By Karen Lim
2020

By chance, we are born into this world at a given time and location. This is something that no one, no matter their status now, as a developing fetus, has any control over.

However, the location and time which you are born into makes a world of difference over how your life will be. Will it be difficult simply to stay alive? Will you get a chance to reap what you sow? Not to say, will people discriminate against the person that I was born as? Will they discriminate against my race, my ethnicity, my gender, my sexuality, and my identity?

Every country has its problems, and in the United States, we like to point fingers to the problems of other countries, saying we are not as bad as them. Would we be surprised to know that we have similar problems, just in different forms? One thing that America and Australia have is their inhumane detention of asylum seekers. A problem that has existed for a long time but has been highlighted more in the past few years due to it being one of the main topics discussed for the American Presidency elections.

Villawood is about the experiences of people in an Australian immigration detention center. It takes the difficulties that immigrants and asylum seekers face when they come to Australia, and portrays them in a comic form, so that it is easier to digest. Asylum seekers and immigrants come to Australia for several reasons, but it all boils down to trying to have a better life. They all have their own reasons. Some are trying to escape the Taliban. Some just want a normal life. Some want to escape the repression from their government for simply being themselves. Some people just want to stay alive.

Politics tend to dehumanize these people into horrible people simply trying to take advantage of their good will. They call them names, keep them in horrible conditions, humiliate them, and deny them simple human rights.

In addition to that, they are not protected by the law. What crime have these people committed for us to not treat them as equals, or even as humans? Simply being born in a different country. Fleeing their countries to stay alive? Should they be sitting ducks and simply stay where they were although they knew what would happen if they did? The problem here is that we do not see these people as people.

If you were to put yourselves in their shoes, what would you do in a life-threatening situation? I would hope that your self-preservation instincts would kick in then. It is messed up that the public feels dominance over these people due to their different conditions. When one lives in a society that actively repressed them, they sometimes find themselves falling to fit into the mold of what others say about them. Other times, because of assumptions and discrimination, they find themselves being put into that mold even when they have done nothing wrong. It is an uphill battle from the start.

Detention centers mistreat the people living there, both mentally and physically. (Zion) Physical harm, although messed up, can heal. Harm to your mental health can stay with you for the rest of your life, and can even cause you to try to end it. Detention centers are a breeding ground for mental illnesses. (Ahmed) You are left to battle loneliness, discrimination and any harm the guards and other people there may inflict on you, while also left in a world of uncertainty. You also do not get any privacy. Will I be left here until I die? Will I be able to see the outside, to live a normal life, or to see my family and loved ones again? Is that possible? Those in healthcare positions in these facilities are bound by their job codes. (Zion) They are there because of their job, trying to provide care to patients, but the system makes it hard to do so. They are trying to help those who are stuck in a place that breeds more harm to the patients, and can do nothing to get these patients out of this situation. Outside of the detention center, if someone has a problem, an attempt can be made to solve it by leaving the toxic place or person. In this situation, they cannot leave, nor distance themselves from anyone. They are not the ones in power.

Detention can be a cause for mental illnesses itself. (Zion) The facility itself is dehumanizing. The guards put the idea that they can do whatever they want with them, and still not get caught or reprimanded. This can throw a person in a hopeless spiral. No matter what they do, what is the difference? Nothing will change. As for children in this situation, their childhood will consist of being in what is little less than a different type of jail.

Most of these people have done nothing wrong, and simply want a better life. Is wanting a better life a crime? Is that not all of us? Simply because we were fortunate enough to be born into better situations, does not mean we are better. It could have easily been us in their shoes, or them in ours. Has the time not come to stop this ongoing cycle of treating people from other countries as always having ill-intent? Innocent until proven guilty should extend to everyone, with better and humane conditions.

Works Cited

Safdar, Ahmed. “Villawood.” The Shipping News, Medium, 5 Mar 2015. medium.com/shipping-news/villawood-9698183e114c.

Zion, Deborah, et al. “Psychiatric Ethics and a Politics of Compassion.” Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, vol. 9, no. 1, 2011, pp. 67–75.