out, we could see some trees and the road which led away to freedom. After the people have called Woomera a hell-hole there is no word for Baxter."(A voice from Baxter)

That sort of says it all. Those points have been confirmed with the other people I have talked to. In general friends have been separated, friends who have helped each other survive the camps and sent to different places and people are feeling homesick for Curtin, and the hell- hole that is Woomera feels good!!! [source: Pamela Curr]

They say there are nine compounds, four in use and five empty. Two are for single men, one for families and one apparently for people of a particular religious group from Iran. They are Blue 1 and 2, Whiskey 2 and Red 1.

There is no free visiting between the compounds as there used to be. You have to apply in writing for permission to visit other people and to visit the DIMIA office. If you are granted permission to see DIMIA, you are taken by guards on a 10 minute journey in a vehicle. The compounds are separated by fences, electric doors and surveillance cameras are in evidence everywhere.

Every time a person visits another compound then returns to their own, they are given a full body search. Every time they visit DIMIA office they are searched. People are allowed to use the gym with permission for one hour at a time. They must submit to a full body search before using the gym. Stripped of dignity, isolated from friends, people become more and more separated, more and more depressed and despairing.

Each person has their own room. There is a television room with television (bad reception on only one channel) and VCR. There is a pool table and a table tennis table (although in one compound there was no net or bats or balls).

Each compound has a dining room but the food is prepared at some central point and brought to the compound. Around three weeks ago the food for dinner ran out in one dining room before everyone had eaten for four consecutive days.

There is no work or not much work, much less than in the camps. ACM employ people at a dollar an hour and the slave wages are used to buy extras, smokes, soap etc..

To send a fax still costs $4 for the first page and $1 for every other but a new charge for photocopying has been introduced, 20c a page.

There is no shop as such. Smokes, telephone cards, shampoo are ordered and later delivered by ACM.

ACM officers are watching screens and have less human contact with the people. Its the maximum security, total surveillance that is the killer. The cameras are all around the compound, in the dining and recreation rooms and while people are watching television someone is watching them on television.

Around three weeks ago there were demonstrations in Red 1 every afternoon for three or four days - the demand was for visas and freedom.

Two weeks ago, the food was so bad the people protested by throwing the inedible chicken onto the floor of the dining room. There was an immediate attack from kitted up and baton- wielding guards and everyone had to return to their rooms.

People who ACM wishes to punish are placed in isolation. (Remember Juliet in Port Hedland and India Hotel in Curtin?) In Baxter the isolation block is a maximum security prison inside a maximum security prison. Cells are single rooms with a toilet. The room is fitted with cameras so people know they are being watched on the toilet. Food is brought to the cell and people may be let out for a few minutes in the 24 hours which make a day.

Actions that lead to isolation maximum security:

A man asked why he was not being given permission to visit friends in the family compound. He had applied in writing following the rules but day after day was not granted the right to visit. After enquiring again when he could go to his friends, he was told ‘Let’s go now!’ and went with ACM. Without warning he was taken to isolation for three days.

Two men who complained about the food on Saturday (Oct 26) lunchtime were taken to isolation after the whole incident escalated because of ACM’s response. The staff immediately closed the dining room and everyone went without food.

Two men were taken to isolation for not saying ‘please’. They were told they had to say please before they were given a glass to drink from. They protested in defence of their dignity.

One man went to isolation because he will not stop asking for the money he earned in Curtin, working. His account should have had $150 in it. He has made four written requests for his trust account balance since he was moved and has been waiting with no result. Costs of purchases are deducted from the account. (Money is not allowed in the prisons.) He became more and more depressed and when his ‘mind broke’ he was removed to isolation for punishment.

One man was refused any medical help for nagging toothache. After days of pain and deepening depression, he attempted suicide and was placed in isolation.

The sentence in isolation ends when ACM chooses to bring a document which the isolated person signs, admitting to ACM’s version of what preceded the lockdown and promising not to do ‘it’ again.

As with all prisons, ‘order’ is maintained with physical and chemical restraints, cameras, electricity, Valium, Zoloft, and Terazepam.

Note

The people locked up in Baxter have committed no offence against the Commonwealth.

Children are locked up in Baxter.

Pamela Curr