Immigration Detention Globally

Embodying Resistance: Politics and the Mobilization of Vulnerability

“…Those in detention say more than 370 were involved. About 70 detainees (men, women, and children) sutured their lips (O’Neill, 2008: 89; Fiske, 2016: 116). 14 Performatively, the hunger strikes and lip-sewing episodes in Woomera in 2002 were collective endeavours involving the multiple vulnerable internees who found themselves randomly thrown together in detention.…”

“…Initially the protests centred on the government freeze on processing Afghan asylum applications, instituted abruptly at the end of 2001 after the fall of the Taliban, and its allied threat of deportation. 15 Ultimately, however, the dispute extended to conditions at Woomera, including: overcrowding, delays in receiving medical attention, no access to newspapers, telephones, or contact with others outside the camp during separation detention, little to no air conditioning in searing heat during the summer, limited washing and toilet facilities, problems of under-staffing, and exclusion from legal aid (Fiske, 2016; Jupp, 2007: 189; Mann, 2003; Nyers, 2006: 120; O’Neill, 2008: 89).…”

“…Both very obviously mobilize the body’s literal vulnerability to harm and injury. Refusing nourishment for sustained periods produces cramps, reduces muscle function, damages the immune system, potentially impairs the vital organs and, continued long enough, invokes death (Fiske, 2016), thereby exposing the fragility and mortality of the flesh. Threading lips shut requires labial tissue to be pierced by a sharp object, causing bleeding and scabbing.…”

“…As Fiske (2016) notes of Woomera, where ‘speech without physical action’ had failed, ‘people in detention began to use their bodies to make their voices heard’ (p. 123). Flesh was imperilled to oppose vulnerabilization, institutionalized power and dehumanization.…”

Privatisation and accountability in Australian immigration detention: A case of state-corporate symbiosis

“…In these meetings, the narrative that a refugee “perpetrator” was responsible for damaging the kitchen overshadowed competing narratives of immolation as protest, as these acts often are (Fiske, 2016a); fire was sometimes used as a tool for refugees to raise awareness of the harms of offshore detention, capture the Australian public's attention, and express their despair (Fiske, 2016b). However, the Department's narrative dominated the meetings at the expense of these perspectives.…”