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	6,000 Australian doctors demand traumatised children be taken off Nauru detention center by MSF Australia, AMA, UNHCR, agencies   Oct. 2018   Australian GPs lambast ‘deliberate government policy which is causing the pain and suffering of children in detention’.   Australian doctors are escalating their campaign to have children in detention immediately removed from Nauru. Australian Medical Association (AMA) paediatric representative Dr Paul Bauert, who has treated patients on Nauru, said it was an “unconscionable” situation that could be easily avoided.   “This is the only situation I’ve come across where it is deliberate government policy which is causing the pain and suffering of these children,” Bauert told reporters in Canberra on Monday.   The AMA has been lobbying the government to change policy on Nauru, but just last month the prime minister, Scott Morrison, yet again rebuffed a plea from the peak doctors’ association.   To date 6,000 doctors are demanding the government immediately remove the 80 children from Nauru because of serious mental and physical health concerns.   Bauert said almost all the children in detention on Nauru are traumatised.   “Many are damaged already, but we don’t want this damage to be permanent,” he said. “They need to be assessed and treated as a matter of urgency. “It’s a miracle we haven’t had a death already.   “I have reviewed many cases of these children myself, it is simply unconscionable that we are keeping these children and their families in a situation which we know is a critical threat to their health and wellbeing,” he said.   “The situation for children on Nauru is a humanitarian emergency requiring urgent intervention and removal of all these children and their families to medical treatment in Australia.” http://bit.ly/2NIhyO9 http://bit.ly/2ClDUTq   Oct. 2018   Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) strongly condemns the government of Nauru’s sudden decision to cease the provision of desperately needed mental health care provided by MSF to asylum seekers, refugees and the local community on Nauru.   The international humanitarian medical organisation describes the mental health situation of refugees on the island as “beyond desperate” and calls for the immediate evacuation of all asylum seekers and refugees from the island and for an end to the Australian offshore detention policy.   “It is absolutely disgraceful to say that MSF’s mental health care is no longer required; the mental health situation of the refugees indefinitely held on Nauru is devastating. Over the past 11 months on Nauru, I have seen an alarming number of suicide attempts and incidents of self-harm among the refugee and asylum seeker men, women and children we treat.   We were particularly shocked by the many children suffering from traumatic withdrawal syndrome, where their status deteriorated to the extent they were unable to eat, drink, or even walk to the toilet,” Dr Beth O’Connor, MSF psychiatrist.   As corroborated by MSF medical analysis, refugee patients exist in a vicious cycle of deep despair with many having lost the will to live. Among them, at least 78 patients seen by MSF had suicidal ideations and/or engaged in self-harm or suicidal acts.   Children as young as nine have told MSF staff that they would rather die than live in a state of hopelessness on Nauru. Among the most severely ill patients are those separated from their immediate family as a result of Australia’s immigration policy.   Although many of the refugees on Nauru have experienced trauma in their countries of origin or during their refugee journey, it is the Australian government’s policy of indefinite offshore detention that has destroyed their resilience and shattered all hope that they will one day lead safe, meaningful lives.   “Separating families and forcibly holding men, women and children on a remote island indefinitely with no hope or protection except in the case of a medical emergency is cruel, inhumane and degrading,” said Paul McPhun, MSF Australia’s Executive Director.   “While the Australian government describes offshore detention as a humanitarian policy, our experience proves that there is nothing humanitarian about saving people from sea only to leave them in an open air prison on Nauru. This policy should be stopped immediately and should not be replicated by any government.   It’s not MSF’s psychiatrists and psychologists that should be leaving Nauru; it’s the hundreds of asylum seekers and refugees that Australia has trapped on the island for the past five years that should be leaving.”   http://www.msf.org.au/article/statements-opinion/msf-calls-immediate-evacuation-all-asylum-seekers-and-refugees-nauru   Oct. 2018   Australia urged to evacuate offshore detainees amid widespread, acute mental distress. (UN News)   Australia should end its offshore processing policy on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Papua New Guinea amid reports of widespread, acute mental distress and attempted suicide by children and young adults, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday.   “In one of the various cases brought to our attention during September, a suicidal pre-teenage girl remains in Nauru despite doctors’ advice to the contrary,” UNHCR spokesperson Catherine Stubberfield told journalists in Geneva. “Medical records seen by UNHCR staff show she first doused herself in petrol, before attempting to set herself alight and pulling chunks of hair from her head.”   According to UNHCR, more than 1,400 people are still being held on both islands, which have hosted Australia-bound migrants and asylum-seekers forcibly transferred there, since 2013.   The UN agency’s appeal to the Australian authorities echoes a warning from non-governmental organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) which pulled out of Nauru last week, at the request of the island’s authorities.   There have been no returns from Papua New Guinea to Australia this year, the UN agency noted, despite “several instances” of self-harm or attempted suicide there in the past month. In addition, a number of people with acute physical and mental needs remain untreated, UNHCR said.   “This policy has failed on a number of measures,” Mrs Stubberfield said. “It’s failed to protect refugees, it’s failed to provide even for their most basic needs throughout a period that now exceeds five years. And it’s failed to provide solutions for a substantial number that is still waiting and can clearly no longer afford to wait.”   The UNHCR spokesperson reported that of the 12 people who have died since Australia began detaining migrants and refugees offshore, half had been confirmed or suspected suicides. The mental health of those being held on the islands was worsening, she added.   “Our own consultant medical experts in 2016 found a cumulative prevalence of anxiety, depression and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) in both Papua New Guinea and Nauru, to be well above 80 per cent, and the situation has deteriorated since then,” Ms. Stubberfield said. “So, there are very serious needs that are not being met. There’s no longer time for the Government of Australia to delay or find other solutions, and it’s for that reason that we’re asking people be evacuated today.” http://bit.ly/2OmSRfk   May 2018   Until we are free our struggle will never end, by Behrouz Boochani. (Human Rights Law Centre, agencies)   It gives me great pleasure to communicate with you from Manus Island and be present at this event. I wish to extend a special thank you to the Human Rights Law Centre for giving me this valuable opportunity.   The situation on Manus Island and Nauru over the past five years should be no secret to anyone.   The aim of my talk tonight is to add a new dimension to the debates pertaining to punishment, debasement and dehumanisation of individuals held within these sites.   I will not repeat how Australian politicians have inflicted pain and suffering on the innocent refugees locked up in these prisons. The incarceration of people seeking asylum, in particular the children on Nauru, is remarkably cruel and has been exposed in many compelling ways.   All of the documentation, witness testimonies and other evidence that have been discussed and published until now have proven conclusively that innocent people have been enduring extraordinary forms of physical, emotional and psychological torment. The fact that ten people have lost their lives on Manus Island, Nauru and Christmas Island since 2013 is a despicable crime that needs to be investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice.   No one can ignore the fact that people have been killed and thousands of lives destroyed as a result of political power plays.   The use of exile as a political tactic against vulnerable refugees is based on the construction of two concepts: national security and the national interest.   Without a doubt, Australian governments have enacted an extensive propaganda campaign which centres on a perverse account of these two notions. What should be a debate about people – about human beings, about children and families – has been deliberately poisoned to become a debate about borders and security.   As a result, the governments playing this game have been able to manipulate and dictate the majority of public opinion, they have been able to strengthen their support base and galvanise others in support of their policies.   Both Labor and Liberal governments have accrued enormous political profit by using this tactic. Creating a false sense of national security by treating innocent victims of war and persecution as a security threat, and saying it is in the national interest to use any means to keep us out.   But how is it in the national interest to undermine Australia’s international reputation with these policies? And spend almost $9 billion to do it?   The fact is, Manus Island and Nauru are pivotal to elections in Australia. The two major political parties have been using the refugees on Manus Island and Nauru for their own ambitions. Our lives are a form of ritual sacrifice. The price they are prepared to pay for power.   By ‘us’ I don’t just mean the men on Manus Island. I also mean the innocent children and women who have remained in a kind of purgatory for five years.   So what is the next course of action? We must accept the fact that after all these years the on-going pro-refugee campaigns and protests, the movements within civil society, and the work of refugee activists have been incapable of forcing change within Australia’s political system.   