Immigration Detention Centres Research Articles

“On Their Own Terms”: Agency, Advocacy and Representation in Refugee Webcomics

ABSTRACT In Australia, refugees remain on the margins of the public imaginary as subjects of aversion, erasure and suspicion. The unknowability of the foreign Other carries sharp political dimensions borne out in policies of strict border control and mandatory detention that have restricted public access to the voices and stories of refugees for over two decades. However, recent life narratives by refugees provide an antidote to this dominant discourse, by testifying to the traumatic precariousness of living in detention and confronting readers with unflinching visual displays of subjects often silenced and invisible. Safdar Ahmed’s Walkley Award–winning documentary webcomic, Villawood: Notes from an Immigration Detention Centre (2015), documents the lives, experiences and drawings of detainees in Sydney’s Villawood Immigration Detention Centre. This article reads Villawood as an example of the vital rhetorical and representative work done by webcomics to expose the violences of Australia’s border spaces and put the personal stories of detainees in dialogue with vast audiences online. By attending to the collaborative and mediated process of its construction, this article maps the critical literacies needed to interpret webcomics as testimony and considers what this medium might offer life narrative studies and the project of ethical witnessing more broadly.

Perceived Detention Environment and Mental Health of Detainees in Immigration Detention Centers in Spain.

The increase in migratory flows worldwide has led to the creation of detention centers as a form of control of irregular migration. Recipient countries are responsible for protecting detainees' right to mental health, but the literature suggests that immigration detention centers are environments associated with complex mental health needs among the detainees. This study aims to approach the mental health of people detained in the immigration detention centers in Spain, a southern border of Europe. Eighty-seven migrants coming from different Latin American and African countries were interviewed using an adaptation of the Measure of Quality of Life in Detention (MQLD; Bosworth & Gerlach, 2020) to measure the perceived detention environment and The Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25; Derogatis et al., 1974) to assess mental health. The results show a high prevalence of detainees with significant levels of anxiety and depression (69%) and attempts at self-harm within the detention centers (19.5%). A more positive perception of the detention environment-especially concerning institutional decency and the relationship with officers-is related to a lower degree of negative mental health symptoms. Finally, people detained for more than 2weeks assess the detention environment more negatively than those detained for less time. Scientific contributions and social implications to ensure the mental health of detainees from a human rights-based approach are discussed.

An Overview of Prison Rape Elimination Acts (Prea) 2003

The main objective of this paper is to briefly focus on a reform related to prison called PREA which stands for Prison Rape Elimination Act, 2003. Prison Rape Elimination Act is a US federal law that was implemented in 2003 to eradicate rape in prisons. PREA created principles for recognizing, preventing, and responding to sexual abuse and harassment in correctional settings such as prisons, jails, juvenile facilities, and immigration detention centers. The law also requires data collecting and reporting on incidences of sexual abuse within these facilities, as well as staff training to avoid such incidents. However, PREA 2003 could not meet all the criteria included in its principles to eliminate rape culture in the prison. From this concern, the main aim of this paper is to focus on a reform related to prisons called Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) 2003, the reasons why this act was put into place, the current status of prison rape, the positive, and negative impact of PREA 2003, probable strategies that can be helpful for the appropriate implementation of PREA 2003. To accomplish this endeavor, this research followed systematic literature review methods due to the availability of scholarly work in this field. Although PREA 2003 has some positive aspects, the overall analysis of this study has uncovered that PREA 2003 was not implemented accurately due to some of the practical problems related to it. There are still some improvements that need to be accomplished for the appropriate implementation of PREA 2003 for the prisoners. Some suggested ways were discussed in this study to improve the implementation of PREA 2003.

