MACMILLAN The Healthcare Community and Australian Immigration Detention: The Case for Non-Violent Resistance

Australia has one of the harshest immigration detention regimes in the world, labelled cruel and degrading and a crime against humanity; these policies have been widely condemned. This book calls for a shift in how the healthcare community approaches Australian immigration detention, calling for non-violent resistance to be incorporated in future efforts that seek change. Fundamentally, such an approach recognizes that if change is to be realized a shift is needed beyond evidence and reasoned argument; future efforts need to confront injustice, resisting and undermining what creates and sustains these policies. This book provides a rationale for such action and considers the justification of three different ‘types’ of action in detail; strike action, whistleblowing and principles disobedience. Review “ The Healthcare Community and Australian Immigration Detention foreshadows an invaluable piece of pioneering work about Australia’s indefinite immigration detention system and the healthcare community. Ryan Essex’s work demonstrably comes from someone who knows immigration detention firsthand and in great depth. This book will be immensely informative for a wide range of interested parties, not least its victims, survivors and current and future adjudicators, and health professionals in particular, who yearn for solutions to this vexed issue. The book addresses all those who are preoccupied with indefinite immigration detention, those consumed by grief and rage at its deliberate harms and Australia’s continued toleration of its wastage of lives, and especially human service professionals who are profoundly concerned about their own and the professions’ involvement in this horrific continuing abuse of human beings.” (Dr Michael Dudley , Senior Staff Specialist in Psychiatry at Prince of Wales and Sydney Children’s Hospitals, and Senior Lecturer (Conjoint) in Psychiatry, UNSW, Australia) From the Back Cover ‘ The Healthcare Community and Australian Immigration Detention foreshadows an invaluable piece of pioneering work about Australia’s indefinite immigration detention system and the healthcare community. Ryan Essex’s work demonstrably comes from someone who knows immigration detention firsthand and in great depth. This book will be immensely informative for a wide range of interested parties, not least its victims, survivors and current and future adjudicators, and health professionals in particular, who yearn for solutions to this vexed issue. The book addresses all those who are preoccupied with indefinite immigration detention, those consumed by grief and rage at its deliberate harms and Australia’s continued toleration of its wastage of lives, and especially human service professionals who are profoundly concerned about their own and the professions’ involvement in this horrific continuing abuse of human beings.’ ― Dr Michael Dudley, Senior Staff Specialist in Psychiatry at Prince of Wales and Sydney Children’s Hospitals, and Senior Lecturer (Conjoint) in Psychiatry, UNSW, Australia Australia has one of the harshest immigration detention regimes in the world, labelled cruel and degrading and a crime against humanity; these policies have been widely condemned. This book calls for a shift in how the healthcare community approaches Australian immigration detention, calling for non-violent resistance to be incorporated in future efforts that seek change. Fundamentally, such an approach recognizes that if change is to be realized a shift is needed beyond evidence and reasoned argument; future efforts need to confront injustice, resisting and undermining what creates and sustains these policies. This book provides a rationale for such action and considers the justification of three different ‘types’ of action in detail; strike action, whistleblowing and principles disobedience. About the Author Ryan Essex is a Research Fellow with the Institute for Lifecourse Deve