<nettime> In the Footsteps of the Graverobbers

[Dave/Cherry <fold@idl.net.au>]

In the Footsteps of the Graverobbers

One of the lowest forms of life in classical literature were 
graverobbers... opportunists who dug up the remains of dead people 
just so that they could plunder whatever wealth may have been buried 
with them.

Nazi Germany had a similar form of low-life, whose job it was to sort 
through the clothing, spectacles, and other personal belongings of 
Jewish concentration camp victims.  Even the gold fillings in their 
teeth were dug out after the executions.  Every little bit of wealth 
was exploited, without a thought for the suffering of the people they 
were ripping off.

The Australian public has expressed horror and indignation at the 
callous indifference to the sufferings of others on the part of 
so-called "people smugglers".  These opportunists take advantage of 
desperate individuals fleeing for their lives, many of whom have lost 
family members to cruel political regimes, often just because they 
converted to Christianity or belonged to some other minority 
religious group.  In the tradition of the graverobbers, people 
smugglers weigh up how much each victim is worth, and then charge 
them the maximum that they can get, for a square foot of space on a 
leaky boat.

Deeply traumatised asylum seekers have run from the Taliban, Al 
Quaeda, and other similar regimes, only to find themselves in further 
fear for their lives at the hand of the people smugglers.  And then 
along comes the Australian Government, sworn enemy of the people 
smugglers and sworn enemy of the Taliban and Al Quaeda, and what do 
we offer those who have risked and virtually lost everything to find 
their freedom?

We offer them accommodation behind razor wire in places like Woomera, 
where, apart from guards and the families of guards, their nearest 
real neighbours may be hundreds of kilometres away.  But we also 
offer them telephones.  With a telephone, they can contact relatives 
back in their home country.  They can enqujire about legal 
assistance.  Never mind that the average detainee gets less than one 
visitor a year because of the remoteness of the prison camp.  A 
telephone can bring them communication with friendly Australians... 
communication that can keep their hopes alive.

And this is where the tradition of the graverobbers has taken another 
shameful turn.  The Australian Government has, under the guise of 
national security, granted a private American company free rein to 
rob the prisoners of whatever wealth remains in their trust accounts 
simply by charging them whatever they like for the privilege of using 
the phones that have been especially installed in the Woomera 
detention centre... phones which will not accept Telstra, Optus, 
Vodaphone, or any other phonecard.  The phones have been especially 
constructed to use only one phonecard, and it is one of the rarest 
and most expensive cards in the entire world.

An agreement has been worked out with a tiny company that, up until 
now, had only owned a handful of telephones on a handful of trains 
(e.g. the Spirit of Tasmania), to supply special telephones to be 
used exclusively by prisoners in Woomera.  Pay-Tel Australia Ltd. has 
a little office at unit 4/43 Railway Road, in Blackburn Victoria. 
But the company, in conjunction with Australian Correctional 
Management, has managed to squeeze hundreds of thousands (if not 
millions) of dollars out of people who are practically on death row, 
just by charging $1.25 a minute for the use of their phones... phones 
which have been specifically designed not to use any other form of 
phonecard.

A monopolistic and criminally overpriced telephone service which 
would be outlawed in any other Australian situation, has not only 
been allowed at Woomera, but it has received added protection from 
accountability on the grounds that whatever the Australian 
Government, Department of Immigration, Australian Correctional 
Management, Pay-Tel Australia conspiracy wishes to charge their 
prisoners in Woomera for phone calls should be regarded as top secret 
classified information, which is vital to the national security.

Phone Pay-Tel, at (03) 9877-0222, and ask them how much it costs per 
minute to use their phone cards, and you will encounter fierce 
opposition.  If "Peggy" answers the phone, she will insist on knowing 
your name, first and last, (at the same time that she will refuse to 
give hers), what organisation you represent, why you are enquiring, 
how you expect to get a phone card to anyone at Woomera if you should 
happen to get one anyway (which she says is not available anywhere in 
the world outside of the canteen at Woomera itself), and then she 
will tell you that the people who can tell you how many minutes you 
can talk for the $22 that they charge for their cards are all "out of 
the office".

If you should get through to Stuart, the "sales manager", who also 
lacks a surname, he will tell you that he's not prepared to talk 
about it, that the whole subject of their phone cards is a 
confidential one between himself and the Department of Immigration.

Call the head office of ACM (Australian Correctional Management) in 
Sydney, and they'll say that the people who know are not available 
too, that it's really a matter that is handled entirely by the people 
in Woomera, and that the people in Sydney are not kept informed about 
such things.

Phone the ACM number in Woomera (08) 8673-7007, and Jeff will most 
likely put you on hold while he checks with the canteen, only to tell 
you that the canteen people are not in today, and probaby won't be in 
tomorrow either.  Jeff also refuses to reveal a last name.  Jeff will 
insist that no officials in Woomera know how much it costs per minute 
to telephone either a local, STD, ISD, or mobile number from the 
detention centre, and so there is no point putting you through to 
anyone.  The information is known only to the people who work at the 
canteen, and they are unreachable.

Our enquiries have revealed that the lowest fee for a call from the 
Pay-Tel phone on the Spirit of Tasmania is $1.25 for one minute. 
This compares with prices ranging from 9 cents a minute for an 
international call to as much as 22 cents a minute for a call 
anywhere in Australia, using a normal phone card.  In other words, 
the mark-up inside of Woomera, for something which is vital to the 
well-being of people who have supposedly only been detained there 
temporarily for their own protection, is well over 500 percent, and 
possibly much more.  Until Pay-Tel, or someone above them chooses to 
tell us how much it costs to talk for a minute on one of their cards, 
the public can only imagine the worst.

This is surely graverobbing at its worst.  People who have already 
been robbed of the lives of family members, robbed of their homes, 
robbed of many thousands of dollars to get here, robbed of their 
freedom, often for years at a time, and possibly robbed of their 
lives if forcibly returned to their home country, are being 
systematically fleeced by the conspiracy that exists at Woomera, in 
an effort to leave them totally penniless by the time they leave 
detention.

Shame on Phillip Ruddock!  Shame on John Howard!  And shame on the 
people of Australia, if we let them continue to act in such a way in 
our name.

Dave McKay, on behalf of the Refugee Embassy,  Woomera, S.A. 5720
Phone (02) 4954-2590 or 0407-238805

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