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A two-day national conference on refugees is under way in Bendigo.
Trauma counsellor Chris Cummins opened the forum by sharing the story of a 75-year-old Kurdish woman, Jamilla*, with whom she worked with at Christmas Island.
“She was referred to our service on Christmas Island because of the really significant symptoms of trauma she presented with,” Ms Cummins said.
Jamilla suffered from frequent flashbacks of some of the horrible things she had been exposed to.
“She couldn’t contain those flashbacks because they would be getting stronger and stronger and more and more frightening,” Ms Cummins said.
The trauma intruded on Jamilla’s sleeping and waking hours.
“She would be screaming out in her sleep… this was disturbing the other people in the centre, so they were mocking her and she was really struggling with that,” Ms Cummins said.
“In the end, she became too frightened to sleep.”
Jamilla started to chew her clothes to try to muffle the screams that would escape her during her waking hours.
Ms Cummins said her patient would also try to distract herself from flashbacks by jumping up or walking.
“But she was a 75-year-old woman who had failing vision due to bilateral cataracts and other health conditions that made her have frequent falls.
“She would often present to a session and have a bandage in place or have bruises and scrapes on her, and that was from her trying to control these flashbacks.
“But she would present to me with the most beautiful face that could just light up a room – you wouldn’t even know the misery this woman had been through.”
Iran was all Jamilla had known before she sought asylum.
She had repeatedly tried to flee persecution, but previous attempts had ended in failure.
“Jamilla was repeatedly incarcerated and often tortured, in fact more times than she could actually recall,” Ms Cummins said.
“The last time she had been incarcerated she had been tortured for days – she could not recall exactly for how long.
“They had smashed her wrist and then denied medical access so she would be deliberately maimed.”
Neighbours organised for Jamilla to be smuggled out of Iran, Ms Cummins said, from the papers to leave the country to the journey to Malaysia, then Indonesia, then a boat to Christmas Island.
She arrived in a foreign country, alone, with nothing but the clothes she was wearing and no ability to speak the language.
“And when she arrived, she was told the government of Australia didn’t want her, that she had arrived illegally, and that having her daughters in Australia was of no value to her,” Ms Cummins said.
“She was told repeatedly she was going to be sent to Nauru.
“To the asylum seekers on Christmas Island at the time, the threat of going to Nauru was terrifying.
“They had this enormous rumor mill going that it was like going to a death camp, so her complex trauma symptoms just escalated.
“I just watched as Jamilla gradually deteriorated, both physically and mentally.”
Ms Cummins said she was determined that Jamilla would not be going to Nauru.
She wanted her to be sent to mainland Australia to have her medical needs addressed and to be close to her family.
“I wasn’t saying to release Jamilla from detention, I was saying to detain her on the mainland,” Ms Cummins said.
She raced to the airport to urge a member of a government advisory committee who was on the island to put Jamilla’s case forward when he met with the immigration minister three days later.
“I don’t even know if that actually happened, but I know she did finally get to the mainland and she is reunited with her daughters,” Ms Cummins said.
“It took a hell of a lot of effort and the near death of this 75-year-old beautiful woman before we saw any decency afforded her.”
Ms Cummins hoped talking about her experiences on Christmas Island would help people to connect with the human story.
“Human is human,” she said.
“It doesn't matter what your nationality, your ethnicity, or your mode of travel to flee a country… It’s basic human rights and decency that we in this room are all advocating for.”
Former Bendigo Advertiser journalist Ben Doherty – now with the Guardian Australia – Nick Olle of The Project, barrister Julian Burnside, Pamela Curr of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and refugee poet Hani Abdile will be among the guest speakers at the national Rural Australians for Refugees’ One Voice; One Vision conference in Bendigo.
The conference aims to unite refugee advocates across the country to discuss practical strategies of joining forces across regional Australia to combat what organisers describe as the “horrific language our political parties have used to try and sweep the issue under the carpet”.
*Not her real name
Bendigo, Mount Alexander Mayors sign Welcome Scroll
The City of Greater Bendigo and Mount Alexander Shire Council were among the first to sign a scroll in support of refugees.
Attendees at the One Voice, One Vision Rural Australians for Refugees National Conference in Bendigo gathered outside the city’s municipal offices to see the Welcome Scroll signed.
The scroll was a joint initiative of the RAR and Refugee Council of Australia, launched at the forum.
Local government areas identified as Refugee Welcome Zones, of which there are about 143, will be offered the opportunity to sign the scroll, either in person or electronically.
Bendigo Mayor Rod Fyffe and Mount Alexander Mayor Christine Henderson put pen to paper on Saturday at the close of the first day of the weekend conference.
Their signatures will confirm their commitment to welcome refugees into their communities.
The scroll will now embark on a journey to Canberra, where it is due to arrive in time for Refugee Week 2017.
Refugee policy papers awaited
Experts are expected to release papers about Australia’s refugee and asylum seeker policies in coming weeks, attendees at the RAR National Conference in Bendigo were told.
Pamela Curr of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre devoted much of her speech, in lieu of an absent Julian Burnside, to upcoming events.
She said the Australian Human Rights Commission, Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce, Human Rights Law Centre and Getup were expected to release policy papers either this week or shortly thereafter.
“They might differ in small aspects, but overall they have the same human rights basis solution to this, ‘There is no alternative’ slogan,” she said.
The slogan she refers to is the idea that there is no alternative to the way things are being done, for example with off-shore detention.
“There are ways in which we can avoid the loss of life at sea, and these policy paper detail them,” Ms Curr said.
She called for a summit and a position paper to help shift the political dialogue.