Shocking revelations from Scherger Detention Centre

Early this afternoon, a Sri Lankan man went to the computer room to get his 30 minutes online. A Serco guard punched him in the face. According to witnesses, ” The client just asked for his time, the guard punched him in the face, the client was bleeding and fell down, like unconscious”. Other detainees came to his help and surrounded the client so that he could not be dragged away. They are asking for the police to come urgently to investigate.

Some detainees became angry and distressed and broke a few windows.  The guard was withdrawn.

There are problems getting staff in Scherger. The bulk of workers are flyin/flyout, working 6 days a week, 12 hours a day, one week nights and one week days until their contract is up and then they go home for one weeks leave. They are paid $2,100 per week. The shifts are long but as most are untrained, unskilled people, this is the best money they have ever earned in their lives.

Local people  would rather work for COMALCO mining bauxite where conditions are much better. However SERCO has a deal with Centrelink to pick up the unemployed people in WEIPA.
Locals told me in July that WEIPA is a town with no to little unemployment becasue of the mine and need for services. Even the wives are working driving the trucks. Locals said that only the “unemployable in town work for SERCO and that many of those are people with drug and alcohol problems”. Locals also said that the SERCO guards start before the police checks are done because many have been to prison and so subsequently fail these checks after working for 6 to 12 weeks. Locals do not get the high wages as they are not flyin/ flyout so the incentive to work the impossible hours is low.

Right now the call is urgent for police intervention. Scherger is 40 minutes plus on a rough dirt road from Weipa and the nearest police station.

–
Pamela Curr
Campaign Coordinator
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre

Update

Hi there friends & supporters,

We wanted to give you an update on what’s happening with the film. You may have seen that it’s finished, edited and polished, with a smashing soundtrack by the wonderful Nick Van Cuylenberg of The Red Tree.

We are currently in the process of submitting the film to festivals across the globe, in the hope that it’ll get picked up and start to fly in the way it deserves!

There’s just one catch: while we are submitting to festivals, we have to preserve our ‘world premiere’ status, which means we can’t go screening the film willy-nilly in Australia.

So you’ll have to be patient with us! Our aim is for as many people as possible to see the film, and unfortunately the trade-off for that is having to hold off on an official public launch for now.

Please be assured you will have a chance to see it soon… In the meantime we thank you for your ongoing patience and support!

Best wishes,

The Crew

Update: Film is ready to rock!

Dear friends,

We are thrilled to be able to announce that Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea has been completed…!

We thank you all for your patience and forbearance.

There have been various delays in production, almost all of which have arisen out of the very precarious situations of the families of people we interviewed. Many (literally about a dozen) of the people who were our main characters asked us if we could not use their stories, as they feared for the lives of their families back home if the film fell into the wrong hands. Of course, we wanted to respect their wishes, so we have had to start from scratch in a lot of ways.

We are currently waiting on news about whether the film is selected for a major international film festival.

In the meantime, we are plotting and planning releases and launches across the country, including in conjunction with our wonderful partners at Amnesty International.

Please watch this space! It won’t be long now!

Migrated to our new website…

Come and check us out at www.deepblueseafilm.com

See our most recent trailer and learn how you can help us get the film finished.

In the meantime, check out the coverage on The Hack (Triple J) of the government’s refugee policy announcement on 6 July 2010, featuring Deep Blue Sea’s co-creator Jessie Taylor.

Refugees targeted by organ traffickers

One of our Iraqi friends has told us about a new issue arising for refugees waiting in Indonesia. Check out the below link to find out more.

http://australianetworknews.com/stories/201001/2789984.htm?desktop

Jessie Taylor speaks on Triple J

Hear Jessie Taylor speak about some of the conditions we saw in Indonesia on Sunday Night Safran on Triple J. Jessie has become a bit of a regular on all things asylum seekers on John Safran and Father Bob’s popular radio show. Check the link below to listen to the podcast.

http://www.podfeed.net/episode/triple+js+Sunday+Night+Safran+29th+November+2009/2182320

Amnesty International supports Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea

Exciting news! We were successful in receiving 10K funding from Amnesty International to help make our film! This is such an exciting advancement for us to know that other people are seeing worth in our film. Thanks soooo much to everyone at Amnesty International!