Table of Contents 64q43
Literary works can be born anywhere. It is the case of Whatsapp. 312ja
The author is the Kurdish refugee Behrouz Boochani, the newest winner of the 2019 Victorian Prize for Literature, Australia's top literature award, and also the Non-Fiction Prize. The prizes together add up $100.000.
A history of restrictions z53n
Much more than a book of excellence, Boochani's unusual situation brings to light a humanitarian condition that has been criticized over the years. Unable to set foot on Australian soil, the journalist could not be present at the ceremony to receive the two awards for which his work was awarded. He was represented in Melbourne by his translator and correspondent, Omid Tofighian.
Written in Farsi, the messages are a visceral of the extreme conditions Boochani experienced in a Detention Center on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. The title, by the way, comes from a proverb of its people: “Kurds have no friends, except in the mountains”.
In Friends but the Mountains: more than literature, humanity 1m5937
Long before the US-Mexico border wall became synonymous with anti-immigration measures, the Australian government decided that all migrants arriving in the country by boat should be placed in detention camps outside the country, on the island of Nauru, in the Pacific Ocean, and on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.
Since then, the practice of detention has drawn severe protests and outrage in the country, ed by international institutions such as the UN Human Rights Committee, that considered the fields that are “unsustainable, inhumane and contrary to their human rights obligations”.
The Boochani Award for places an uncomfortable and renewed focus on the ongoing treatment of refugees in Nauru and Papua New Guinea on behalf of Australia. The Australian government, for its part, claims that it is not responsible for the treatment of migrants in detention centres.
“It is an Australian story that as a nation we cannot be proud of, but it is a story that cannot be ignored,” wrote the Australian Center for Human Rights em answer to the literary award ceremony.
Dubbed "Australia's Guantanamo" by critics, the camp where Boochani was held for five years was closed in 2017 after years of mounting pressure on Australia to end the controversial practice.
The process 672fc
In his award-winning book No Friend But the Mountains, Boochani wrote a look inside the camp, despite the difficult working conditions there. Without access to a computer, the Kurdish journalist managed to type an entire book on his phone and share it with a translator via WhatsApp. In this way, he explained, the camp guards were unable to detect and confiscate the documents.
The journalist, like many other refugees who were held in the now-closed camp, still lives involuntarily on the Isle of Manus and is unable to enter Australia or return to his home country of Iran due to the nature of his work. Officials in Australia made no exception for Thursday's awards ceremony in Melbourne, signaling that the current government is sticking to its controversial hard-line philosophy on migration, even ahead of May elections and a shift in public opinion to a less radical approach.
“In a way, I’m really happy because we were able to bring attention to this issue and you know a lot of people have become aware of this situation, which is great,” Boochani told the BBC. “But on the other hand, I feel like I don't have the right to celebrate – because I have a lot of friends here who are suffering in this place,” he said.
In theory, Australia's immigration policy prioritizes skilled migrants and those needed in the labor market. But Australia's doors are closed to anyone trying to make this trip on a boat without a proper visa.
Australia's then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull openly acknowledged this zero-tolerance approach in a phone call with President Trump in January 2017, saying, "It's not because they're bad people. It is because, in order to stop the smugglers, we had to deprive them of the product. So we said if you try to come to Australia by boat, even if we think you're the best person in the world, even if you're a Nobel Prize winning genius, we won't let you in. ”
Consequences 6v1456
Conditions on Manus Island became so critical in 2017 that Australian doctors expressed their outrage at the government and its policy to prevent refugees from accessing refugees, writing: “We believe that humanitarian issues take precedence over policy. . This is an issue that goes beyond immigration and border control, but one that affects people's health and others' perceptions of our great nation.”
Human rights organizations dispute that sufficient action was taken following these warnings. You Doctors Without Borders condemned Australia's treatment of migrants last December, writing in a report that the internment was having "a disastrous effect on the mental health of refugees, leading many to contemplate or attempt suicide".
In his acceptance speech delivered via video link on Thursday, Boochani said that literature helped him overcome trials. “I have been in a cage for years, but throughout that time my mind has always produced words, and those words have taken me across borders, taken me abroad and to unknown places,” he said.
Although Boochani says he has been interviewed by officials and hopes he can be relocated to the United States, no such offer has been made so far.
But in his speech, the author remained optimistic. “I truly believe that words are more powerful than the fences of this place, this prison.”
Excerpt from No Friends But The Mountains 482762
Days without plans.
Lost and disoriented.
Minds still caught in the ocean waves.
Looking for peace of mind on new plains.
But the prison plains are like a corridor leading to a ring.
And the smell of hot sweat everywhere is driving everyone crazy.
A month has ed since I was exiled to Manus. I am a piece of meat thrown into an unknown land; a prison of dirt and heat. I live within a sea of people with faces smudged and molded by anger, faces filled with hostility. Every week, one or two planes land on the wreckage of an airport on the island and crowds of people disembark. Hours later, they are thrown into prison amid the deafening tumult of displaced people, like sheep heading for a slaughterhouse.
