Writers In Detention

I am Mohammad Asif Rahimi, I am 28 years old from Afghanistan. I belong to the Hazara community, the third largest ethnicity and most oppressed ethnicity in the world. I graduated from High School and studied Political Science in Kabul city. I speak four languages. Due to security concerns and persecution I had to leave […]

My name is Erfan, I’m 21 years of age now. I’m a Hazara refugee originally from Afghanistan. I felt threatened and obliged to flee my motherland due to ongoing war and everyday fighting in Afghanistan. I arrived in Indonesia in 2014 when I was only 18 years of age. Since then I have been incarcerated […]

Kazem is a Kurdish musician and poet. He has been held hostage in Australia’s black site on Manus Island for 4 years where he continues to compose and write.     Un-passable bridge  My guitar is my soul mate nowadays I don’t care for the world anymore I play my guitar with a heart full of sadness […]

My name is Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen. Writing found me at a time I needed it most. It has helped me to heal and has shown me a world I didn’t know existed. Through poetry, I’ve learnt different ways of expressing myself. Discovering, knowing, understanding the person I am. I can’t imagine my life without […]

Behrouz Boochani graduated from Tarbiat Madares University in Tehran with a Masters Degree in Political Geography and Geopolitics.  He hoped to complete a PhD however due to the political nature of his writing as well as the discrimination against, and genocidal practices of the Iranian regime toward the Kurdish people he was prevented from doing this. Mr Boochani […]

Hello dear Reza, How are you? Are you in a good place? Everyone is here and they are saying ‘hi’ to you. I’m sure you remember Mustafa! He is saying to you, “Let’s play cards!” Ali is saying, “Do you remember you would always get 6-6 whenever we played backgammon?” Hussain is saying, “Do you […]

What is our crime? What have we done to be punished like this? We know we came by ‘illegal way’ but then we didn’t have any choice. If I could have stayed in my country I would never have left my family. I left my country for safety and thought I could make my family […]

Hani Aden is a young Somali asylum seeker and writer who spent 11 months on Christmas Island. She lives in community detention in Sydney. She writes in English, her third language. Photograph by Nicholas Olle       This Old Somali Mother “This Somali mother she arrived in Australia 15 days after the policy changed […]

  رویای آزادی یا احساس حبس و بند زمین زیر پای سم اسبان میلرزد. چهار نعل میگریزند ..وحشی و افسار گسیخته در یالهایشان میپیچد آرزوهایم…. هوا سرشار از بوی اسب و غم و کمی هم غبطه…. در افق نقطه های سیاه کوچکی رخ مینماید و زمینی که من بر آن ایستاده ام رفته رفته آرام […]

Rivers of Water Run Down. years and months… weeks and days… hours…and minutes… seconds are passing from me…But my pain has caused my heart to be broken. Rivers of water run down from my eyes. The thick layer of pain covers my whole body. My heart is crying so bad all the time because that […]

  According to Immigration Detention statistics Australia holds 647 children in closed detention, 500 on the mainland, 146 children on Christmas Island, of which 28 have disabilities, and at least 186 on Nauru. The children on Christmas Island have little access to recreational or educational opportunities; many are depressed and suffer from anxiety disorders. Concern has mounted from medical […]

We are all human I am not Pashton, not Tajik; not Uzbek and Hazara, none have tendency for hatred or fighting. If you want to be my guest, come as if you come to Afghan house. We are all Afghan. We are all human. It would be nothing if I devote my life for this […]

Janet Galbraith is a poet living in Jaara country.  Her work has been published in academic, health and literary journals in Australia.  Her poetry collection remembering was published by Walleah Press in 2013.  Janet is founder and facilitator of Writing Through Fences: a writing group made up of people writing from within Australia’s immigration detention […]

Sabrin Ahmed is a 17 year old Somali girl currently held in Australian Immigration Detention. She has published in The Arrivalists. Her work has been read at poetry gatherings. She is currently writing her life story. She is an honorary member of PEN International.    surroundings of sadness i see nothing but a fence of tears […]

Hani is a young Somali writer. She writes poetry and prose and previously wrote and published a small newspaper called CC Weekly. Her work is vibrant and her spirit strong. Hani writes from within Australian Immigration Detention where she has been held for 11 months – and where she remains detained. Hani is a lead […]