Mohammad: suicidal and walking blindfolded in Murray Bridge

Mohammad’s story illustrates how individual mental health and the development of trust and a sense of belonging must be seen as phenomena influenced by powerful elements of identity, belonging, bonding and a historical consciousness.

In interviews with media outlets ranging from John Laws on radio and the Nine Network’s, A Current Affair, Port Lincoln Mayor, Peter Davis, told reporters in June 2002:

They can use the recalcitrant illegal immigrants as live target practice … the same as galahs … settle down boys, or you might be buried. We’ll only have to shoot a few to get the message across.

After Mr Davis made the comments the Refugee Advocacy Service of South Australia made a complaint to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Paul Rolfe QC. After an investigation, Mr Rolfe said he regarded the comments as “offensive and ill-informed”, but had found no legal breach of the South Australian Racial Vilification Act. “Thus, there being no reasonable prospects of conviction, there would be no charges”, he said. It appeared that Australians could easily commiserate with the Washington residents’ fear at being used for target practice but less so with the equally intense fears of refugees within our own shores.

After Peter Davis’s comments, Dr Habib, an educated man and Mohammad's friend, killed himself by hanging from live powerlines in Murray Bridge. Mohammad said Dr Habib killed himself because he could read English.

He knew what was happening. He knew what was being said about us in the Australian newspapers. One day he read in the local newspaper about an Australian Mayor, Peter Davis, who said we were "good for target practice". He said to me "everywhere we go we cannot escape our fate to go to the Goristan (graveyard) … we have no rights in Afghanistan or in Australia.

Mohammad told Dr Habib that this was just one person making these comments – not all Australians. But Dr Habib felt the same fear as Linda Rivera and others in Washington who dodged the flying bullets of a sniper. His personal interpretation of trauma in Afghanistan and perceptions of him by others in Australia were mediated by a historical consciousness of the recent and distant past as well as an uncertain future. Mental health and wellbeing in Mohammad’s and Dr Habib’s world (and many thousands of others like them) are interdependent upon events thousands of kilometres away as well as the actions, beliefs, and attitudes of people at a local level. Both individuals and organisations within the media need to recognise how pivotal their role is in helping people like Dr Habib feel safe in Australia. Government policy, rhetoric and media reporting of this needs to take far more careful thought and responsibility for the power they exert over some of the world’s most traumatised people. Dr Habib was only 45 years old and had a wife and three children back in Afghanistan.

Mohammad is trying to help himself by taking medication, listening to relaxation music, working and staying with friends. But every day is a struggle. He says he cries at night and walks the streets of Murray Bridge alone and in fear. He sleeps only four or five hours a night, sometimes less. Nevertheless, he says he feels “lighter” when he talks to others. He says he needs to talk, open up and begin trusting others.

Mohammad’s story clearly illustrates the crucial linkages between freedom, (lack of) trust, acceptance, support and understanding from the Australian government. For refugees and asylum seekers in Australia, individual mental health and wellbeing is concerned with physical conditions such as certainty of place, legal governance and the effects of grief and dislocation. Mohammad says:

Everybody I talk to says that genuine refugees have a different visa. But it is Australian government policy that I have a TPV and they can’t do anything about it. I tell them the Australian government told me that I am a genuine refugee! But why should I have the same fate as a non-genuine refugee? The worst thing you can take from a human being is their hope. There is no one here in Australia who can make my life worse. There is nothing darker than black.