As 13 refugees were finally freed from detention in Melbourne and Brisbane last week, a small group of men remained locked up with no end in sight to their captivity on the other side of the country.
The plight of the men — who are being held in indefinite detention in the Perth Immigration Detention Centre (PIDC) — has become more critical since one had to be transferred to hospital multiple times during a recent hunger strike that lasted for over a month.
Dr Vanessa Carnegie, an intensive care doctor in Perth who volunteers with Doctors for Refugees and is among a group who are calling for the detainees' release, said the man lost 20 kilograms during the 31-day hunger strike he began on February 2.
A Federal Court judge last year ruled that incarceration in detention centres was having a significant effect on the man's mental health.
Nine years of desperation
The Perth detainees — who number fewer than five according to Australian Border Force — are being held indefinitely at the PIDC facility near the city's airport.
The men, who already have been detained for about nine years since seeking asylum in Australia, are not eligible to settle here because they arrived by boat.
Dr Carnegie says the man who was on the hunger strike, a 37-year-old Iranian who has been in detention since 2013, is of particular concern to the advocacy group because of his deteriorating mental health.
During the many years he has been in detention, the man has tried to take his own life on multiple occasions, including a 2014 attempt that left him mute.
In 2016 he was interviewed by a representative of the Department of Home Affairs, who found that he was a refugee and should have protection status. However, the decision was not finalised and another officer later refused his protection visa application in 2018.
If the man were to receive protection status, he could apply for a temporary visa which, if granted, he would have to reapply for every two to five years in order to stay in Australia legally.
Dr Carnegie and the other advocates want the man's mental health to be more comprehensively assessed through the public health system — not by the contractor paid by the federal government to provide health services at PIDC — to determine appropriate treatment and reduce the risk of further harm.
Mental health worsened by detention: Judge
In 2021, a Federal Court judge found that the man should be allowed to be sent to Nauru — which is the man's preference — where he would have relative freedom on the island. However, he is still detained in Perth.
The Department of Home Affairs declined to comment on the case for "privacy reasons".
The judge accepted a clinical psychologist's assessment that "the largest contribution to the applicant's mental state has been his extended detention", and that he "would not anticipate any significant improvement in the applicant's mental health while he is being detained in his current circumstances".
An Australian Border Force spokesperson said detainees were provided with a range of health services by doctors, nurses and specialists.
"Where appropriate and with their consent, detainees will be transferred to hospital and/or a specialist in such cases where the required care cannot be undertaken by [health] staff," ABF said in a written response to questions.
According to a report from the Department of Home Affairs, about 20 per cent of people in detention are there because they arrived by boat — which the government considers to be unlawful.
Some, like those at the Park Hotel in Melbourne, were previously detained offshore but were sent back to Australia for medical care.
On Friday last week, 13 refugees were released from detention in Melbourne and Brisbane, including nine from Melbourne's Park Hotel, which drew international attention to the issue when global tennis star Novak Djokovic was detained there in January.
Dawn Barrington, one of the group of advocates for the Perth men, said there were two detainees at PIDC who had previously been detained offshore but were brought to the mainland for medical treatment.
She said the release of the Melbourne and Brisbane detainees made her more hopeful that the Perth men might be released.
"For them, it's just horrendous," she said.
"They're watching their friends slowly get released, and they're still there.
A Home Affairs representative told a Senate committee in February that the medevac detainees were not being held for security reasons.
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese told ABC Radio Perth recently that refugees should not be held indefinitely in detention.
"It is costly and there is no place in Australia for being cruel, which, indefinite detention for a period of nine years is just not on."
Lawyer says no justification
Scott Cosgriff, a senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said there was no justification for the detention of people who arrived by boat.
"We've all seen the pictures coming out of Afghanistan and Ukraine over recent weeks and the last six months," said Cosgriff.
He said there were about 70 people who had been brought from offshore detention facilities to Australia, where they were then detained for years, for medical treatment.
Only the Home Affairs or Immigration ministers, not their departments, can grant such asylum seekers a visa.
The Department of Home Affairs did not respond to questions from the ABC.
