Recently, an international conference about camps and border studies was held at Graz University in Austria. I had a chance to participate and discuss Australia’s policy on asylum seekers and refugees. Throughout the conference, Australia was referenced constantly. Wherever I went, I heard of the nation’s banishment of refugees to Manus Island and Nauru cited as a cruel example of the detention industry.
We refugees in Australia have made global headlines over the past decade with different stories of our collective resistance. It is obvious to us how the nation’s detention process has spread internationally.