From Nicholas Kerr, Friday, July 9

WCC general secretary, Rev Dr Samuel Kobia, has called on the Australian Government to abandon its policy of mandatory detention of asylum seekers.
He said the policy violated human rights and was totally unchristian.
Dr Kobia said at a press conference in Adelaide, South Australia, he had never seen anything like Baxter Detention Facility, just outside Port Augusta, anywhere in the world.
“The image of Australia has been gravely damaged by what is happening in these detention camps,” he said.
“I think it’s a great disservice to Australia to have this kind of policy and to maintain the types of camps I saw yesterday.”
Dr Kobia said the high-tech detention centre was like a refugee camp.
He described how he felt going into Baxter.
“Walking through the gates of Baxter Detention Centre I got the impression of a maximum security prison,” he said.
“You have the gates opened and then shut behind you before you move to the next gate. This seems like a place for hardcore criminals, for people  that would be considered as dangerous and therefore should be locked away completely.
“This reminded me of the pictures I have seen of Guantanamo Bay – without the chains and the uniforms.
“But then there is the electrical fence.
“I talked to the detainees there. They were attending service with the Eucharist.
“Looking at their faces you clearly get the impression that here are people who are depressed. Depression is written all over their faces. There is no question about that.”
About 60 to 70 detainees attend Christian services in the facility’s visitors’ centre every week..
“I could clearly see that there are people who are depressed.
“Many of them complained of psychological and emotional torture, because there they are, day in and day out, sitting there, not knowing what tomorrow will bring for them.
“They feel things are considerably better even for criminals who have been imprisoned. They know they are serving a sentence of, say, four years. But for them it is limbo really.
“This is one of the most depressing things for any human being.”
Dr Kobia said he had spoken to officers and administrators in the detention centre.
“I got the impression that it is a place that is very well managed, without any mistreatment.
“It’s a wrong policy well administered.
“Many of the detainees told me that they had been put in what I call solitary confinement but what the management call correctional management.
“I felt this was not a good thing to do. If you have a person you fear may endanger themselves, and then you confine them to a small place, closed in, except for three to four hours a day, that is not the way to treat them.”
He said he had not seen anything like this before.
He compared the way some asylum seekers are treated in Australia with the way asylum seekers are being treated in some African countries.
“The way asylum seekers are treated under this particular policy is unique,” he said.
“I compare this with Tanzania, for example, a very poor country, a country that handles hundred of thousands of refugees. They are put in communities where they have freedom, even to interact with the people.  They are given activities, and so they are busy.
“Chad, which at the moment is handling over 350,000 Sudanese asylum seekers from Dafur. They don’t subject people to this kind of thing.
“I am aware that Australia does have thousands of refugees who have been admitted into this country. In fact, there are many of us who have previously cited Australia as the best model of how to receive asylum seekers.
“But this particular policy is what concerns me most.
“It is quite OK to say that the Government has to deal with national security. I didn’t get the impression that the people at Baxter are the kind of people who would pose a security problem for Australia as a country.”
Dr Kobia said the detention policy was a denial of human rights.
“When you have people locked up in that kind of a place for years, obviously you are denying them the right to be normal people in a situation, whether they are asylum seekers or not,” he said.
‘The people also complained of intimidation, blackmailing. Those who have decided to go on hunger strikes, for example, are clearly denied the right to do what they want.
“I think intimidation and blackmailing could be the case here.
“They are promised, if they stop (the hunger strike), they will be given better treatment. But of course this is not the case.
“This is a concern we have as Christians for people who are denied their rights, even to know what their future is going to be. That seems to me a violation of human rights and totally unchristian.”
The Australian Government maintains its policy of mandatory detention has been a success because the number of “illegal” arrivals has dropped.
“I don’t know whether the drop of the asylum seekers is a result of these draconian measures,” Dr Kobia said.
“If we could consider this as a success, it is really at the expense of the emotional, psychological and mental state of hundreds of people. I don’t think then we could call that a success.
“My recommendation to the Australian Government is to abandon this altogether and to resort to the normal way of handling asylum seekers.”
Dr Kobia was asked if he thought the detainees were getting appropriate psychiatric support.
“I talked with quite a number of them,” he said. “Certainly they are not satisfied that they are getting adequate support here.
“They are very pleased that churches have organised this whole event, to be visited, to be talked to, to be listened to, to participate in the Eucharist, as we saw yesterday.
“That’s very good for their spirits. But what is organised as psychiatric or psychological support for them is not sufficient.”
Towards the end of the press conference Dr Kobia was asked: “Can I just clarify – you have not seen anything like this in your travels anywhere in the world?”
“No, I have not seen anything like this anywhere else,” he said.
“Clearly, those of us from the international community have been made to look at the image of Australia, which has been gravely damaged by what is happening in these detention camps. 
“It’s a great disservice to Australia to have this kind of policy and to maintain these types of camps that I saw yesterday.
 “The Australian churches have done a commendable job, from my point of view, of campaigning and advocating for the detainees,” he said. “Whatever we do we will do it together.
“I will speak quite openly about this in the international community.
“I believe that, where a situation like this exists, it is not only the concern of Australian interests and Australian people who advocate for human rights. It is (the concern of ) the international community.
“I will be speaking about this quite openly internationally.”

Photo: Sam Kobia at Baxter detention centre (Kerr)