We must confront our failures and recognise our mistakes. However, at the same time, there have also been many notable achievements.   We have been successful in making the plight of incarcerated refugees a central issue in public discourse and this has created opportunities for making our aims and objectives clear: we want freedom… we demand freedom for all the refugees.   We have also been able, at the very least, to document the history of this ruthless political ideology and the merciless act of exiling refugees.   We are confident that these crimes will never be forgotten. That is, we have been successful in writing history using our voices. But no matter how much emphasis I place on these achievements, ultimately, they mean nothing until the refugees are free.   Our advocacy will be acknowledged as truly valuable and worthwhile only when we can secure the release and safety of the refugees imprisoned on these islands.   I do not want my tone and mood to reflect any sense of hopelessness. Under the current circumstances one must be as active as ever.   Detaining refugees for over five years in a prison is, undeniably, a moral failure. It also reflects a failure in the various forms of resistance. But, losing hope, or relinquishing one’s duty to human rights are even greater forms of failure and moral bankruptcy. The worst thing any of us can do is give up.   I am someone who has been locked up here on Manus Island for five years and have been struggling to employ any means possible to persuade public perception regarding our situation.   I have tried so hard to acquire any resource available to communicate a deeper understanding of our plight. I have endeavoured to shed light on the human factor within this politicised and militarised climate. My aim has always been to emphasise our humanity and invite others to see and feel that for themselves.   Many have fought alongside the refugees and used whatever was in their power to change the system. I have been working with those supporters and fighting from within the prison. And this ongoing fight has made me tired.   But, as someone who has had to endure pressure from all angles I would like to ask all of you to continue on this path that we have been traversing together. Do not give up. The refugees have no choice but to persevere.   We cannot stop resisting. Until we are free our struggle will never end. Never forget what we have endured all these years, the consequences of physical, emotional and psychological pain and affliction will never end. We cannot stop resisting.   http://www.hrlc.org.au/news/2018/5/18/2018-human-rights-dinner-keynote-address-by-behrouz-boochani http://www.hrlc.org.au/refugee-and-asylum-seeker-rights/ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/31/behrouz-boochani-asylum-seeker-manus-island-detained-wins-victorian-literary-prize-australias-richest http://bit.ly/2FIgAk4   Apr. 2018   Australia-bound asylum seekers left mentally scarred by years of detention on Pacific islands, warns UN.   A senior United Nations refugee agency official warned this week about the “shocking” effects of long-term detention on Australia-bound asylum seekers who are being held on remote Pacific islands.   Indrika Ratwatte said the situation in Nauru, as well and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, was as bad as he had seen in his 25-year career. Both locations have been used to house more than 3,000 men, women and children from Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, since Australia implemented its offshore processing policy in 2013.   Speaking to journalists in Geneva after returning from Nauru last week, Mr. Ratwatte, who heads the Asia and Pacific bureau of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), described the “shocking” psychological and the mental toll on refugees and asylum seekers. Children have been particularly affected, he said:   “I have seen a little girl for example who was 12 years old in a catatonic state who has not stepped out of her room in a month […] clinical psychiatrists and professionals have determined that around 80 per cent of the asylum-seekers and refugees in Nauru and Manus as well are suffering from post-traumatic stress and depression. This is per capita one of the highest mental health problems levels that have been noted.”   Despite the clear need to address the problem, the lack of psychiatric help and healthcare “has increased the sense of hopelessness and despair,” Mr. Ratwatte said. “The point here is also that Australia has had a long tradition of supporting refugee and humanitarian programmes globally, but on this one, the offshore processing policy has had an extremely detrimental impact on refugees and asylum seekers.”   He urged Australia to continue to support the authorities on Nauru once it hands over responsibility to the island for medical and psychiatric services. There are currently around 2,000 detainees on the islands.   Around 40 children born in Nauru have seen “nothing but detention-like conditions,” Mr. Ratwatte said, and another 100 youngsters have spent more than half their lives there.   