‘How long must we wait?’ — desperation grows at Christmas Island

“There times we were starving, we had no food, no water. But we came here thinking of protection, that someone will give us a helping hand.”

He said many calls are made by detainees to find information on their cases, but to no avail. “We have been doing everything officially, but we have no damn results."

"We get no results from anyone. We are waiting here without knowing anything. How long are they going to work like this?

“We are living here with no hope.” 

The detainee said desperation is rising among incarcerated Tamils. He said three Tamil detainees were on hunger strike — but not making any demands. They were simply staying in their cells and refusing food because they no longer saw the point in eating.

The detainee said this was just one example of self-harm by detainees and he expected more desperate acts to occur. 

“A lot of people are becoming mad on Christmas Island. I expect a lot of things to happen here, due to the conditions.”

He rang me again midday on Friday with news that proved his point. He had just been awoken by other detainees and told a Tamil refugee that had come on his boat — and likewise been jailed for ten months with no end in sight — had attempted suicide.

Two Tamil detainees had been talking. When one went to make a phone call, the other turned bed sheets into a noose and hanged himself from a security camera.

He was cut down by guards and rushed to a medical centre. The detainee said they had no idea of his condition.

          “We live in an imaginary world, nothing seems real. We see immigration, compounds and a little grass — this is our life now.

“They are keeping us as animals, it is like a zoo — a stupid life, man. How long do we have to wait?”