From Nothing to Zero: Letters from Refugees in Australia's Detention Centres
Edited by Janet Austin; introduction by Julian Burnside
Lonely Planet, 2003
193 pages, $22 (pb)
BY MAREE KENNY
"What a big joke with human rights. This regime is killing us every day, day and night, morning and evening" — this may sound as though it's describing life in Iran or Iraq, but the writer is an Afghan asylum seeker, and the "regime" is that of the Australian government. This sobering quotation is an excerpt from a letter included in From Nothing to Zero: Letters from Refugees in Australia's Detention Centres, edited by Janet Austin.
Since October 2001, a letter-writing network has enabled ordinary Australians to exchange letters and phone calls with detained asylum seekers. Before this, thousands of men, women and children in Australia were cut off from the outside world. They were the forgotten people.
"When I read your letter I forgot my bad life, because we have tired souls and sometimes we feel your people have forgotten us."
Prominent Melbourne QC Julian Burnside and his partner Kate Durham were amongst the first to write to asylum seekers living behind the razor wire. Burnside and Durham were so overwhelmed by the hundreds of letters they received that they decided to produce a collection of excerpts.
Working through Australia's wide network of refugee supporters, they collected letters written by adult and children asylum seekers. In the preface to the published collection, Burnside writes, "the purpose of this book is simple: to give a face to the faceless; a voice to the voiceless".
This powerful book is an attempt to reverse the effects of the Australian federal government's policy of dehumanising asylum seekers. It has reached the point, Burnside says in the book's introduction, that "a tiny fragment of damaged humanity" is needed to remind us through letters that they, like us, are humans.
"For two years I have been called by initials and a number and I don't think and feel now the same as human", one asylum seeker wrote.
The collection of letters is divided into themes. These include "life at home", "life in detention", "thoughts about Australia" and "children in detention". The book also includes several short essays by Burnside, giving a short history of Australia's policy of mandatory detention, and describing the lengthy, and often flawed, refugee determination process.
These essays are like the broad brush strokes in the background of a painting, providing the context for the foreground of individual despair and suffering explained through the voices of detained letter writers. Frustration, confusion and bewilderment are the themes of many of these letters, as asylum seekers try to come to an understanding of why they are treated as criminals, instead of oppressed and persecuted people.
"How long will I be patient? How long will I be here in this hell hole for uncertain time?"
Many asylum seekers describe the reasons they fled their home countries, the hope they felt for a better future in Australia, and the bitter disappointment it has turned into.
"Often I think that Iran and Australia make their policy together because a lot of action in Iran and here is similar."
One astute writer says: "The policy of government is very clear: we take an easily treatable project like refugees, we introduce such a people to be hated by community, then we (government) oppose them and therefore get votes. Very, very intelligent idea!"
In other, more intimate letters, asylum seekers write of the impact detention has on their relationships. "My wife requested a divorce. The reason for separation was the length of time I am spending in detention."
Another asylum seeker writes to an Australian friend who has said she cannot have children. "But about that case that you can't have children. I'm really sorry. I pray to God that one day you'll have a child but when you get a child don't call him John or Philip! Just joking."
The letters written by children are among the most poignant. Many children (and some adults) "adopt" their pen friends as parents, or grandparents. One boy writes, "Dear Mum, I am always thinking of you. I dream I am a songbird. I fly from detention to your home and beside your window. I make a song for my beautiful mum."
Some adult letter writers are positive that change will come: "I believe people's voice is stronger than all these politicians power. In the history it will remain a pride thing for Australians that they fought against their own inhuman government and showed compassion for refugee like us."
Other letters, especially those in the section titled "Mental Anguish in Detention" portray lost lives.
"We are simple, live and weak people that are tired, hopeless, driven to extremities. Helpless people that are locked in these cages for years."
The writer of this letter, an Iranian man, goes on to say that his family back in Iran have asked him several times to send them his photo, "but I am afraid of doing this because my face has changed so much and it will make worried my mother."
Whilst the majority of the letters in this book are printed in a typed face, at the beginning of each section one letter is printed in the original handwriting of the writer, adding to the books impact.
The thousands of Australians currently writing to people living in detention may feel powerless in their desire to change the current policy of mandatory detention, but it is obvious in this collection of letters that, at the very least, they have offered the hand of compassion and friendship to those who felt completely alone.
"When I saw photo of Australian people, that they wanted freedom for us, I cried."
This important collection of letters should be disseminated throughout Australian homes, schools, libraries and places of worship. Copies should be sent to every member of federal and state parliament. It is a sobering and shaming publication, showing how Australian letter writers, in offering hope to the hopeless, have given a voice to the voiceless.
There are currently around 2000 Australians writing to refugees living in Australian mainland detention centres and the one on Nauru. The letter writing campaign is now organised by Bellingen Rural Australians for Refugees. If you would like to write or telephone someone in detention, please email <detainees@ruralaustraliansforrefugees.org>. For more information on letter writing, visit <http://www.ruralaustraliansforrefugees.org>.
From Green Left Weekly, December 10, 2003.
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