This message is from an Iranian asylum seeker being held in Baxter Detention Facility, just outside Port Augusta, South Australia. He will meet Rev Dr Samuel Kobia today in Baxter. He cannot give his name. He feels it could jeopardise the chances of the Australian Government granting him asylum. He says he was persecuted in Iran, he is a convert to Christianity and, if he were returned to Iran, he could be killed as an apostate under Islamic law.

It’s very cruel to be in detention without having committed any crime.
Some of us have been in detention four or five years or more.
We’re here, locked away, unnecessarily, without just cause. It isn’t a crime to flee from persecution. Locking us away doesn’t solve our problems.
We’re being kept in detention indefinitely. In this country if someone’s sentenced for a crime, he’s given a definite sentence. He knows when he’ll be released.
Criminals know how long they will be in goal – but we don’t know anything.
We don’t know what will happen to us. We don’t know anything about our lives or our situation.
This is a time of panic for us. We are very frightened. We don’t know what is to become of us.
We’re asylum seekers. We’re here because of problems in our home land.
The Australian Government claims we aren’t refugees. This is very frustrating.
Many of us are from Iran, or Iraq. It will never be safe for us to go back there.
The United Nations has condemned my country, Iran, for its violation of human rights.
The European Union has condemned my country for its inhuman acts to its own people.
In the detention centre, they make life very hard for us. We have no right to make any complaints. If we make any objections to what is happening to us here, we’re put in isolation for long periods, up to two months – what they call correctional management.
This is causing great pressure on people. It’s leading to psychological problems and mental illness.
People are confused. They don’t know why they are being treated so badly, like criminals, and eventually they lose hope.
It seems they’re making us mentally sick so that they can control us more easily.
It can make you very sick, so that you don’t want to eat or drink, and it’s a very cruel form of treatment.
Depression is very real in Baxter.
I would appeal to all Christian Australians to press the Government to do something about our problems.
Christian people are the only ones who seem to remember us and to show any interest in us.
This is why many of us have become Christians.
Christian people visit us and write to us and show us the love of Christ. It is their kindness that has made us interested in Christianity and in Christ.
But we will be persecuted if we are Christians and we are returned to our own countries where there are extremist Islamic governments.
Under Islamic law you are punished by death if you abandon Islam and turn to another faith.
The government in my country would not tolerate us. We would be seen as traitors to Islam – and that is punishable by death.
Many of the people who are in detention were already being persecuted for various reasons by their governments at home.
This would make them turn even more against us, because we are Christian now.
We would not have any life there – but what sort of life do we have here?
Christians are supporting us. Because of Christ’s love they are concerned about their neighbours and the problems that their neighbours have, and they are very kind to us.
Christians feel not only for us, they feel for everybody. They’re full of sympathy. They’re kind people.
We can’t understand the Australian government. Why does it find us such a problem? Why does it keep us here for such a long time?
We can’t go to our own country. We can never go back. They can’t send us to any other country.
I’m speaking out because I want people to know what the situation is and what our problems are.
Christians are concerned about peace and love and goodness. These things are very important to us.
Islam is being used to promote war and hatred and fighting – but Christians are concerned only about faith and love and helping others.
What can we do? We are powerless in here. Will there ever be hope for us again?

Photo: Sam Kobia with John Henderson and James Haire outside Baxter detention centre (Kerr)