Innocence and danger at the border: migrants, “Bad” mothers, and the nation’s protectors

Media and political discourse in the USA often depict migration as an invasion and people who cross borders as criminals dangerous to the nation. Through ethnographic fieldwork conducted in two places on the USA-Mexico Southern border, we want to analyze how invasion narratives influence practices on-the-ground. We first explore how these narratives inform the views of a border militia who see themselves as protectors of the nation and understand people who cross borders as threats. We then argue that migrant women’s presence in areas where the militia operates disrupts the dominant narrative that defines migrants as dangerous, as militia members come to understand migrant women as victims of the Cartel. Despite their innocence, to maintain the narrative’s consistency, militia members still consider migrant women criminals for crossing the border “illegally.” Finally, we move on to explore the materiality of these xenophobic discourses by examining how migrant women are mistreated at a family immigration detention center. Using the militias as an example, we highlight why political narratives circulate and have meaning for individuals and how discourses have material consequences.

The private harms of detention: why Serco’s violence is not criminalised

ABSTRACT Immigration detention centres in Australia have been managed by corporations for the Commonwealth government for the last 25 years. Complaints of officers’ violence, including the use of tear gas and batons on detainees, have continued throughout. In recent years, reports suggest that officers tend to use force as a first resort to manage detainees’ conduct and routinely handcuff detainees for medical and other appointments outside detention. This article is titled ‘the private harms of detention’ not because officers’ use of force in detention is always hidden, but because few officers have faced criminal prosecution. I argue that flaws in the design and operation of risk assessments unduly heighten the risks posed by detainees. By justifying a greater level of force as reasonable, risk assessments mitigate the potential for officers to be held criminally culpable, and thereby diminish understandings of the seriousness of officers’ harmful use of force. The privatised nature of detention and ongoing controversy over the extent of power private detention operators should wield make it important to explore how such actors might influence forums of accountability.

Expanding Knowledge About Music and Well-Being in Carceral Settings: A Methodological Review.

This methodological review includes literature (1987-2022) concerning the role and influence of musical practices-including music therapy and participatory music interventions-on well-being in carceral settings such as jails, prisons, and immigration detention centers. We provide a thorough description of key methodological procedures used in 55 studies: (1) Key Elements of Research Questions; (2) Types of Musical Practices; (3) Musical Genres; (4) Methodologies and Designs; (5) Locations; (6) Theoretical Frameworks; and (7) Samples. Our review indicates that there is difficulty in conducting research in prisons due to limitations imposed on researchers, a paucity of randomized-control trials, and limited generalizability of results due to the heterogeneity of methodological approaches. We suggest that the literature base would benefit from increased attention to issues related to sampling procedures, research questions related to race and gender identity, as well as the delineation between the types of musical practices utilized by music interventions.

Tanggung Jawab Negara Indonesia Terhadap Imigran Ilegal Kajian Hukum Keimigrasian

Introduction: As a country with a strategic geographical position, Indonesia is often used as a stopover for immigrants.Purposes of the Research: The purpose of this paper is to study aims to find out and analyze the Immigration Law Regulating Illegal Immigrants and State Responsibilities to Illegal Immigrants Study of Immigration LawMethods of the Research: This type of research is normative juridical where the research is carried out by collecting primary, secondary and tertiary data obtained using library research. The data that has been collected is analyzed qualitatively, the description of which is arranged systematically based on legal disciplines to achieve clarity on the issues to be discussed.Results of the Research: The results of this study indicate that illegal/illegal immigrants in Indonesian immigration law have the same position as foreigners who enter and/or are in Indonesian territory. Illegal immigration itself is the movement of one person across the borders of a country where the movement has violated the immigration laws of the destination country. The responsibility of the State in handling illegal Immigrants is carried out by the Directorate of Immigration Investigation and Enforcement. For each province in Indonesia as an extension of the ministry of law and human rights there are regional offices of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights with an implementing unit in the field of immigration called the Immigration Division. Handling illegal immigrants, the sub-unit authorized to handle this is the Intelligence and Immigration Enforcement Division. The second is the Immigration Office where this agency is the first agency in handling illegal immigrants in the field. The third institution is the Immigration Detention Center as a place of quarantine or temporary detention of illegal immigrants

