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Officially Leonora is not a detention centre for refugees but an “alternative place of detention”. Between January 21-23, the Refugee Rights Action Network’s second “Caravan of Compassion” made the 1660km round trip from Perth to Leonora. Caravan participant and Resistance member Zebedee Parkes describes his weekend trip to the remotely located concentration camp.

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Thirty activists howled “free, free, free the refugees” in extremely hot conditions in the middle of the desert. A sole hand waved over a bordered walkway, seen over the top of vans recently parked behind a perimeter fences, which had being recently constructed to meet the arrival of the caravan of compassion. There were more police than protesters standing in front of the detention centre.

Private prison contractor Serco went to ridiculous lengths to keep their dirty secrets about what they are doing to detainees was. Over the weekend these secrets started to sneak out.

To get to Leonora detention centre, we caravan had to travel over 800km across desert.

Saturday morning in Kalgoorlie, the Kalgoorlie Miner had an article about the Caravan of Compassion stating: “Protesters are descending on the Leonore detention centre … police from five different provinces [are] being called in to manage the protest”

Hours out of Lenora the bus was followed by police cars. Their number increased throughout the day as the bus got closer, with multiple cars parked near the activist’s camp.

When we arrived at the detention centre there were at least 25 police officers.

There were no arrests or violent incidents.

We spent much of the weekend standing in front of the perimeter fence. Shouting as loud as possible to give the refugees a chance of hearing them.

Protests went through the whole book of refugee rights chants, including chanting “Azadi”, freedom in Parsi. Visitors who went into the detention centre said it brought smiles to the faces of the refuges they visited.



Activist Sara Ross said: “I thought (the protest) was pretty good, we got a few waves from the detainees, which means they heard us and obviously I think it was encouraging for them”

An Aboriginal elder came and spoke to the activists “these people shouldn’t be in detention like this, not like this”

Activist Victoria Iverson said: “What we see when we look at this centre, is people profiting of suffering and we see governments that are using the suffering of refugees as a political pawn and causing the kind of psychiatric and psychological damage that people never recover from.”

Another activist standing in front of the centre, Todd, said: “You can put a soccer felid in it, you can give people activities, you can do whatever you want but detention is still indefinite, detention is still lawful in this country for asylum seekers, for some odd reason, and it’s without charge or trial and for as long as that keeps happening we still keep coming up here.”

Three visits inside of about six people each time was allowed. Activist Marcus Roberts said: “Serco have completely stage managed the visit … Every time we asked a question about mental health, suicide attempts or conditions inside detention the [detained] women would look straight at the guards, lower their eyes and stop talking.”

Sally Woodliff commented that the refuges said “there was no other mood than unhappy” however the refuges also “that this was one the happiest days in a long time.”

This solidified the purpose of the caravan of compassion and gave the activists a moral boost, knowing that the protests are making a difference to people, giving them hope.

Elliot Herrington who went on one of the visits said “you could see the fear in their eyes”

Gerry Georgatos after visiting explained “we got the message across that we don’t agree with the wrongful actions of our government … and these policies are immoral and illegal if we could change things we would not have these detention centre’s, that we were impressed by their strength of character.

“We’ve being made aware that people traumatized in there, there’s an Arabic lady that walks up and down the corridors all night long totally distressed at the continual rejections and the long periods between interviews, people are losing their minds and the trauma is immense … It’s just been put to us that there was a suicide attempt a couple of weeks ago.

“They don’t have people on call to talk to and be helped by”

The visits into the centre revealed there are about 55 children in Leonore detention centre, 30 of who are aged between four to eight. The protesters chanted “locking up kids is child abuse” in response.

Victoria Iverson said “I think it was so important that once again we came out here not just to show the people in Leonore that we still care about them, we don’t want them to loose hope and were still fighting for their cause but also as a reminder to the government that when they said there were no children in detention we proved them wrong.

“The government was trying to tell a lie to the Australian public that children were not in detention, we showed that was a lie, there now saying families will be housed in the community and part of our reason for being here is to say to them we will be keeping an eye on you and we will keep you honest and we will keep coming back until no one is held in immigration detention.”

The children are only allowed half an hour a day on the internet where they can only use it for email and Skype, are let out for one hour a week and can swim in the pool for one hour a week.



The Caravan of Compassion brought many kites to the children in Leonora. Peter Wilkie explained: “We had some to give to the kids and we had some to fly out here.

“They wouldn’t let us in to do kite making with the kids, but the concept of the kites was that it would have being a way for people inside to see that people outside.

“There is also something symbolic about the kites escaping the confines of the detention centre as they’re up in the air.

“What were always trying to do on these trips is where basically trying to breach these barriers in any way we can and if it’s some symbolic way or we get in to visit or do something which somehow breaks down or challenges the fact that these people are kept isolated and separate from the rest of the community.”

Serco wouldn’t let us give anything to anyone without a name on it but one of the refugees we visited gave us her name, so and she could pass the kites on to the kids.

RRAN also took many dual language dictionaries. RRAN activist Sally Woodliff explained: “The detainees are in a really disempowered situation not being able to speak English.”

Most of the books in the detention centre are only in English.

On the bus back to Perth, activist Marcus Roberts read a letter given to him by a detainee. The whole bus was emotional hit by the accounts of this refugee.

“We pray no human see again and live again inside the camp, because detention is very painfull,” the letter read.

“Leonora camp has pregnant women, 30 underage children [who’ve spent] four to eight years inside. Lots of problems and tension.”

“Some people ask DIAC I can’t stay no more in detention please bring my answer. DIAC’s answer is go back to your own country. All [refugees] have problems in their own country, we cross the Indian Ocean for peace not for return back.

“The DIAC rejected people after 10 months, why? The answer is it is now safe in Afghanistan complete peace. If in Afghanistan peace why does NATO work there? PLEASE HELP US.”

Refugee Rights Action Network is preparing for another Caravan of Compassion to Curtin detention centre at Easter.