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.

Ryan Essex is a Research Fellow with the Institute for Lifecourse Development at the University of Greenwich. He completed a PhD with the University of Sydney and formerly worked in Australian immigration detention centres between 2011-15.