TrojanLand Welcome to TrojanLand

So in Tasmania we have a new detention centre located in Pontville, which has been met with mixed responses. For me though it has given me a great opportunity to go and met some of the detainees.

So far I have meet with four different fellows who are all Hazara and are from central Afghanistan originally. Where they were living they were surround by fighting and corruption, as one explained to me if you needed to go to the hospital firstly it was dangerous to get there and you needed to pay bribes to be able to travel to the hospital but once you got there you also needed to pay bribes to be able to see a doctor – sounds expensive to me.

So in short all of the guys we have here in Pontville have fled Afghanistan to either Iran or Pakistan, and from there have sought to get asylum here in Australia.

The process takes a very long time usually 2 – 3 years sometimes longer, one fellow I meet has a little daughter of 18 months back in Pakistan that he has not yet met. We only have single males in detention in Pontville but most still have families waiting in either Pakistan or Iran waiting for their husband to get given asylum or be returned back to them. Long time to go without seeing your family.

I spoke to the guys to see what they thought of the Pontville detention centre as they have already been held in either the Western Australian or the Christmas Island centres and one then they told me that they liked about Pontville was the guards. In all of the other centres they are only referred to by their number that they are given when they are entered into the system but down here they are given the decency of being called their own names by the guards. So far on my two visits all of the guards I have met have been very supportive of all of the Asylum Seekers.

Each time I have gone into visit the guys they have treated us like their guests bring in snacks and making us hot drinks (had to explain that you cannot microwave foam cups as some of them have never used a microwave before) and some have even made us presents in their spare time.

Going again on Tuesday evening to visit a couple of guys who follow Christ and are escorted on Sundays to attend church, a very dangerous thing to follow Christ in a Muslim country so looking forward to hearing their stories about this.