4.3.6 Stateless people face a disproportionate risk of being detained for lengthy periods “In detention, we were not treated like humans.” — Amir The disproportionate risk stateless people experience of being detained was consistently identified by research participants, an issue discussed throughout this Report. As demonstrated in Chapter 3, statistics show that stateless people also spend longer periods of time in immigration detention than non-stateless people (3.2.5). The length of detention is exacerbated by a lack of visa pathways for stateless people in Australia, and the fact that there is no country they can be sent back to. As noted by one Australian legal practitioner interviewed for this Report, ‘the consequences for stateless persons (of being detained)... are heightened because they cannot be returned.’ “I left Iran because of this discrimination and intimidation. Around 2012, I flew to Indonesia and travelled by boat to Christmas Island. I was jailed for two years by the Australian government. This didn’t make sense to me because Australia has a reputation for supporting human rights. I don’t know what they achieved by keeping a blind person in detention for two years other than wasting over a million dollars.” — Amir Despite fundamental legal requirements that immigration detention in Australia be administrative in nature and ‘non-punitive’, qualitative data consistently indicated otherwise. More than one stateless person interviewed for this research who had experienced immigration detention likened it to imprisonment. “I felt like we were in a prison, and we were, basically. But I just couldn’t understand why we were in a prison. People kept saying, “Detention is a prison for people who did bad things.” As a 10-yearold, I was confused. I would ask, “But what did we do?” — Asma Other stateless people spoke of the way protracted periods of detention and the restrictions and conditions imposed on them made them feel less than human. “All these rules they put on us in community detention make me feel like I’m not human. Like I don’t feel like I’m supposed to be human looking at those rules.” — Nur* 50 Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness | Understanding Statelessness in Australia The lack of mandated timeframes for detention was identified as a particular risk factor for stateless people, with stateless people waiting for months without any news about their case. “In Darwin in detention, sitting there thinking, nearly crazy, you know. Every day, no news. I ask the Immigration Department about my family, how are they? They say no news. Minister say no news, no news. Waiting, waiting, so long. So long waiting.” — Hassan* Concerns about the conditions, length and impact of immigration detention on stateless people in Australia was also consistently identified by professionals working with stateless communities, particularly legal practitioners. “(It’s) shockingly bad. There’s no way to put any spin on it, other than it is a very slow death sentence. So, for refugee clients, sometimes it’s a terrible choice but they have a choice between going back to their country of origin and dying, or dying in detention here. Stateless people can’t even exercise that limited amount of power.” — Alison Battison, Australian Legal Practitioner The dangerous and detrimental health impacts—including mental health—of immigration detention are well documented.102 Several service providers also shared anecdotal evidence about the detrimental impact caused by immigration detention on the health of stateless people. “If you’re detained long-term, your physical health as well obviously deteriorates, and our clients get divided between going obese and then going very, very skinny. But also, interestingly, and this is completely anecdotal, a lot of our clients are starting to get what I would term very rare illnesses. So, Addison’s disease, we’ve had two clients with Addison’s disease, which is an endocrine illness that is incredibly rare and is very difficult to diagnose, and yet 2% let’s say of the people of ours that have been released have had it. Now, that’s a really large number. So, I think the stress illnesses and hopelessness illnesses are really building up.” — Alison Battison, Australian Legal Practitioner