I arrived on Manus Island in early December 2012. I had a background in youth work, and was fresh from writing an honours thesis on Australian immigration detention. I came to the newly reopened centre to work for a subcontractor of the then Department of Immigration and Citizenship.
During the time I worked there, I witnessed a palpable reduction in the mental health of the men with whom I worked. The centre at the time was a restricted tent city of tropical downpours, mud and mosquitos. Even during those brief six months, I saw a group of healthy, good-humoured men reduced to shadows.
When I arrived on Manus, Julia Gillard was prime minister. By the middle of the following year, she would be replaced by Kevin Rudd, who, mere weeks later, would announce that those who arrived by boat would never be resettled in Australia. This Friday 19 July marks the sixth anniversary of that announcement.
On this anniversary we must remember, protest and mourn the terrible toll on human life incurred by six years of offshore processing. But we must protest, too, the Frankenstein of mechanisms through which this has all been enacted.
Our offshore calamity has now included multiple Australian governments (four prime ministers and various ministers-in-charge), the governments of PNG and Nauru, the Department of Home Affairs and its prior iterations, the Australian and PNG navies and armies, and various departments of the PNG police force.
Perhaps most tellingly, there has also been a high turnover of subcontractors, including multiple non-profit NGOs and multinational corporations, as well as Australian, Nauruan and PNG-based businesses.
The Australian government departments and ministers responsible have failed to manage not only their own actions, but also the actions of these numerous subcontractors, with alarming consistency and tragic consequences. The humanitarian failure of this regime is concisely exemplified by the 12 young men who have died over these past six years, including one that the Queensland coroner found was preventable.
"Both citizens and non-citizens will continue to bear the brunt of this erosion of good governance, as government makes policy decisions and then fails to manage the companies to which it farms out its responsibilities."
It is reflected, too, in the successful (settled) class action to the tune of $70 million in 2017 that was brought against the Australian government by 1905 detainees 'for illegally detaining them in dangerous and damaging conditions'.
Not only have our government and its subcontractors failed to run these facilities humanely or economically, we have at the same time failed to deliver appropriate settlement outcomes for the majority of those found to be refugees. Over the past six years, various governments have pursued or arranged, and in some cases avoided, international arrangements to deal with those transferred offshore in this Australian-made tragedy.
The $55.5 million Cambodian deal saw seven people resettled, and the relatively more successful (and current) US deal has seen approximately 580 refugees resettled there. The debated, yet still not taken up, New Zealand offer to resettle 150 per year remains on the table, many years after the original offer.
Over 1246 people have been transferred back over the past six years to Australia for medical reasons. This, however, is not for resettlement; subsequent governments have remained true to Rudd's promise that none should be resettled in Australia; although onshore, their futures remain uncertain.
None of this is news to the Australian public. The historical and contemporary situation on PNG and Nauru have been well documented by activists, advocates, international NGOs, UN departments and mainstream media.
Why we continue forcing this suffering upon people when there is a range of effective and reasonable policy options at the government's disposal that could, overnight, allow these people to begin rebuilding their lives and health raises many questions about our governing bodies and society at large.
The ongoing treatment of this relatively small number of non-citizens at the hands of those who have governed our country over the past six years is more than a shame, a disgrace, or something that we can say 'not in our name' to.
We cannot just critique the original offshore policy and call for resettlement. We must also recognise the monstrous results of this Frankenstein of offshore subcontracted service provision, which is indicative of a broader change in how government both governs and operationalises its policy commitments.
As things stand, both citizens and non-citizens will continue to bear the brunt of this erosion of good governance, as government makes policy decisions and then fails to manage the companies to which it farms out its responsibilities.
Josh Lourensz is a board member of the Brigidine Asylum Seekers Project and coordinates the Catholic Alliance for People Seeking Asylum (CAPSA).
Main image by Bojanikus via Getty