Health and health care in Australian immigration detention: a comparison between onshore and offshore data

PurposeThis study aims to compare the impact of Australian onshore and offshore immigration detention centres (IDCs) on detainees’ health and health-care events.Design/methodology/approachIt uses data extracted from the Australian Government’s quarterly health reports from 2014 to 2017. These reports contain a range of data about the health and well-being of detainees, including complaints/presenting symptoms and number of appointments and hospitalisations. To compare onshore and offshore data sets, the authors calculated the rate of health events per quarter against the estimated quarterly onshore and offshore detention population. They ran a series of two-proportion z-tests for each matched quarter to calculate median z- and p-values for all quarters. These were used as an indicator as to whether the observed differences between onshore and offshore events were statistically significant.FindingsThe results suggest that adults detained onshore and offshore have substantial health needs, however, almost all rates were far higher in offshore detention, with people more likely to raise a health-related complaint, access health services and be prescribed medications, often at two to three times the rate of those onshore.Originality/valueThis paper adds to a modest body of literature that explains the health of people detained in Australian IDCs. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to explore health service utilisation and a range of other variables found in the Australian Government’s quarterly health reports. These findings bolster the evidence which suggests that detention, and particularly offshore detention is particularly harmful to health.

Emergency Medical Responses at US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention Centers in California

Knowledge of medical care in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers is limited. Reviews show high rates of preventable deaths while in detention due to substandard medical care within detention centers. To describe characteristics of medical emergencies at ICE detention centers in California. This cross-sectional study analyzed emergency medical services (EMS)-reported medical emergencies activated through 911 from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2022, at 3 of the 5 ICE detention centers in California: Adelanto ICE Processing Center, Imperial Regional Detention Facility, and Otay Mesa Detention Center. Medical services requiring 911 activation. Data included the number of EMS-reported medical emergencies; ICE-reported medical emergencies; patient age and sex; and medical data in the EMS report, including primary symptom, EMS provider (emergency medical technician or paramedic) impression, vital signs, and interventions performed, using descriptive statistics. In this analysis of 3 detention centers with a mean daily census of 775 (range, 504-1001) individuals per center, there was a median of 68 (IQR, 10-88) EMS-reported emergencies per center per year for a total of 1224 emergencies. The EMS-reported emergencies involved 881 males (72%) and 338 females (28%) with a median age of 39.0 (IQR 30.0-49.0) years. The ratios of female-to-male EMS-reported emergencies were 0.51 (95% CI, 0.31-0.87) at Adelanto, 0.86 (95% CI, 0.31-2.43) at Imperial, and 1.60 (95% CI, 1.40-1.83) at Otay Mesa. Pregnancy-related emergencies accounted for 12.4% (42 of 338) of emergencies in females. A total of 357 individuals (29.2%) had at least 1 abnormal vital sign during their EMS encounter. Psychiatric emergencies comprised 48 EMS responses (3.9%), despite higher rates of ICE-reported psychiatric-related complaints. The median number of monthly EMS-reported emergencies across all 3 centers was 3 (IQR, 0-9) vs 4 ICE-reported emergencies (IQR, 1-15). In this study of medical emergencies at 3 of 5 ICE detention facilities in California, there were discrepancies in EMS vs ICE reported emergencies. The data suggested that vulnerable populations, such as pregnant women, had an increased number of medical emergencies, while individuals with psychiatric emergencies accounted for fewer reported emergencies. Based on these findings, emergency medical care provision in ICE detention centers requires increased transparency to ensure appropriate delivery of care.

Antecedents of Performance of Employees of the Central Immigration Detention Center (Rudenim) Tanjungpinang City

Purpose – This paper seeks to examine the effect of remuneration and work discipline on the performance of employees of the Central Immigration Detention Center (Rudenim) Tanjungpinang City. Methodology/approach – The type of research used in this study is quantitative descriptive. The sample in this study was all employees totaling 96 respondents. Data collection techniques carried out in the form of questionnaires, and literature studies. The analytical techniques used are validity tests, reliability tests, classical assumption tests, multiple linear regression tests and hypothesis tests with JASP. Findings – It was found that, remuneration affects employee performance and work discipline variables have a significant effect on employee performance. Overall, the variables of remuneration and work discipline affect employee performance. Novelty/value – As an employee, remuneration and work discipline are important factors in Tanjungpinang Rudenim in maintaining the performance of its employees.

