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Last Updated: November 1, 2009
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REFUGEES

On this page: Pamela Curr; Eileen Capocchi

Pamela Curr

The way the way refugees are incarcerated disturbs me. My parents were part of one wave of refugees. There have been other waves of refugees since the Second World War. Certainly some of the people such as the Italians were in camps in those days, but it wasn't anything like this.

They had their culture, they had gardens where they could grow vegetables and they had schools and classes. They were considered to be potential enemy aliens during a brutal war yet were treated at least as human beings.

Many people like the Jewish group, the Dunera boys who came out and were put into camps and the Italians who came out a little later, have often become valuable citizens who have given a tremendous amount to the community.

John Cargher comes to mind. He is still running a program on the ABC. Many have made contributions to our culture and economics. We didn't agree with them and they were enemy aliens. Now there is not even a war so why are we doing this?

It is just terrible. Also, I heard on the radio the other day that the company running these Detention Centres, an American company, was running at a loss until a year ago but now they are making millions.

They can only make those profits if they are not providing the services they are paid to provide. They are being paid to provide clothing, food and facilities for the prisoners in there and I heard they applied to charities for toys for the children etc.

I think it is absolutely appalling. I feel that if the Government wants to have a policy on migration and population, they should sit down and make one, work on it, consult etc and make a policy and people can decide on whether they want it.

Until they do that it is just absolutely inhuman to treat people this way. It makes we wonder if anyone is getting a kickback out of all of this exploitation.

There are a lot of questions going on in my mind. It reminded me of when I was a child and the people who ran the orphanage. The couple who ran it used to be given good clothes for us but they sold them and bought our clothes from Coles. They were pretty hard up themselves but it was still exploitation.
Eileen Capocchi

Most of the people in Australia were opposed to going to war in Iraq. Even when war commenced, still more than half were opposed to it and nothing that has happened since then has made them change their minds.

That war has not made the world safer...

At the moment I am working with the Victorian Peace Network. I am also the national spokesperson for the Greens for refugees, but even if I weren't, I see myself as one of the many refugee activists.

Some of us are aligned to groups and some of us are not. We are all in communication through email. This is a campaign that has been connected through email.

... I saw the refugee issue was growing. It disturbed me in 1992 when I realized that people were locked up in detention at Port Hedland. Of course, it was so far away, there were very infrequent stories about it.

At that stage the people had some freedoms. They were allowed to go in and out of the camp - that sort of thing. But Labor opened a Pandora's box when they passed the legislation which detained people, who came to this country seeking asylum. They did it for political reasons. They wanted to protect the so-called Cambodian peace plan that had been worked up by Gareth Evans.

I couldn't ignore what was happening in the refugee area. When you think of Woomera, set up with those canvas tents and not air conditioning - people put out there with little children in 46, 48, 50 degree Celsius heat. It was just appalling. I got involved when I realized that the same things were happening at Marybinong. I was contacted by a member of the Palestinian community, because a Palestinian man had disappeared.

He and I together eventually found out this man was being held in solitary confinement for 7 months at Marybinong. The Department and the Detention Centre hid that for 2 months - then we found out.

In the end we got him out.

Eileen Capocchi

The way refugees are incarcerated disturbs me. My parents were part of one wave of refugees. There have been other waves of refugees since the second world war. Certainly some of the people such as the Italians were in camps in those days but it wasn't anything like this.

They had their culture, they had gardens where they could grow vegetables and they had schools and classes. They were considered to be potential enemy aliens during a brutal war yet were treated at least as human beings.

Many people like the Jewish group, the Dunera boys who came out and were put into camps and the Italians who came out a little later, have often become valuable citizens who have given a tremendous amount to the community. John Carga comes to mind. He is still running a program on the ABC. Many have made contributions to our culture and economics. We didn't agree with them and they were enemy aliens. Now there is not even a war so why are we doing this?

It is just terrible. Also, I heard on the radio the other day that the company running these Detention Centres, an American company, was running at a loss until a year ago but now they are making millions.

They can only make those profits if they are not providing the services they are paid to provide. They are being paid to provide clothing, food and facilities for the prisoners in there and I heard they applied to charities for toys for the children etc. I think it is absolutely appalling. I feel that if the Government wants to have a policy on migration and population, they should sit down and make one, work on it, consult etc and make a policy and people can decide on whether they want it.

Until they do that it is just absolutely inhuman to treat people this way. It makes we wonder if anyone is getting a kickback out of all of this exploitation.

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