SERCO immigration detention workers in Australia, who have committed or at the very least profited from unaccountable incidents of torture and abuse, are “on Strike” demanding worker redundancy payouts while hiding their heads in the sand, which seems like they are requesting a lifetime award for their support of torture camps. This demonstrates how many people and businesses profit off our agony and abuse with impunity.
SERCO is the second largest security company in the world, British, and an integral part of the detention torture supply chain in so-called Australia. In order to repress refugees coming by boat to Australia, SERCO has been working hand in hand with successive Australian governments elected so far. G4S, the world’s largest security company, is also British and has also profited from Australian government detention centres. Our oppressed lives are more than just political pawns; for these security companies we are paywalls to grow their capitalist wealth.
Meanwhile in 2022, Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese’s government, awarded a controversial US prisons operator a $4.6m contract for 52 days of transition work in the Australian government’s refugee concentration camp in Nauru. The operator was accused of gross negligence in US prisons, leading to gang rape and murder.
Torturing and abusing adults and children is routine in onshore and offshore detention camps created and maintained by the Australian government. Australia’s Detention security guards who were caught committing egregious human rights breaches were compensated for their “tough” working conditions rather than facing charges. By supporting mandatory detention measures and subcontracting them to multibillion-dollar corporations, Australian governments run by all three major political parties proudly support these warehouses. This policy is also supported and maintained by private security companies such as SERCO, G4S, Wilson, US prison operators and so on.
While these private security companies have significant investments in immigration detention centres they are also part of the continuous and disproportionate incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. As a result, numerous adults and children from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have been victims and survivors of torture and trauma caused by these security companies.
Outside the Australian detention and prison system, these security firms have a pervasive influence on torture and violence across the world. They have for instance, been part of Israeli naval projects and worked in Israeli detention centres where Palestinian adults and children have been administratively detained. See a pattern?
Australian Trade Union organisations such as“United workers” : Shame on you! for advocating for your “comrades” who are agents of torture while being muted about the dismantling of this white supremacist detention torture system in the colony.
Members of the Australian public: The Australian Labor party, Liberal/National coalition and the Greens support mandatory detention policies against refugees arriving by boat, which forms the groundwork and supplies capital for these private security companies who are agents of torture. Voting for these parties makes you one of the strongest links to the global detention torture supply chain, as in addition to helping line the pockets of these corporations, you have also helped create a refugee detention torture blueprint for the rest of the world – In 2017, US President Donald Trump said “You are worse than I am” when referring to Australia’s detention torture system, said he was an admirer of Australia’s offshore detention system and is now planning to incarcerate 1000s of immigrants in Cuba’s Guantanamo bay. You may not be aware of all of this or care, but we eX-detainees do! Blood on your hands!
We call all those who support freedom and protection for Refugees to take action to dismantle Australia’s detention torture camps. For example, RISE eX-detainees have been calling for Australian hospitals and universities to divest from the Australian detention supply chain for years now. So far none have responded or divested. The first, bare minimum step to this action is – be informed by reading and sharing resources created by us – a self-determined refugee detention survivor group in “Australia”. Link to these resources: https://www.detentiondivestment.org/.
Nothing about Us without Us.
RISE eX-detainees