Understanding the healthcare issues of Afghan refugees settling in rural Victoria, Australia

Introduction: Hazaras have experienced prolonged and repetitive marginalisation, stigmatisation, persecution and conflict as a minority ethnic group in Afghanistan for their linguistic, religious and ideological differences. As a marginalised group they are a product of generally poor socioeconomic and health status with resultant ill effects. Hazaras make up the largest group of refugees who have resettled in Victoria, particularly Shepparton. Part of the reason for this is that the region supports the largest food-based manufacturing industries in the country and so there are good work opportunities for those that do not have recognisable skills with limited English.Aim: To explore the health care issues and challenges of Hazara located in Shepparton, Australia.Results: The literature review identified that the Hazara community have multiple physical and psychological health needs most likely a result of the trauma and torture when in Afghanistan, plus from the often, dangerous journey to Australia and then from what is usually prolonged periods in immigration detention centres. On top of this are the challenges that occur with their resettlement including language and cultural differences and low health literacy as well as lack of understanding of health services in Australia. All creating barriers to access.Discussion: The recommendation is to outline the rationale and process for the development of Health Hub (HHH) for the Hazara community within Community Health @ GV Health, the major community health centre in Shepparton, Victoria. Through fostering strong relationships between the Hazaras and their primary care team in consultation with the Hazara community will, therefore, ensure the outcomes are tailored to their individual needs and help improve their health outcome.

Resistance and the delivery of healthcare in Australian immigration detention centres

There are few issues that have been as vexing for the Australian healthcare community as the Australian governments policy of mandatory, indefinite, immigration detention. While many concepts have been used to begin to describe the many dilemmas faced by healthcare professionals and their resolution, they are limited, perhaps most fundamentally by the fact that immigration detention is antithetical to health and wellbeing. Furthermore, and while most advice recognises that the abolition of detention is the only option in overcoming these issues, it provides little guidance on how action within detention could contribute to this. Drawing on the work of political theorists and the broader sociological literature, we will introduce and apply a form of action that has not yet been considered for healthcare workers within detention, resistance. We will draw on several examples from the literature to show how everyday resistance could be enacted in healthcare and immigration detention settings. We argue that the concept of resistance has several conceptual and practical advantages over much existing guidance for healthcare workers in these environments, namely that it politicises care and has synergies with other efforts aimed at the abolition of detention. We also offer some reflections on the justifiability of such action, arguing that it is largely consistent with the existing guidance produced by all major healthcare bodies in Australia.

Employee Performance: QWL, Communication, and Work Discipline at Detention Center

This research aimed to determine the influence of quality of work life (QWL), communication, and work discipline on performance at the Surabaya immigration detention center, Ministry of Law and Human Rights, East Java Regional Office. This was a quantitative research with hypothesis testing, using multiple linear regression analysis with SPSS version 18 for Windows. The sample consisted of 52 staff members at the immigration detention center in Surabaya. Primary data was collected through a questionnaire using a Likert scale that was tested for validity and reliability. The results of this research showed that QWL, communication, and work discipline have a significant influence on employee performance. Additionally, QWL, communication, and work discipline have a simultaneous effect on employee performance.
 Highlights :
 
 QWL, communication, and work discipline have a significant influence on employee performance at the Surabaya immigration detention center.
 The study used a quantitative research design with hypothesis testing and multiple linear regression analysis to examine the relationship between QWL, communication, work discipline, and employee performance.
 The results highlight the importance of addressing QWL, communication, and work discipline in promoting employee performance in detention center settings.
 
