Books are available, but the latest dates from the 1970s. The bell for dinner rings at 5pm. Most nights the menu offers, again, chicken and rice. Once every few weeks a hamburger is on offer. There really is nothing to do.
Time passes slowly.
Despair at their lack of progress towards freedom infects many. The problems are compounded by the forced cohabitation of people of markedly different culture and religion. It sometimes takes years until their applications are finalised. An Iraqi family with six children had been in detention for 14 months. Maritza Thompson was banned after she published a detailed account of Maribyrnong and the mental distress it caused detainees.