Australia’s Role in Trapping Civilians in War: You See Their Bodies Under Rubble. How?
By Ramesh Fernandez ; RISE eX-detainees Founder 09/10/2025
In early March 2003, my friends were held hostage in Baxter Detention Centre, South Australia, and originally from Iraq burst into tears in the mess hall where we were eating. No one else was there; it was dead silent early in the morning. I didn’t know what was happening until they said, “My town is getting bombed and burning (Baghdad),” and ran back to their room after watching the news.
In 2001, at the Christmas Island Detention Centre, a father who had lost all of his family including his children from Afghanistan sat alone and cried every day. His family had died on the way to Australia by boat during the US invasion of Afghanistan. He wept in silence, haunted by the memories of those he could not save, pleading with the Department of Immigration to bring his loved ones from Afghanistan.
In 2002, a few Palestinian refugees were deported to a third country from Baxter Detention Centre. That country refused to accept them, and they were returned. Some had children and family members still in Gaza, Palestine. One of them was my neighbour in detention at Baxter in South Australia.
In 2001 and 2002, Syrians and Yemenis had to protest just to speak to their families over the phone while being held in Baxter and Port Hedland Detention Centres, Western Australia. In 2001, Tamils from the island of Sri Lanka were held hostage at the Cocos Island Detention Centre and were not allowed to contact their families for many months this was during the height of the Tamil genocide.
What does this mean? This is a crusade of neo-colonial practices that has lasted over three decades in Australia. Australia did not simply trap refugees in detention centres, it gave them no options to save family members trapped in war zones. Instead, the border regime not only imprisoned people in Australian run detention centres but also permanently severed them from their loved ones, many of whom were killed in conflict zones while waiting for help that never came.
In 2013, under the Labor government, Australia stopped accepting refugees arriving by boat under the so-called “No Advantage” policy. Some were warehoused in offshore camps, and the right to family reunion was suspended. During this time, a large fleet of refugees arrived by sea, seeking sanctuary from places like Afghanistan, South Sudan, Somalia, Oromia, Iran, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Palestine, and others all coming from war zones. In several of these places, Australia has its own stake, its own blood on its hands whether through direct military involvement or through support and military aid.
Fast forward to today’s Middle Eastern conflicts: those who fled to Australia from Iran and arrived to Australia by boat between the early 2000s and 2013 are still grappling with the brutal legacy of this country’s detention regime. Many remain deeply traumatised by years of incarceration in Australian run camps. They are still denied the right to reunite with their families or bring them to safety. In 2014 Reza Barati, a stateless Kurdish refugee from Iran was bludgeoned to death by a detention staff member in Australia’s Manus Island concentration camp. One of the most prominent detention compensation cases involves an ex-detainee, also from Iran, proof that the damage inflicted by these policies is not only ongoing but systemic. Just recently, Iranians trapped in limbo in Australia, faced the fear of their family members being killed or ambushed just as Palestinians are, and just as South Sudanese are. These are not isolated tragedies. They are the direct consequences of a border system that criminalises those fleeing wars and persecution to Australia by boat.
This has happened to countless other refugees who arrived by boat from countries such as Myanmar, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Palestine, and beyond. The list of victims continues to grow. These refugees were given no choice no protection, no solutions only the devastating reality of watching their loved ones be killed, disappear, or become victims of genocide.
Australian detention centres are brutal torture factories, inflicting deep, irreversible trauma on thousands of survivors. Australia has shamefully pioneered a ruthless system of border imperialism that violently dehumanises, criminalises, and destroys the lives of refugees and asylum seekers. The current Australian refugee policies have relentlessly persecuted, warehoused, and abused refugees arriving by boat stripping them of their basic human rights and dignity.
While we face institutionalised discrimination and live with irrevocable trauma, there are many refugees who came by boat with no option to save their loved ones caught in war zones. Australia never allowed refugees arriving by boat to reunite with their families right away; instead, they were tortured in detention centres. People in Australia or Australian politicians accusing other nations of upholding poor human rights practices should take a deep look at their own backyard and confront the crimes committed by their own government. This state sanctioned violence is a crime against humanity that demands immediate abolition of these concentration camps with justice and humanitarian support for those who have suffered.
The lives of the forgotten people are just that forgotten. Their families are trapped in wars you are far removed from, and collectively, you continue to wash your hands of their suffering. Your politicians are directly complicit in trapping families in war zones through their policies and active support for violent regimes.