 Keywords: Quality of Work Life (QWL), Communication, Work Discipline, Employee Performance, Immigration Detention Center.

Embodying Resistance: Politics and the Mobilization of Vulnerability

How are we to understand hunger strikes and episodes of lip-sewing in immigration detention? Are they simply cases of self-destruction or bare life, as is often claimed, or is there scope to view these embodied acts of self-harm as having a political dimension and to see those engaged in them as resistant subjects exercising political agency? To explore these issues, I draw on recent feminist theoretical work on vulnerability. Received wisdom suggests that vulnerability is an impediment to political action. Rejecting the idea that vulnerability equates exclusively to injurability and passivity, I contend, by contrast, that corporeal vulnerability can potentially prompt action, serve as a resource for collective acts of resistance, and enable the politicization of certain spaces. Since context matters to how vulnerability and resistance intersect, I illustrate my argument by exploring, in particular, the protests that took place at Woomera immigration detention centre in Australia in 2002.

Un Llanto Colectivo: A PerformaProtesta

Abstracts: This essay is an examination of the llanto (wail) as political performance praxis through documenting and reflecting on the collective work of Cherríe Moraga, Celia Herrera Rodríguez and approximately twenty-five artists to stage a PerformaProtesta," Un llanto colectivo , at San Diego immigrant detention centers following the separation of migrant families during the summer of 2018. As such, it looks to the llanto —here collectivity produced—as a powerful act of refusal that, in addition to asserting dissent and iterating a contestation of centuries of sedimented violence, hollows out and routes time-bending pathways to ancestral alter-knowledges. The essay examines this " llanto space" as an alternative to the politics of recognition and representation, and the different ways via which it instantiates a refusal of these modalities. Furthermore, it reflects on the history of affect-generating crying through professional criers and the figure of La Llorona as inspirations for the 2018 PerformaProtesta; it also engages with transnational feminist movements that activate collective wails and screams to demand an end to gendered violence. The essay then turns to a close-reading of the three day event, reflecting on the unique politics of the llanto in relation to the other narrative and theatrical elements of the performance.

PERAN KEPUASAN KERJA DALAM MEMEDIASI PENGARUH WORK-LIFE BALANCE TERHADAP KINERJA PEGAWAI PADA RUMAH DETENSI IMIGRASI DENPASAR

This study aims to determine the role of job satisfaction in mediating the effect of work-life balance on employee performance at the Denpasar immigration detention house. The population in this study were all employees at the Immigration Detention Center as many as 60 people. The number of samples used in this study were 60 respondents using a saturated sampling technique, where all members of the population were used as research samples. Methods of data collection using interviews and questionnaires. With data analysis techniques, namelypath analysis, Sobel test and testing the role of mediation. The results showed that work-life balance has a positive and significant effect on employee performance, work-life balance has a positive and significant effect on job satisfaction, job satisfaction has a positive and significant effect on employee performance and job satisfaction is a mediating variable for the effect of work-life balance on employee performance. The theoretical implications of the results of this study provide evidence on the development of human resource management science, especially regarding work-life balance, job satisfaction and employee performance which is able to empirically prove the theory used in this study, namely attribution theory.