Under a deal agreed between Australia and the United States, some 1,000 detainees from Nauru will be repatriated to the US Around 180 have already left the island. Welcoming the agreement, the UNHCR official said that this would still leave the same number of people on Nauru, and he urged the Australian Government to consider an offer from New Zealand to rehouse them. “It is a very genuine offer and New Zealand has an excellent programme for refugee settlement,” Mr. Ratwatte said. http://bit.ly/2EjARsm   Dec. 2017   UN urges Australia to find humane solutions for refugees, asylum seekers on Manus Island. (UNHCR)   The United Nations refugee agency warned this week that the situation of refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island remains dangerous, and called on the Australian Government to “live up to its responsibilities” and urgently find humane and appropriate solutions.   “The forced removal of refugees and asylum seekers on 22 November from the now decommissioned Australian facility has inflicted further trauma on people who have already suffered greatly – violence and persecution in their own country followed by four years in detention on Manus Island,” said a UNHCR spokesperson.   At the same time, the medical condition of the refugees and asylum seekers is also worrying.   According to a recent medical report commissioned by UNHCR, their physical and mental health is deteriorating and there is growing risk of violence and self-harm due to the cumulative effect of uncertainty about the future, lack of solutions, stopping of vital services, poor living and hygiene conditions and inadequate health care. http://bit.ly/2BY2Z7j   Rupert Colville from the UN human rights office repeated his ofice''s concerns about Australia''s offshore processing centres, which “are inhumane and contrary to its human rights obligations”.   Mr Colville said both Australia and PNG were responsible under international human rights law and the 1951 Refugee Convention, to protect people from harm and ensure they had access to shelter, water, food and sanitation.   “All migrants, including refugees and asylum-seekers, are human beings. Like all of us, they have a right to a safe and secure environment, a right to an adequate standard of living and to participate in the decision-making process that is affecting their future,” Mr. Colville said.   http://bit.ly/2iY1qy0 http://bit.ly/2vgMNtt http://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/09/world/australia/australia-manus-island-refugees.html http://bit.ly/2AtFdfz http://bit.ly/2zqVkgY http://ab.co/2iFlUIn http://tmsnrt.rs/2iIOacO http://bit.ly/2ja09UJ http://bit.ly/2z69rIn http://bit.ly/2gRhZLE http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/a-doctors-experience-working-on-nauru/9932642 http://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-resignation-syndrome-and-why-is-it-affecting-refugee-children-101670 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/20/human-rights-groups-set-deadline-to-get-all-refugee-children-off-nauru http://www.theguardian.com/news/series/nauru-files http://bit.ly/2uzTHtf http://www.unrefugees.org.au/ http://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/ http://www.chilout.org/
	Industry of Inequality: Why the world is obsessed with private security by Claire Provost Pulitzer Center   At least half the world’s population lives in countries where there are more private security workers than public police officers, according to a new Guardian analysis.   More than 40 countries – including the US, China, Canada, Australia and the UK – have more workers hired to protect specific people, places and things than police officers with a mandate to protect the public at large, according to the data. In Britain, 232,000 private guards were employed in 2015, compared with 151,000 police.   The global market for private security services, which include private guarding, surveillance and armed transport, is now worth an estimated $180bn, and is projected to grow to $240bn by 2020. This far outweighs the total international aid budget to end global poverty ($140bn per year) – and the GDPs of more than 100 countries, including Hungary and Morocco.   Around the world, private security guards patrol shopping malls, elite gated communities and some public streets. They often wear uniforms that resemble police clothing and in some countries, including Spain and Italy, private guards carry handguns as well.   From El Salvador to Vietnam, private guards restrict access to walled elite residential enclaves that are cut off from the cities around them. In Burma’s commercial capital Rangoon, guards and metal detectors block entrances to luxury hotels that tower over the extreme poverty surrounding them.   Guard dogs bark from behind the high walls and razor wire that have become ubiquitous in wealthy suburbs in South Africa – where in 2015, almost half a million active security guards were estimated to outnumber the country’s combined total of police and army officers.   In all, estimates suggest there are more than 20 million private security workers worldwide – more than the total number of people living in Chile or the Netherlands. Such “everyday” private security has become “so widespread that you almost don’t see it; you take it for granted”, said Rita Abrahamsen, a professor at the University of Ottawa. “You stop noticing it – there are guards everywhere.”   She described the expansion of private guards, security fences and gates as “very physical displays of inequality” – but added that this industry also provides jobs for huge numbers of people. In some countries, it’s one of the only sectors of the economy that is growing.   