Behind The Wire
A Graphic Portrait Of Life In Detention
Thousands of people were held in immigration detention centres across Australia between October 2009 and May 2011. The majority of them, after “processing”, would be found to be refugees and granted asylum in Australia. Some are still in detention.
Serco, the multinational company that managed Australia’s 27 detention facilities during this period, was required to log every ”incident” — a skinned knee, a birth, an electricity failure, a person found dead from hanging.
Here are those records.
ADOPT AN INCIDENT
There is a bigger story behind each of these squares. The government has detailed reports for each of the incidents summarised here. The reports hold much more detail about the event — including who was involved and what happened to the person being detained.
To get the government to release these reports, we need your help.
We’re calling on our audience to “adopt an incident”, using the Freedom of Information Act. So if you see an incident that you think needs further investigation, or that should be made public, we are asking you to request it.
Lodging a request for a detailed incident report is easy and free. Click on a square and find the “adopt an incident” link. This will take you to the Right To Know site, where you will be led through your request; as much as possible, the form will be automatically record details of the incident and relevant language.
