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Melbourne, Australia – Jamal’s voice went over the phone, not hearing anything.
“’You people have no answer for me,’ I told them. You guys are not helping me. I’m so tired of this life ‘… I put oil on myself and [I] I burned myself there. ”
Jamal took a deep breath.
A refugee incarcerated in an Australian prison, Jamal describes what happened in 2019 when he set himself on fire in front of paramedics and security personnel at a Pacific beach in Nauru.
Jamal arrived in Australia by boat in 2013, fleeing persecution in his home country. He worked as a translator with Western troops in Afghanistan. But according to Australian immigration laws, he was transferred to Nauru prison.
When he committed suicide in 2019, it was because of despair after five years in prison forever.
“Life was very difficult for me,” he told Al Jazeera, “and we had no hope.”
Jamal has now been detained in Australian prisons for almost nine years.
After her suicide, she was transferred to a hospital in Brisbane, Australia, and now in a hotel in Melbourne, the country’s second-largest city. The hotel had headlines earlier in the year when about half of the refugees were there contractor COVID19 DISEASES.
His lawyers now fear he may return to Nauru.
‘Emotional Abuse’
Jamal told Al Jazeera that self-inflicted pain was “taking life”.
But the “mental anguish” of his condition at the time was even greater, he said.
“I don’t understand how I did it,” Jamal said, “… no one wants to.”
When they were first sent to Nauru in 2013, refugees on the island were housed in makeshift tents. These camps made headlines over and over again for them cruelty, from dilapidated houses to rape and rape.
For years, camps were set up, and refugees were first allowed to enter the main island of Nauru, but this became dangerous and worrying, Jamal said.
He said: “Nauru is a very small island. It’s like a prison for us where you can’t move. [you’re] just keep quiet. “
The refugees were subjected to severe beatings by locals, who said – they had been beaten, tortured and attacked.
Violence is widespread. One reports from Amnesty International in 2016 documented cases in which locals “cursed and spat on” refugees, “throwing bottles and stones, twisting cars on the road or riding motorcycles”.
The Australian government is “well aware of the Nauru massacre”, the report said, along with many human rights groups – as well as Senate Election Committee is elected by the government an independent expert – to indicate the problem.
Noeline Balasanthiran Harendran, a lawyer representing Nauru refugees, said the courts would also look at the countless evidence of abuse.
“We represent a wide range of clients who have testified,” he said. “We told 13-year-old girls to go to court and report how, since they were refugees, they threw their heads in the toilet with the local children. [and] had boyfriends who wanted to have sex with them and exploit them. ”
“We have had some [adult] The refugees are testifying that local security forces are infiltrating the intestines, “he added. [refugees] permanent damage, brain injury, coma and various such events. “
But there was nowhere to turn for help, according to Jamal.
“When [we went] to the police and we were going to say things… them [were] they just tell us to ‘go out and fight or solve your problem,’ so that we have nowhere to turn for help, ”he said.
“Even the children wanted to kill themselves,” said Jamal. [they were] frustration with things. ”…
Things got worse for Jamal when many of his colleagues were offered protection by third countries or relocated to Australia for medical reasons, leaving him, he said.
“I was … looking for doctors and health nurses every day, and I was taking medication, but it didn’t help.”
The problem was not medicine, he said, he needed freedom.
It was “hopeless,” he said, with “depression and anxiety,” and it seems like death is the only way.
Jamal was furious when he burned them. And two years after that incident, she is still receiving treatment for her fever.
“Some parts of my body … make it difficult for me to walk so … they make … plastic surgery,” he said. “It takes a long time [because] when they do… plastic surgery they will see [if] it happened … [and] otherwise they will continue to do something. ”
In addition to this, Jamal said he is still “suffering” in prison.
Fundamental Rights
There are 73 refugees, including Jamal, who have been detained in the Pacific and detained ashore in Australia. At least 178 have been released from prison since December 2020, on various lengthy visas. Others are allowed to work while waiting to be settled in a third country.
Graham Thom, a refugee coordinator for Amnesty International Australia, described the closure of 73 refugees as “a clear violation of Australia’s status under the Refugee Convention”, as under the convention “refugees have the right to freedom of movement”.
“It destroys these people, it destroys them, it destroys them mentally,” he added. “… We saw about 50 percent of the people in the Park Hotel contract COVID-19. I don’t think Australia has ever been there, where half the people were infected with COVID 19.”
Ian Rintoul, spokesman for the Refugee Action Coalition, admitted, arguing that the damage could not be continued.
“They have lost so many years of their lives, and most of them will never recover from the devastation,” he said.
Jamal said he could better manage his mind if he was released from prison and given a visa that gave him the right to work. He also said he wanted to work and take care of his family in need in his home country.
Alison Battison, head of Human Rights for All, who also represents Jamal, said the refugees should be released.
There is no question [that refugees] anything that could affect their health, they do better and they are healthier if they are in the community “, he said, as they are able to have” independence in their treatment. “
Battisson argued that his imprisonment was unreasonable, compared to the charges against him earlier in the year. A hundred Afghan athletes was deported to Australia after the fall of Kabul.
“Within two or three weeks, we were able to locate 110 people, all of whom are now in Australia,” he said, “compared to one who had served in the American army in Afghanistan for more than two years. prison in Australia eight years later.
In a statement, the Australian government told Al Jazeera that it did not comment on any of the allegations, but said: “People who travel to Australia by boat illegally will not stay here forever.”
The 173 refugees who were released from prison and issued visas must also “prepare to leave Australia,” he said. “Once a visa is issued it does not provide a way to settle people in Australia.”
But Jamal’s lawyer says he will continue to fight.
Battison wants the new trial to be released in the new year. The ultimate goal is his freedom, he said, and the legal process is still going on.
In the meantime, all Jamal can do is wait anxiously, not sure about his future, to comfort his family in prison.
“[I] keep comforting [them] that one day we will meet. One day, because I have no other words to say, ”she said,“… it ‘s the hope we have — well, I’ll see you someday. “
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