Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697641449233.pdf (Australia)
10th June 2020 Submission re Migration Amendment (Prohibiting Items in Immigration Detention Facilities) Bill 2020 Dear Madam/Sirs, My name is Roberta Waterman and I am a 63 year old Australian citizen with a background in social work and am making this submission as a member of the general public with no political aﬃliations.

I have been visiting asylum seekers and refugees in Villawood detention centre in Sydney with a group of volunteers since 2013 and have only stopped since Covid19 restrictions.
I am very concerned about the new bill and its implications for many of the people that we see in detention, particularly the possibility of taking phones oﬀ detainees.

The phone is probably the most important personal item that these people have.

Not only does it allow them to have easy access to their families back home overseas, but as there is very little to do in detention, it provides them with communication to the outside world they desperately need.
Many are long term detainees and as a result, have severe mental health issues and I personally have had to “talk them oﬀ the ledge” by phone many a time over the years.

Sometimes they are so depressed, they are unable to visit, so the phone contact, checking in on them, becomes very important.
Some asylum seekers have been in detention for 10 years already In the early days, when the population in detention was mainly asylum seekers, there was very little criminal activity, however since the deportation of non citizens who have served 12 months or more of jail time, has been implemented, we have seen more people in detention with criminal backgrounds.

These however in the main are not the groups that I see.

There was a time when boat arrivals were prohibited from having phones.
It made it extremely diﬃcult to contact their families.

The detention facility would always say there were plenty of landlines but this was not the case.

Of the few that were supplied, many didn’t work.

This was reported back to me on numerous occasions over the years.

Also from my own experience of trying to call the facility, it was often impossible to get through.

I brought it up with Border force and Serco but they either denied the problem or promised to ﬁx it.
When boat arrivals ﬁnally were allowed to have phones, it made such a huge diﬀerence to their lives.

Apart from being able to talk to their families in the diﬀerent time zones, they also had easy access to seeking help either from lawyers or for mental health issues.

Many commented that life in detention had really improved since getting their phones as now some of the staﬀ were much nicer to them and had stopped being racist.
A majority of guards and staﬀ are very good and do their jobs well but as there is very little transparency in these detention centres, sometimes a phone can tell the truth when no one else will.

I feel that Serco and border force are unhappy about this scrutiny but if they are doing nothing wrong, then the presence of a phone shouldn’t be a problem.

The importance of their phones has of course been even more highlighted since the outbreak of Covid19.
We have not been able to visit since February with no suggestion as to when that will resume so our phone conversations are of paramount importance now.

Thankyou for giving me the opportunity to highlight the issues that this Migration Amendment would cause if voted in Yours Sincerely Roberta Waterman Migration Amendment (Prohibiting Items in Immigration Detention Facilities) Bill 2020 [Provisions]Submission 121