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Hi Russell, my name is Kitty Thatcher. I'm an English as a second language and History
High School teacher. I'm making this video in response to your video on the trews which
describes Australia's treatment of Asylum seekers that arrive by boat. Between 2009
and 2012, I spent a lot of time in Australian detention centres. I first volunteered for
7 weeks in Christmas island 900km north west of Perth in the Indian Ocean, teaching English,
and running activities for the children imprisoned there. Back when outside
volunteers were allowed in. Then from late 2009 to 2012 when I was teaching in Sydney
I visited villawood Detention Centres which is about 40 minutes from the Sydney Opera
House. As a Highschool teacher I've also had the privilege of working with a number of
refugee students in Sydney who have unfortunately come through our traumatising system of Mandatory
Detention. Some of those in my class had not yet fully been 'processed' after a year in
Australia and feared their removal to their home countries daily. While I joined an activist
group in Sydney called the Refugee Action Coalition that organised protests against
our Mandatory Detention Centres, I've never spoken openly about this to the media before,
because I feared the repercussions. But I'm now based in Santiago, Chile and I feel free
to say what I like. I'm unable to visit the detention centres even if I wanted to. First
off, thank you Russell for making this video and drawing more attention to the issue. There
are a couple of things I want to address, straight off the bat from what you've said.
It may seem to be a minor point, but when so much of our system relies on the twisting
of words and definition, it seems important to get this one right. The word I want to
talk about first is refugee. Fleeing a war doesn't constitute as being a refugee by the
definition accepted by the UN and around the world. Surprising I know, but if your country
is at war, then that's your problem. A refugee is someone who is persecuted because of their
race, their religion, their nationality, or their membership to a particular social group
or political opinion. To be a refugee the person has to be unable to return to their
home country because they don't trust their own country to be able to defend them. But
even using that definition, more than 90% of asylum seekers who arrived by boat last
year were found to be genuine refugees. So why do we have this mandatory system of locking
people up? Which is so expensive. We don't give them an access to an education. They
do not have the right to work. Or freedom of movement. And crucially, they are without
a release date. The average is now 275 days in detention. Well Russell, you mentioned
it was an ideologically, racist driven policy. They're not 'white' for the most part and
they don't speak Australian. And on the surface it may appear to be just that. But what cannot
and what should not be forgotten are the economic reasons behind mandatory detention. Not economic
for Australia, Indeed an increase in migrant population has actually been shown to boost
the economy and the cost of running detention centres is a huge drain, both in terms of
the mental trauma suffered by Australians who work within them and the monetary cost
of billions of dollars each year. But Australian Detention centres are hugely economically
beneficial for multi-national corporations. You have your own experiences with this in
England Russell. Serco, who run 12 of our detention centres, including the Villawood
Detention Centre in Sydney, also saved some money in a private jail they were running
in Doncaster England, by putting beds in the toilets. There was also the case of a 14 year
old boy in the UK, in a serco juvenile detention centre, who hung himself after being assaulted
by serco trained guards. Despite profit warnings everywhere else, serco is propping itself
up with profits made from Australian detention centres. So sorry Russell, Sorry England.
But your problems are kind of our problems too. We're thinking of asking serco to start
running private jails in NSW because you know, they did such a great job in the 'mother country'.
Companies like Serco such as Transfield, who run the concentration camp on Manus Island,
are out to make money from governments by locking people up, and locking people up is
a profitable business. Australia is predicted to spend over 2 billion dollars on Manus Island
and Nauru alone this year. It can be easy to forget that the policy of locking up Asylum
seekers who arrive by boat is relatively new in Australia, it's only been mandatory since
1992. Well may you laugh at the description of Asylum seekers as 'customers' Russell,
but as your compatriot George Orwell once wrote: The camp on Manus Island, where the
asylum seekers do not have access to clean water and live in tents, is a processing facility.
Officer. Officer. Today we don't have water. Why don't you answer? Today we don't have
water! In detention, prison guards are 'officers' and employees. Asylum seekers are 'clients'.
A peaceful hunger strike is a 'riot'. Suicides, self-harm are media stunts. As I said at the
beginning of this video, I've been living outside of Australia now for 2 years but while
I've been studying, travelling and teaching in France, England and now Chile, many of
my friends are still there in detention. Rasa, a quiet middle aged sri-lankan man who is
an excellent cook. Ranjini and her children the youngest of whom was born in detention
last year in detention. They are still there. Still waiting. And there are those who are
no longer in detention. Shooty killed himself in Villawood. Reza Berati was murdered on
Manus Island. Martin in Darwin, is now on hunger strike and close to death. Two weeks
ago I saw video footage of a protest in New York slamming Australia's treatment of refugees.
So I started a facebook group. As it turns out, Australians and their friends in New
York, weren't the only ones protesting outside of Australia. Or the only ones ready to. The
protest you saw in London is one of a wave of international demonstrations, held in New
York, Cambridge, Leeds, Brussels, Berlin, San Francisco, Boston, Santiago (chile) and
the Hague. WIth more planned. We are now active in 16 cities across 4 continents. We are Australians
and Allies Overseas Against Mandatory Detention. Russel, there is a media blackout in Australia.
Not only in our detention centres, but on mainstream media, where whatever happens in
the detention centres is justified, based on the bizarre idea we somehow stop asylum
seekers drowning at sea by punishing those that do make it to our shores. Thus deterring
future refugees. But the boats haven't stopped, and nor should they, because human abuses
elsewhere haven't stopped. And they have a right to seek asylum. And what's been happening
is that instead of admitting that mandatory detention is a stupid plan to stop deaths
at sea the government has told the navy to physically push refugee boats back to Indonesia.
Further endangering refugee lives. Of the boats that are known, 63 people have drown
trying to making it to Australia since September 2014 and when the refugee boats are too damaged
to make it back? They've started sending them back in tiny "life vessels" such as this one.
Tony Abbot says: "We're stopping the boats!!" on TV and people believe him. TV news program
channel 7, even refused to show the refugee protest that interrupted the Australian Open.
We need your help to get the word out. It's not just about Australia. Serco already run
many of your private prisons and youth facilities. G4S that had the contract on Manus Island
when Reza Berati was killed, is in charge of housing refugees in England. They are powerful,
ruthless companies and, as I've said, locking people up is a profitable business. It's a
short step and a jump if your government decides to go the same way as Australia. Join us Russell.