Dana Affleck is a refugee advocate and founder of Road to Refuge. Here she shares her memories of Fazel, the asylum seeker whose death has triggered rioting on Christmas Island.
This gentle, wonderful man, Fazel Chegeni, has died under suspicious circumstances on Christmas Island after already being through hell and back both in Iran and in Australia.
I knew him from visits at MITA (Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation) and late night dinners. I remember his sweet, quietly playful nature, how he always put on a brave face for us and his easy going laugh.
Fazel arrived by boat seeking protection in Australia in October 2010. It is now November 2015. Fazel was confirmed as being a refugee by the Immigration Department and had security clearance.
In 2011, he was involved in a fight in a detention centre that saw him bashed despite not actually lifting a finger himself, as evidenced by video footage. Despite that, this made him a “person of interest” (no charge or conviction) to the authorities, further elongating his detention.
Top Comments
Abolish offshore detention, no other solution.
Great instead of having one death in detention, we can have thousands from drowning.
1) Maintain turnbacks.
2) Quickly process both on shore and off shore detention centres, then shutdown both on shore and off shore detention centres permanently.
4) Permanently abolish TPV's.
5) Welcome a quota of refugees processed through the UNHCR camps.
You do realize the majority of people in those offshore detention centres are New Zealander's being held for deportation due to committing criminal offences right? These are the guys who have been rioting this past weekend.
Study up.
It's not an either / or situation you know.
Has everyone forgotten that this man also had a sleep condition?
Going long term without adequate sleep would absolutely RUIN YOU, as well as breaking down any coping mechanisms you may have. When chronically tired, you are not in your right mind, and so suicide makes sense.