Guide to writing an opinion piece

beckmeyers 25-Oct-2007

Today marks a week since the day I lost a very dear friend. We didn’t get the chance to say goodbye. At 3am he was slipped out of the country under darkness, escorted by 3 guards and handcuffed, supposedly for his own safety. In the hours leading up to his departure, he had been locked in a solitary cell, and denied access to receive calls from friends. When the time came for his removal, he was held down by six guards, and given a shot of chemical sedative to make him sleepy. When he awoke, we was on a plane headed for Sri Lanka – a county he had fled from in terror where he and his family had experienced horrifying violence and persecution due to his political affiliations. His case is still high profile, so he is going back to where there is a high likelihood he will face torture, imprisonment and even death. This thought makes my stomach churn.

I met this man six months ago when I decided to visit people seeking asylum being held in Maribyrnong Detention Centre. My friend had been in there for two years awaiting a decision on his case. I was a little nervous at first and didn’t know what to expect from this experience, but I came to know a man whom I feel privileged to call my friend, and whose strength of spirit, compassion, and incredible generosity has changed my life, though we have only known each other for a short time.

There is no time limit to how long someone can remain in detention while their case is being assessed. The waiting in limbo without an end in sight is a killer. Some months ago his mental health began to visibly decline, and sitting next to him I bore witness to his fears at losing his memory and increased state of confusion, his bewilderment at his hair turning white overnight, and complete loss of hope and despair. His repeated attempts to seek psychological support from the facility were ignored or blocked at the door. For myself, I felt backed into a corner as it seemed that any attempt to raise awareness of the problem only caused him to be reprimanded by the facility for disclosing his problems to people outside. So I tried to offer what little I could, to be a good pair of ears and a shoulder to cry on in his time of need.

My desk is now covered in origami animals, which he would make to occupy his mind, when he couldn’t sleep at night. There is one for each visit I made there. Incredibly, we have been in touch since his departure, which is how I heard of his ordeal upon arrival. My friend was not allowed the dignity of packing up his belongings before being deported. When the plane landed it was already 11:30pm at night, and he was dumped by his escorts at the airport, after being drugged, traumatised and neither eating nor drinking throughout the journey. Upon opening his suitcase, he discovered a pile of old, dirty clothes belonging to someone else, and some books that possibly belonged to another detainee deported months before. Missing, were all his valuables, including documents supporting his claim for asylum. How can this be what a man who has already experienced such horror and violence in his life deserves from a country he fled to for protection?

Perhaps the most disparaging and disgraceful element in this sad story is how a man so deeply psychologically disturbed could be dumped all on his own into this situation. It is clearly so irresponsible. So left staring at the rainbow of origami animals I am a mess of outrage, disbelief and horror that this was done to another human being in my name. And I am left with the sinking feeling that there was so much more I could have done.

I write this letter because I need to tell this story in order to make sense of this senseless violence; and I feel it is most important that we talk about it in an open and honest manner, because for change to occur, it has to start with us. I write this because he is my friend, but his story is echoed all over the world. The arrogance shown by Australia ’s Immigration Department that they can safely continue to inflict such an abuse of Human Rights on asylum seekers without public outrage, or public knowledge of these crimes, whilst waving carrots in our faces about tax-cuts is astonishing….to say the least. (And, I could say a lot more!) I hope very much that we begin to learn from our past mistakes, and lead by example, so that one day we live in a world where we don’t have to have this discussion any more. There, is that so hard to imagine?