[Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> Ruddock unveils law to strip-search detainees

["rc-am" <rcollins@netlink.com.au>]

> ((I don't know if anyone not in Australia has seen images of these
detention
> camps, but they are basically concentration camps in the desert.
Australia has
> an extraordinarily racist past -- from settlers hunting aboriginies,
through
> the white australia policy and detaining italian immigrants during
WWII, and
> now this. Ben))

Um, detainees have been strip-searched for some time, as they have
been subject to the use of chemical restraints, etc.   These proposed
legislative changes are a way to ensure that camp guards are not
charged with abuse since the issue of abuse became a matter for
lyrical and rather limited indignation -- ie., it is a measure to
protect guards from sexual assault charges and to specify the limits
of those searches (ie., no cavity searches).

Legislation in this area has as a rule been a response to protests,
especially protests by detainees, and an attempt to legalise ad hoc
arrangements, limit state liability and exert increased control:  the
1994 legislation that made detention of boat arrivals mandatory and
non-reviewable was a last-hour response to an application for freedom
before the High Court; the High Court rules that the Human Rights
Commission has the power to send detainees sealed letters informing
them of their rights and the government changes the law to remove
detainees from the coverage of the Human Rights Act, and so on.

Also, not "basically concentration camps", but according to juridical
definition and history of the concentration camp, they are
concentration camps.  And, as a matter of interest, Australia also
interned German Jewish asylum seekers during WWII (see Cyril Pearl
(1983) The Dunera Scandal); and -- in case Mr Wark is online -- it was
the ALP who are responsible for the introduction of the current policy
of mandatory and non-reviewable detention.   The ALP's sole concern at
present seems to be to complain about the working conditions of
concentration camp staff, and they can only manage to show indignation
insofar as detainees are infantile and infantilised.   Well, how else
does one hold onto a fear of foreigners _and_ present oneself as a
concerned, compassionate politician all at once?

There are many places to find details on this, including
http://www.antimedia.net/xborder/ and the Australian Journal of Human
Rights, which is also online.

Angela
_________





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