LAW ENFORCEMENT OF ILLEGAL FISHING IN THE IMMIGRATION PERSPECTIVE IN THE WORKING AREA OF BELAWAN IMMIGRATION OFFICE

The abundance of natural resources and the vast area of ​​the ocean in Indonesia are an attraction for the surrounding countries. This makes the case of Illegal fishing a case that is often found in Indonesian seas. One of the affected areas is Belawan seas. Based on the supervision carried out by the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP), it is stated that illegal fishing violations often occur in EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) seas. One of the institutions authorized to enforce the law on illegal fishing is immigration. This study aims to see the implementation of law enforcement and immigration law strategies against foreigners who commit illegal fishing crimes in the work area of ​​the Belawan Immigration Office. This research is structured using a combination of normative and empirical research with qualitative methods using the basic theory of State Sovereignty and Effectiveness (Enforcement) of Law. The results of the study found that the Belawan Immigration Office carried out law enforcement in the form of Immigration Administration Actions namely deportation, some of the obstacles encountered in law enforcement were the lack of infrastructure in the form of ships and the limited detention room at the Medan Immigration Detention Center. The researchers also found that the legal strategy efforts carried out by the Belawan Immigration Office were preventive and repressive strategies. With Preventive Strategies in the form of coordination with Foreign Surveillance Team and Foreign Embassies, Repressive Strategies in the form of strengthening the intensity of Immigration Administrasion Action and Investigations.

Individuals’ experiences in U.S. immigration detention during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic: major challenges and public health implications

BackgroundIndividuals held in carceral settings were significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, limited research exists of the direct experiences of individuals detained by the United States (U.S.) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This study illustrates the major challenges described by individuals held in ICE’s immigration detention centers during the initial spread of COVID-19.MethodsWe interviewed 50 individuals who were released from ICE detention between March 15, 2020 until August 31, 2020. Participants were recruited through immigration attorneys. Responses to a semi-structured interview were documented. Quotes from these interviews were thematically analyzed.ResultsStudy participants were detained in 22 different ICE detention centers, which were located across 12 states, in both county (41%) and privately-contracted facilities (59%). The major themes that emerged from interviews included inadequate protections against COVID-19, denial of physical and mental healthcare, and experiences of retaliation in response to self-advocacy. These issues perpetuated emotions of fear, distrust, and helplessness in individuals in immigration detention centers.ConclusionsThis study represents the largest analysis of experiences of ICE-detained immigrants during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure the rights to health and wellbeing for this population, further actions should include improving public health conditions, protecting against human rights violations, addressing barriers to healthcare access, ensuring transparency about conditions in detention centers, and moving toward decarceration.

When politics are contagious: Covid-19 and political resistance inside an immigration detention center

During the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, immigration detainees in the United States rose up to protests their forced confinement during a global pandemic, launching collective hunger strikes across separate facilities on a national scale. In this article, I utilize primary and secondary sources to examine the strike that occurred at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego in the Spring 2020. While acts of resistance are hardly a new phenomenon in immigration detention, the 2020 protests were unusually powerful because of their range and the pace at which they spread across facilities. Their power was a direct consequence of Covid-19, not only because the pandemic triggered the strikes, but because it introduced a common condition of vulnerability among the detained population, thus encouraging collective organization. The strikes and the pandemic showed a common form of expansion, which was acknowledged by the authorities themselves, as they adopted the same strategies of lockdown and quarantine to contain both phenomena. The history of this protest, along with those that erupted across carceral sites globally during this period, constitutes an important testimony to the political effects of the pandemic, and to the possibility of political resistance in detention.

Calling Out and In: In Plain Sight and Queer Feminist Care at the Border(s)

Gloria Anzaldúa concludes her 1987 multilingual poem “To live in the Borderlands means you” with: “To survive the Borderlands/you must live sin fronteras/be a crossroads.” This ending prompts the question: How can we both live without borders (Anzaldúa’s provided translation of sin fronteras) and be a crossroads? The both–and dynamic connotes an approach to the politics of in/visibility and il/legibility that asks us to consider how altering public spaces, like the U.S.–Mexico border and immigrant detention centers, concomitantly alter our perceptions of the concepts and systems they represent. By turning to public art and engaging with language, this article examines what happens when queer feminist artists extend Anzaldúa’s words to address imperial violence. I use Cassils’s and rafa esparza’s 2020 co-led skytyping project In Plain Sight as a case study, which worked with eighty artists to skytype a range of phrases above U.S. detention centers and to offer a form of countermapping. By focusing on In Plain Sight, this article analyzes: how transmedia works complicate spatial, textual, and geopolitical borders; how an activist call-in and -out may be simultaneously articulated; and how features of embodied practice shape our understandings of queer feminist worldmaking.