A Reddit user claiming to be a former SERCO-employed guard at the Christmas Island detention facility hosted an Ask Me Anything session this afternoon.
“CIIDCThrowaway” opened the thread earlier today after moderators for the Australian Subreddit saw “enough proof to us to approve the post.”
After claiming to have worked at the facility through two riots and a boat crash, CIIDCThrowaway fielded questions from commenters.
They said working on the facility “really opened my eyes to the fact that it was a really diverse group and that no side of the political debate really had any clue as to what they were talking about.”
They described other guards as “more belligerent bogans rather than any kind of organised right wing extremists” and downplayed fears that the recent death of a detainee on the island was caused by Australian guards, saying “nobody i know who worked detentions really cared enough to want to beat someone to death over it. It’s just a job, we weren’t upholding any government law or sentiment.”
Some of the most damning claims are focused on treatment of guards at the facility, with CIIDCThrowaway describing a total lack of mental health support for staff after being traumatised by detainee’s suicide attempts, and taking “the mangled corpses of children and men and women from the water while their relatives scream and wail from the shoreline”.
The user described the conditions detainees are supposedly kept in, with the main concern being rampant over-crowding. They said accomodation was “pretty shithouse to be honest. Nobody wants to be locked up, especially when you’ve done nothing wrong.
“They were clean and safe, but it was no Hilton… the main facility was built to hold maybe 1.2 thousand. I was there at it’s peak and they had over 3500 at one point. So they resorted to barracks like accommodation or a shared room with 2 or 3.
“When i think about it, all of CI’s problems in my time were a direct result of overcrowding. It was unfair on everyone involved.”
The user went on to describe conditions for guards as worse than that of detainees, and that “we’d always joke about kicking the detainees out of the center and sleeping in there ourselves because it was so much nicer. The accommodation you are provided on C.I. is, at its kindest, unsanitary, at its worst, downright dangerous.
“One female guard was taking a shower a few doors down from me one day and the entire bathroom roof collapsed in on her because of damp rot.”
Regarding the non-disclosure agreements workers at offshore detention facilities are required to uphold, the user said they were employing a throwaway account and working through proxies to avoid identification.
Still, it’s very important to note that under the veil of anonymity, the user could also be fabricating every last word. It’s all incredibly interesting and gives a first-hand insight into the facility, but only if CIIDCThrowaway is exactly what they say they are.
via Reddit.
Image: Paula Bronstein via Getty.
