Secrets behind the bars
Most weekends you’ll find Rachel Evans around Villawood. A passionate refugee advocate, she visits those held in detention offering them news, and solidarity.
“It’s a very humanising campaign…These concentration camps are so close to us, that we’d be remiss, not to do anything,” Rachel said.
On Monday October 4, Rachel was ordered to leave the detention centre. She had been labelled a “security risk” by either the Department of Immigration, or SERCO, the private company that operates it. Apparently, she was asking too many questions.“I was asking questions like; how long will it be til people are deported once they get the statement that their [visa] application has been detected… and asking questions about how many Tamils have been deported,” Rachel said.
Knowing these figures is important when making a case for Tamil refugees in Australia. Tamils have become a vulnerable minority group in Sri Lanka since the Tamil Tiger separatist group was defeated last year by the countries military. Deported Tamils are more in danger than ever. “Since 2007, 11 Tamils have been deported… three were imprisoned, and we don’t know where the other nine are, but we think they’ve been killed,” Rachel told the City Hub. “In 2009 there were another three Tamils deported, and they are being tortured in prison.”
Rachel was critical of the Department of Immigration who she accuses of glossing over their deaths, for political gain. “The Department of Immigration wants to cover up the torture of Tamils because; it means they are deporting people to death… they have to lie about the situation in [Sri Lanka] and the fact that Tamils are persecuted [to justify placing them in detention].”
Prior to being removed, Ms Evans says that she was telling a group of Tamils about recent protests around Australia held in detention centres by refugees, and encouraging them to do likewise. “We are encouraging them to fight, we are encouraging them to take action. If the refugees on the inside don’t take action then the movement on the outside will not be as strong and effective, it has to be lead by them,” Rachel said.
Rachel was told she had been barred from the centre for 24 hours, at which point she will supposedly stop being a security risk. She is hopeful that she will be allowed to re-enter, and ready to raise hell if not.
