Raw grief meets raw politics. No sign of policy.

This is one of the saddest situations I have seen, in a very long time. Politicians have behaved in a despicable way, from both sides of the political system.

Shame on the government and shame on the opposition. Refugees are human beings that have committed no crime. To treat them in this manner, is a shame on our country.

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http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/44174.html


Raw grief meets raw politics. No sign of policy


Colman Ridge

Yesterday I was invited to the burial of Zahra El Ibrahimy by the family.

I did not bring a camera, I was there to show respect for the deceased, support for the living and assist with what was going to be a predictably heavy workload for the family with media.

As the funeral was taking place the Minister for Immigration Chris Bowen called an earlier account of issues presented on the eve of the funeral inaccurate. This added insult to injury as the parties were suffering the consequence of issues presented. These issues are reviewed again below in the context of the actual funeral ceremony experienced by the family.

Due to the harmful impact of his rejection I am asking for the Minister to please formally apologise to the family.

Madian El Ibrahimy, the 23-year-old father of eight-month-old Zahra who died on the Christmas Island boat crash of December 15, travelled to Sydney departing Christmas Island at 5:00am on Tuesday February 14 arriving in Sydney that afternoon.

1. Oday - Madian’s permanent resident brother who lives in Sydney - was not provided with information about Madian’s whereabouts in Sydney and was denied that information when he asked, repeatedly.
2. Oday and Madian had not met for five years. They wanted to meet prior to the funeral upon Madian’s arrival in Sydney to grieve in private with the body of Zahra.
3. They were not permitted to meet before the funeral in the evening and night of the 14th, or the morning of the 15th before the funeral.
4. Madian was not told where he was, he was held in a hotel with security. He reported that he was not fed and instructed not to touch the door or windows.
5. Oday and Jamal Daoud of the Social Justice Network, interpreting for both the Imam and family kept requesting information. DIAC kept denying access and information about his whereabouts in Sydney.
6. Oday’s first meeting with his brother in five years took place at 10:00am as Madian stepped off the bus holding the detainees and the Serco security guards. This - their only meeting - was in the public arena of the cemetery for one hour.

No-one could understand the thinking behind bringing the family so close together in Sydney but not allowing them to meet, this caused a lot of suffering. A DIAC staff member commented to a free-to-air TV producer this was to provide privacy for Madian, from his own family?

There were moments of deafening silence and mingling close contact mixed with wailing, as the family moved amongst each other not having met for years.

Watching Madian he showed bewildered intelligence as well as extreme fatigue and grief. Here he was in detention for months, flown with security to a funeral for his daughter he could not visit at the funeral parlour, in the city of his remaining family that he could not meet in private? Was the funeral held two months after death meant to be a choreographed PR stunt that backfired?

Despite his bewilderment his body language was intentionally graceful throughout. It gave a message about his ability to simply live in peace with the surviving family.

Three hearses lined up, the front one carried an Iranian man from another family called Farhan. He died along with his whole family, except for one eight-year-old son Sinan. Eight-year-old Sinan is also being held in detention and broke down on seeing his father lowered into the grave. What does 25-year-old Madian say to eight-year-old Sinan on return to Christmas Island after the funeral, when he asks the most obvious questions, as eight-year-olds do?

Zahra lay in a small white baby coffin amidst the second large black hearse.

1. Both Madian and Oday were denied access to the funeral parlour to visit the body of Zahra.
2. Zahra was prepared in a traditional fully-cocooned cloth without Madian or Oday present. This meant neither saw Zahra’s body at the funeral home, had opportunity to grieve in private with her, or view her body at the burial on taking her wrapped body from the coffin. A department response commented that the decomposed nature of the body after two months of storage in the detention centre morgue was the reason. It seems to be a decision made more for considerations around the impact of photography than the family’s choice for Zahra.

The family gathering mourned the dead approximately 30 metres from roadside and the line of media. However, the eventual burial site for Zahra was only five metres from the established line of media and support crew, now over 40-strong. The media were silent and respectful throughout the funeral, the family was happy to have the media witness the ceremony.

