by Mark Isaacs
In Nauru Burning, I go behind the veil of secrecy around Australia’s offshore immigration detention centres to reveal a climate of fear and hopelessness, culminating in the riot and fire which destroyed much of the Nauru regional processing centre in July 2013.
Nauru Burning acts as a sequel to my first book, The Undesirables. The July 2013 fire occurred one month after I left Nauru and finished working for the Salvation Army. The story is pieced together using first-hand accounts from men who were formerly detained inside the detention centre and staff from service providers on the island.
The book reveals how the tinderbox ignited and examines the investigation into who was responsible. It is the story of the fight of the men in detention to prove their innocence, and of the workers who tried to help them. Ultimately, it is a comment on the lack of accountability and oversight for service providers in the deliberately remote and closed environment of Australia’s offshore detention centres.
”Baqir wanted to die there; he wanted to stop living. ‘Everything I had ever suffered and lived before, it was in front of my eyes.’ His bright future was destroyed.
Mark IsaacsNauru Burning
Climate for a riot
Asylum seekers were deported to an intentionally remote location, to a climate of high heat and humidity, and incarcerated indefinitely without right of appeal, without a transparent refugee processing system, where they waited interminably for a decision they didn’t know would ever come. Everyday life on Nauru was numbingly boring. People in detention lacked any power over their lives and their fate. They did not know what would become of them. They were lost and helpless with no clear way of expressing their concerns. Even if they could find a way to communicate, who would listen? The gradual build-up of pressure, the unalleviated stress, the uncertainty of their future, created an atmosphere of simmering helplessness, frustration and anger.
The Protest
Protests were not uncommon in Nauru. Faced with continual delays in the processing of their asylum claims, the men staged regular peaceful protests.
“The protest was to give us a voice. The only agreement was to do a peaceful protest. Nobody agreed to fighting, breaking things; just to have their voice heard.”
But things didn’t go as planned.
The Fire
The peaceful protest erupted. Violence and fire consumed the detention centre. Security guards and protesters clashed. Nauruans arrived at the detention centre looking to protect their island. Hundreds of bewildered and frightened men fled the violence within the centre only to be attacked. That evening more than 150 men were arrested and there were more than $60 million in damages to the centre. The real story lies in what happened next.