Open Invitation to Get Involved

There are some commonly held views about "slavery", especially in connection with offshore detention of asylum-seekers. First and foremost, to dispel some potential confusions:

1. Slavery is not about "torture"; not all enslaved persons are tortured [#1].
2. Slavery is not about "forced labour"; the exaction of labour is one of the 'indicators' or manifestation from the slavery [#2].
3. Slavery is not about "detention". Examples: Wei Tang (2008), the brothel owner, at Melbourne, and Joel Pierce (1944), Roadhouse Manager at Georgia USA, both did not detain their sex workers under 'lock and key' but was found guilty of slavery charges [#3].

The slavery laws seek to address the 'exploitation' of human persons in certain ways. The Australian Government and Detention companies exploiting these asylum-seekers as cash-cows to make money is 'slavery'. The slavery is universally prohibited, meaning no 'human persons' must be held under slavery. Those who engage in "slavery", piracy and other special crimes are considered the enemies of mankind. Such offences attract obligations that attach to crimes of universal jurisdiction. As a rule jus cogens, slavery is prohibited as a peremptory norm from which no derogation is permitted. The perpetrators of crime must have to be brought to justice, regardless of their status.

Focus on Slavery:

To build up this offshore slavery cases at ICC, I have recently send a letter to the Office of the Prosecutor of ICC for the public use of this file number, OTP-CR-220/17. I am encouraging all other Activists and Asylum-seekers, as well as those in general public, who would have the knowledge and capacity to write letters and reports re: LNP Government's offshore enslavement to directly contribute to the Office of the Prosecutor. I myself will be doing what I can within the available time and resources. But surely, I cannot do it on my own and needing help from other activists working "independently" on this task. You must taken charge of your own communication to ICC.

By the time now, the ICC probably has had enough "raw" information about Australia's offshore detention. What we -- the activists & asylum-seekers -- need to focus is on the incidences of the Governments (Australia/PNG/Nauru) "exercising any or all powers attaching to the right of ownership" over asylum-seekers. There are some general trend as to how exercising of certain power would manifest.

For example, exercising the power of "right to possess" would cause "deprivation of personal liberty". This may be the case when, say for example, the ABF/PNG/Nauruan authorities have forbidden or prevent the Australian/International NGO Workers/Lawyers getting access to the asylum-seekers. Those who have experienced, or have witnessed, such restriction of access to asylum-seekers should file complaints to ICC.

Another exercise of power of the "right to use", had taken place when the Government(s) using asylum-seekers as immigration detainees, creating conditions for the detention companies raking profits. There are various indicators that these asylum-seekers being used as 'cash cows'; government(s) making them to stay on detention longer than that was ever being necessary. Your perspectives on this can be directly submitted to ICC.

Another exercise of powers of the "right to security", which had taken place when Australian Government authorities preventing/hindering the Government of New Zealand in taking the agreed quota of 150 persons par year. In this case, the Australian Government is holding the "security" of detaining these asylum-seekers, which it would have given permission for them to engage in resettlement in NZ.

Of course, there would be a lot more such instances which these Governments violate the slavery laws. As a general rule, the criminal attribution should be directed to department directors, ministers and the head of state.

Enslavement examples

So as to get a somewhat deeper understandings about slavery, I've presented reviews of two slavery cases; The Queen vs. Tang (High Court of Australia, 2008) and Pierce vs. United States (US Appeal Court, 1944). Both cases are similar in that the court found brothel owner(s) have exploited their sex-workers as slaves. The exploitation of human person has been quite predictable in that industry. However, in these two cases, the characteristics of slavery have come up in different forms. In both cases, Wei Tang (AUS) and Pierce (USA) did not physically 'lock and key' detained sex workers. However, Pierce had used threat with some visible violence, in forms of intimidation, to coerced his sex workers. However, Wei Tang herself neither used visible violence nor direct threats upon her workers. In Pierce vs. United States, the exercise of the power of 'possession' and the evidences for deprivation of personal liberty of victims were obvious. In Wei Tang's case, the evidence for exercise of possession was somewhat hidden, but the court nevertheless found that the 'use' of victims have violated the slavery law.

Witness accounts matters

The professional lawyers would have been more efficient in doing these tasks of compiling criminal incidents. However, as the time honored wisdom, the refugee activist/asylum-seekers community must not leave all the tasks to the lawyers ( or to any single individual or organisation for that matter). In a way, we should be doing these tasks so as preliminary works to assist the professional lawyers of the Office of the Prosecutors.

This open process for submission allows those who would like to participate anonymously. On the one hand, any duplication of efforts -- say filing of the same criminal incident to ICC -- will make this case stronger. In this way, I am encouraging the public to participate directly in submitting criminal information to The Office of Prosecutor of ICC.

Facebook Refugee Forums

You can connect (subscribe) to one or all of these Facebook discussion groups to share your information. To keep informed, you can just casually browse these forums now and then. Most popular forums are:

• [Stop Offshore Processing of Asylum Seekers; 12,646 Members]
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/106908392834476/
• [SOCIAL JUSTICE asylum seekers; 6,200 Members]
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/171413916203400/
• [Close Manus Island Detention Centre; 899 Members]
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/1389071188031479/
• [Australian Refugee Action Network; 54 Members]
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/1648810632007956/

One important advise: when sharing critical information, it is better to send your important message to multiple forums in order not to get overlooked by other users. However, please avoid sending a message repeatedly onto one single forum,

Ways to participate

On the page of Attributions, establishing criminal attributions of perpetrators has taken in three stage process, which colour coded as follows:

(i) Perspectives (Yellow): of criminality by individuals. That's something you would initially heard or read about the treatment of offshore refugees, an unjust incident of which you really don't feel quite right at it. That's where you start gathering information and looking into that incident. This is an early initial stage, nothing in concrete has yet been found, but a notion that something wrong must have been done by someone to have caused such incident of injustice.

(ii) Directions (Red): for application of slavery laws. At this stage, I have gathered sufficient information about that unjust incident. Then, I am looking for ways to describe how and where the slavery laws may have been violated.

(iii) Allegations (Blue): in force put forward to the ICC. This is the final stage for my investigation process, which linking up the criminal incident(s) with the perpetrator(s) of the crime.

Friends, you have several ways to participate in this process. You can start making the same catalogue of such unjust incidents; sharing your thoughts and findings on the refugee forums. On the one hand, just try to work in parallel to what I've been doing on that "Attributions" page. I am a slow reader, writer and only getting things done with a snail's pace (never mind excuses of look after family and my little baby). If you are able to do fast enough writing report of allegation re: enslavement, just send that to ICC. It is completely opened process.

I myself is hoping to elevate items from Yellow->Red->Blue over the time. I shall, in the mean time, make efforts to reach out to professional organisations that may have interest on refugees/slavery so as to alert the situation. Regards, NetIPR.

Useful links

[#3] http://www.aus4iccwitness.org/node/67
[#2] http://www.aus4iccwitness.org/node/65
[#1] http://www.aus4iccwitness.org/node/66
[#0] http://www.aus4iccwitness.org/node/64