At the University of Denver, Professor Deborah Avant said the private security industry had surged with contracts during the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, when “an army of private workers flooded in to do all sorts of things”.   Afterwards, she said, companies “began to look elsewhere ... at private security domestically but also for people living abroad, and for the private sector; for companies”.   Growing economic inequality is also part of the story, she said. “You have a ton more than everyone around you, so you want to protect it. Getting [security] from the private sector is an obvious way to do it.”   Targeting the 1%   In the UK, the British Security Industry Association suggests the private security industry was worth more than £6bn in 2015. Customers include local communities: residents in one Essex town have reportedly hired private security to patrol public streets at night after a local police station closed.   Other companies target more elite clientele: the My Local Bobby subscription-based service caters to the wealthy in London’s most upscale neighbourhoods. According to one of the founders, a former police officer: “It’s like people buy private health insurance … the concept of people paying for something above what the state provides — this is no different.”   This month, Jeremy Corbyn pledged that if Labour wins the upcoming election, it will add 10,000 more police officers to local forces. Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said this was necessary as “very few of us live in gated communities with their own private security”, and that it is “ordinary people who suffer most from crime”.   Some private security companies explicitly target the 1% with services such as crisis response for the ultra-wealthy, “executive personal protection” packages, and security for mega-yachts.   “In properly staffed households throughout the world, the bodyguard is the new nanny,” said a 2016 Town and Country magazine article, suggesting that “fear of terrorism, a volatile political climate, and a pervasive sense that the wealth creation of a few has come at the expense of the many have made paranoia the norm”.   In London, the Westminster Security company offers “complete security and lifestyle management for high net-worth individuals, families and businesses,” advertising that their employees have police and military backgrounds.   Another company, Pinkerton, says it has 170 years’ experience of “highly-skilled agents” protecting “Fortune 100 CEOs and their workforces, famous entertainers, athletes, high-net worth individuals, royal families and diplomats”.   Intensifying inequality   The universal declaration of human rights states that “everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person”, and that “no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property”. Governments are required to work progressively towards realising these rights.   But when private security enables the rich and even the middle class to bypass the state, this can intensify a country’s inequalities. Regarding the expansion of private security in Latin America, the UN development programme has warned: “This phenomenon further increases inequality, as social groups have different capacities to deal with crime.”   In 2014, economists Samuel Bowles and Arjun Jayadev published research that found the US was employing “as many private security guards as high school teachers”.   According to Department of Labor statistics, there are more than 1.1 million private security guards in the US – compared to around 660,000 police and sheriff’s officers.   In the UK, the Confederation of European Security Services (CoESS) said there were 232,000 private security guards in 2015. This also rivals the number of secondary school teachers (roughly 250,000), and far exceeds Britain’s levels of police: at 31 March 2016, there were a total of 151,000 police officers operating within the UK.   Bowles and Jayadev also found that more unequal cities and states in the US had higher levels of “guard labour” – a broad term that includes private security as well as police, bailiffs, prison officers, transport security and other related occupations. The pattern also held globally, with more unequal countries having more of their workers paid to protect people and things.   The growth of the private security industry can reflect the “breakdown of trust and community bonds” that comes with rising inequality, said Jayadev – adding that he was particularly struck by how, despite the importance of investing in education for society as a whole, guarding appeared to be more of a growth industry in America.   Speaking to the Guardian from Bangalore, where he teaches at Azim Premji University, Jayadev observed that India has witnessed a broad “succession of the rich from the rest of the economy”. Many people there, he said, already “rely on private services in every facet of their lives” to provide “all of the things the state might [otherwise] ... including security”.   Estimates suggest the private security industry employs as many as seven million people in India, far more than the police, with around 1.7 million officers in 2013.   