Leaving Villawood

I once worked as a compliance officer for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) in Sydney. My job was to detain unlawful non-citizens (UNCs, non-Australians who do not hold a valid visa) located in the community and, if necessary, take UNCs to the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre (VIDC). The VIDC is usually referred to as simply ‘Villawood’ and all UNCs seem to know it by that name, as do most Australians.

In November 2010 I took a stand and advised my supervisors that I no longer wanted to go anywhere near Villawood. There were a number of incidents at Villawood that made me doubt that those people responsible for the care of UNCs (people employed by the UK for-profit corporation, Serco) were doing an effective job (these incidents are recorded in the public domain and that is how I received such information).   I felt Villawood was not safe. My standpoint came to me eventually, sometime after the above incidents and after I made a particular visit to Villawood as part of my job. I say eventually because the realisation of my standpoint came to me in a similar fashion to how Hawkeye came to eventually see his involvement on the bus in the final episode of MASH (Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen – you can watch the scene here:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYjy7uUn7fc

I had convinced myself into believing that I was not in any way responsible for the care of UNCs I took to Villawood; I merely detained various UNCs and from Villawood on, they were not my concern. But when I had my ‘chicken realisation’ I could no longer take UNCs to Villawood in good conscience. I became somewhat of a conscientious objector to taking UNCs to Villawood. I could no longer take UNCs (the vast majority of UNCs are not, and have never been, criminals) to a place I considered unsafe, physically and mentally.

I continued to detain UNCs in the community but I did not transport them to Villawood. I repressed thoughts about my involvement in the greater scheme of immigration detention and I put my head down and went about daily business. It was pointless in raising concerns to who was actually responsible for the day-to-day welfare of UNCs in immigration detention in Australia because who was responsible was a faceless, secretive corporation based in another country that owes no accountability to me or any other member of the Australian public. I tried to trick myself into forgetting where the UNCs I detained would eventually be housed. Unfortunately for me, I could not trick myself for very long.

In the midst of the general malaise on the subject of immigration in our country that is incessantly broadcast in the media (for good reason), my conscience annoyed me like a chicken that clucked inside my mind; I couldn’t keep that damned chicken quiet. The UNCs had faces and were human. After a few more months, I refused to detain any more human beings as I did not want to be involved in any way with the incarceration of people at Villawood.

I don’t know what goes on inside Serco, a for-profit company. No one in DIAC knows what goes on inside Serco, a for-profit company. Serco has a contract with DIAC, the details of which can never be known by me or anyone in the general public (few people outside of a select few at DIAC, the Department of Finance and Deregulation and Serco know the contract details). Serco may be financially accountable to DIAC if people die in their care; that is what has been represented by DIAC. I don’t have access to the contract, so I don’t know for sure. But monetary fines appear to be the only accountability directed at them. They are not morally accountable to the Australian government, DIAC, or anyone else in Australia. Serco is in no way required to behave in a manner that people would call right. Serco is a corporation and its only responsibility is to spend as little money as possible while obtaining as much income as possible (and they are very good at that).

I understand Serco do not owe any kind of moral accountability to the Australian public or me, a lowly DIAC employee. That is their right after they negotiated a business deal on detention services with non-business minded public servants in Canberra on pure economic terms. But such lack of moral accountability in regards to the tragic incidents at Villawood, I believe, is a problem. To me, it’s a horrifying scenario: what is in effect at Villawood is a morally unaccountable system. Perhaps what is even worse (and the possibility fills me with dread): such an unaccountable system could easily have been purposely designed.

I have had the luxury of being able to leave Villawood forever. Some people don’t have that choice. My response to what I have seen at Villawood is not an average response and in its singularity it means nothing. But to mix in an expression to my MASH metaphor, it would be nice if somehow the chickens came home to roost before the chickens are harmed any further.

First published 22 Jun 2012