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ustralia is confronted by the tragic phenomena of detention center deaths, with five suicides in the last 10 months, over 1,000 suicide attempts and thousands of self-inflicted injuries among asylum seekers.

There have recently been two more suicide attempts at Darwin Immigration Center. There most likely be more to come.

One Hazara man suffered a heart attack following efforts to rescue him from his suicide attempt.

The answers to stopping these suicide attempts are not in diminishing the hanging points or in relying on a suicide watch. The answers lie in treating people with humanity, in assisting these folk in their rightful asylum claims, in allowing them unfettered contact with the Australian community, with various experts, with the media and in ensuring they are not indefinitely detained in these unlawful facilities.

The dramatic rise in self-inflicted injuries is in itself not surprising. When pushed to the brink of despair, people often cry out in pain in one form or another.

We have long warned of the rise of self mutilation, mental breakdowns, physical breakdowns of irreparable damage, acute and abject clinical disorders, the various categories of depressions, of trauma and chronic trauma, of suicide attempts and multiple suicide attempts.

We have always warned of more detention center deaths.

The government shall be culpable, as duty of care can be argued to extend beyond release and duty of care originates at the point of trauma, at the cause.

We have a duty to acknowledge impacts and the government cannot abrogate its responsibilities. There is a criminality within the practices of our government in the mistreatment of these peoples through a Gulag type experience kept almost clandestine from the rest of Australia.

There are high levels of unemployment for those released. There are horrific incidences of despair and suicide attempts among those finally released who were evidently damaged by their detention
center experiences.

The mere fact that someone is released does not immediately erase mental and clinical damage to the person. There have been scores of suicide attempts in Australian detention centers and there will be more, just as there shall be more post-release attempted suicides.

Over a recent period of time I have released various leaked statistics of self-inflicted injury, of medical incidences or suicide watches and of suicide attempts from Australian Detention Centers, of the training required by guards to “cut down” with “Hoffman knives” suicide attempts.

My observation is that the longer we incarcerate people in the manner the Australian Government is doing so at this time, and with the difficulties our asylum seekers endure without unfettered
communication to other peoples, it is clear that people break down and some will die in custody.

Those who eventually break down and die following their release will be even greater in number.

During the recent Christmas Island protests, our despairing asylum seekers were burying themselves in shallow graves. Many asylum seekers are coming out of the Australian detention center experience worse than before they went in.

Gerry Georgatos
Bridgetown, WA