On completion of the funeral ceremony, Madian walked dazed towards the roadside and media. A reporter asked him a question, Jamal Daoud of the Social Justice Network interpreted both question and answer across the remaining three metres of separation.

1. A Serco security guard then moved between them instructing Madian he was not allowed to speak and physically grabbed Madian redirecting him away from the media. The gallery now swelling around Madian towards this interaction, diluted the authority of the Serco guard, he gave up and the interviews presented across Australia took place.
2. These interviews and voices of the family cannot now be used as Ministerial proof of rights being delivered. Both the Australian newspaper today and Channel 10’s vision of the funeral yesterday present this specific incident.
3. The same guard shown on the Channel 10 vision then moved back in after approx 15 minutes to usher Madian towards the bus. Madian did not resist and throughout the slow shuffle of hugging family moving 20m towards the bus, he remained in a state of mercy body language.

I have known Oday for a few months now and was worried for him as his brother Madian was pushed back onto the bus. He was not being provided any information about where they were going. He cannot visit him in Sydney prior to the flight back to Christmas Island. He did not get to grieve in private with his brother or Zahra.

1. As the bus departed Oday made a plea to the media assembled to please let his brother stay. He said Madian lost his whole family, he has no-one to go to. Oday even relented from a request to look after him at his home to put him in detention at Villawood in Sydney so he could provide visiting support whilst processing is decided. Oday then recounted these issues in point form with Vanessa Trezise of Sky News, noting to her that Madian may commit suicide in Christmas Island and needs the support of remaining family now.

I have walked away from the funeral of Zahra El Ibrahimy with one conclusion. Australia does not have an asylum seeker policy, we have an asylum seeker election strategy.

A policy would involve the stake holder countries which we partly administer via our defence alliances and the transit countries to minimise traffic by boat. It would also process these specific people from an historic boat wreck more consistently with our values.

Unfortunately for these people and I have no doubt most of the people working at DIAC, we are stuck with an election strategy instead of a policy platform.

I have talked about this with the family many times. The public servant at the end of the phone is not the problem. It’s the politician making decisions in response to their fears of polls and shock jocks, rather than specific case considerations that are the problem. This view was supported by the respectful behaviour of Department and Circo security staff within their directed constraints at the funeral.

Scott Morrison, is it really worth saying anything about his search for hardline glory during the funerals? It is total spin to propose that a few airfares are less worthy of funding than the cost of his spin department to formulate and deliver that statement. Good on Joe Hockey for speaking up and reflecting on Australian values, he gave some hope that “fair go” was still an ember of hope. So too it has to be mentioned did the Minister for Foreign Affairs Kevin Rudd in his response to Scott Morrison and in a direct correspondence to me with regard to the short film about the family, Australian Family Reunion.

So what are the family’s reasonable hopes right now after the funeral?

1. To be informed about the whereabouts of their loved ones in detention. No point denying the accuracy of this now if provided later.
2. To support the release of eight-year-old detainee Sinan into the care of his permanent resident aunt in Sydney.
3. To release Madian into the care of Oday whilst completing review of his application, Madian is on suicide watch and Oday is deeply concerned for him.

I also have some hopes for improving things following the funeral:

1. An Australian asylum seeker policy instead of managing the most defenceless people in the world seeking our protection with an asylum seeker election strategy. Consider the wealth and vitality that will come in five years from the current democratisation of the Middle East, helping that happen will turn the asylum boats into trade boats. How are we positioning as partners across South Asia and the Middle East to manage this issue beyond scoring cheap points on shock jock radio?
2. Minors in detention are released into willing community homes, it will release millions of dollars from expenses and improve the lives of both the children and willing sponsors.
3. There will be an apology to the El Ibrahimy family from Minister Chris Bowen received today.

I also hope Madian does not commit suicide, as his brother now fears. I hope ordinary Australian people remind the Government that whilst concerned about immigration we also believe beyond everything else in a fair go!

Colman Ridge is a social entrepreneur with a focus on music marketing and conservation promotion.
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