The world’s largest private security company, G4S, boasts more than half a million employees around the world. Its most recent annual report, published in March, reported revenues of £6.8bn in 2016, and profits of £454m. Between 2015-2016, its revenues in North America grew by 12% – and in both Latin America and Africa by about 7%.   The global market for private security – including guards but also alarm monitoring, armored transport and other services for commercial, government and residential buyers – is expected to grow to $240bn by 2020, according to data from market research firm the Freedonia Group, which companies such as G4S rely on for their own reports.   But true numbers could be higher still; there are few up-to-date and comparable statistics at the international level, and little open and independent monitoring and record-keeping. Industry data also leave out informal and under-the-table security work.   According to Freedonia figures, it’s a worldwide business that’s growing at nearly 6% a year – faster than the global economy as a whole – and it appears to be expanding fastest in developing countries and in Asia, with China and India major markets.   In January 2017, Freedonia noted that there is a “widespread perception that crime is rising”, which is helping to drive interest in security services “even as reported crime rates fall in a large number of countries”.   It added: “In a number of developing countries, bodyguards and other residential security services are seen as symbols of wealth, providing both protection and social status ... Demand for guards is especially strong in developing countries, where hiring guards is more affordable than investing in technology-related services due to low labour costs.”   In most African countries, “there has been very little attempt to regulate the private security sector,” said Abrahamsen. “I think because it provided employment, the state and governments were quite happy to let it be.”   A few governments, including those in Uganda and Sierra Leone, have also facilitated the export of private security labour overseas, she said – actively supporting the recruitment of their citizens for guard jobs abroad.   But it’s also not only the elite that buy security. For example in Kenya, Abrahamsen said, “You see it growing in low and middle-class areas as well. People will say that as soon as they can, they will invest in private security.”   Outpacing regulation   Government outsourcing isn’t the only thing driving private security. These days, in fact, states aren’t even the primary customers. According to Catherine Piana, director-general of CoESS, in Europe roughly 70% of the industry’s clients are other private businesses – not public authorities.   “There is now a very wide range of services, depending of course on who you are,” said Piana, adding that, in the context of threats from terrorism, guards also “often have positions in front of buildings where they can see unusual activities and report them, so there’s a possibility for them to collect information too.”   International data on the industry is patchy – but in 2011, the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey documented an estimated 19.5 million security guards across 70 countries.   Its report said: “Like other commercial services, only those who are able and willing to pay will benefit from it. This dynamic runs the risk of exacerbating disparities between the wealthy – protected by increasingly sophisticated systems – and the poorest, who may need to resort to informal and sometimes illegal means to secure their safety.”   The Guardian has updated this 2011 dataset to 81 countries, drawing in more recent estimates, where possible, including figures published by the CoESS, the Organisation of American States, the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, and other groups, as well as updated UN population estimates.   For the 81 states for which estimates were available, private security workers appear to outnumber police forces in 44 countries – with a combined population of roughly 4 billion people – or more than half of the world’s total of 7.5 billion.   In 2011, the Small Arms Survey warned that the private security industry’s rapid growth around the world “has outpaced regulation and oversight mechanisms”.   Currently there is an international code of conduct for private security providers – but it is voluntary, and critics say this industry needs more than self-regulation.   At the University of Denver, Avant co-directs the Private Security Monitor, which has been collecting data on incidents since the 1990s where private guards in Africa, Latin America and south-east Asia have been involved in protests, riots, strikes or conflicts, or connected to deaths or injuries in the course of “everyday” work.   And in Brussels last week, MEPs on foreign affairs and defence committees called for new EU-wide rules for private security companies and a ban on these firms carrying out military combat tasks. Parliament is expected to vote on the proposals at the June plenary session in Strasbourg. (Published by The Guardian)   http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/industry-inequality-why-world-obsessed-private-security http://pulitzercenter.org/projects/corporate-armies Visit the related web page
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