Kabul to Kafka: Inside Australia's Community Detention Program (4ZZZ, Brisbane)

By Anna Carlson

Listen to 'Kabul to Kafka: Inside Australia's Community
Detention'

Hello, child,

Welcome to Australia. Here are some things you'll need during your
time with us.

First, here's your boat ID number. This is so that everyone knows
that you don't deserve a name. Also, yours is too hard for us to
say. Next, here's your gag clause. You must keep it on at all
times. If we find out that you've taken it off, we'll send you back
to detention. And finally, here's your future. We've wrapped it up
nice and tightly so that we can be sure that you don't open it
until we tell you to. If we find out that you've tried to open it,
we'll take it off you for good.

Now, while you're in Australia, you must obey all directions from
an authorised person. Who's an authorised person? I'm sorry, we are
not authorised to give you that information at this time.

Please wait patiently while your claim is assessed.

Look, a pencil! Would you like a pencil? You could use it to draw a
picture to put up in your cage. That'll make you feel better.

What's that? You'd like to know how long you'll have to stay
here?

Sorry, Boat ID 714661X, we are not authorised to provide an exit
date. It might give you too much hope...

Drawings by children on Christmas Island, via Australian Human
Rights Commission Illustration by James Foley, via
jamesfoley.com.au

Bureaucracy, boredom and the invisible cage

In July 2015, 857 children were in immigration detention in
Australia. Of those 857 children, 642 live in the community, under
a program called "Community Detention." They are the "lucky"
ones.

Kabul to Kafka: Inside Australia's Community Detention program
takes an inside look at what life is like for children and young
adults who arrive in Australia alone. Through a collection of
interviews with youth workers, caseworkers, project officers,
counsellors and advocates, I look to the mundane, the everyday, to
try to understand what it feels like to be a "UAM" - unaccompanied
minor - in Australia.

Right at the core of the project, however, lies a gap. When I
started thinking about Kabul to Kafka, I had spoken to a number of
young people who had lived in community detention and who were keen
to share their stories. Once I explained the possible consequences
of speaking to the media, however, almost all of my participants
withdrew their consent. As a former youth worker and current
community educator in Brisbane's refugee and asylum seeker
communities, I was pretty unwilling to push these vulnerable and
marginalised young people into a position of heightened anxiety.
And so instead of direct interviews, I asked everyone I knew, to
ask everyone they knew, to find stories and anecdotes from refugees
and asylum seekers in community detention. These submissions make
up the backbone of this documentary. They are the reason I made
this work. And they are powerful. They allow us to feel, just for a
moment, some of the intensity that comes of growing up in a new
country, in a new city, surrounded by strangers, under the watchful
gaze of the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection - the
legal guardian and chief protector of young asylum seekers.

If you feel like you’d like to speak to someone after listening to
this documentary, call Lifeline on 13 11 14. They offer counselling
and assistance, for free, to anyone who calls. They are a wonderful
service. If this has motivated you to do something about
Australia’s treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, join your
local branch of the Refugee Action Collective, or contact any one
of the numerous social and political organisations dedicated to
softening the blow of Australia’s policies. And if you’d like any
more information about this particular project, please contact Anna
Carlson via Brisbane community radio station 4ZZZ.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.