Interviews

Ali Bakhtiarvandi is an Iranian refugee who arrived in Australia by boat in 2000, aged 34. He was detained until 2004 in three different detention centres. He is now an Australian citizen. More information about Ali Bakhtiarvandi Read Ali's story on our sister site Behind the Wire Download Transcript Request Audio ...
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Farrah Nasser was born in Iraq, where she was an Arabic teacher. She arrived in Australia in 2001 by boat. Nasser was then detained in Woomera for three months and 20 days. While in detention, Nasser witnessed a fire in the centre that left her and the other detainees without ...
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Ron Merkel was a Federal Court Justice from 1996 until 2006. Merkel first became involved in asylum seeker issues in 1985 after working as Senior Counsel on an immigration case which, to him, exposed the extreme procedural unfairness of Australian law. As a QC and Federal judge, Merkel saw from ...
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Safi Basara was born in Nasiri, in Iraq, where his father was imprisoned and killed under the Hussein regime. He arrived in Darwin by boat in December 2000 and was taken to Woomera Detention Centre for forty days (until the 28th of March 2001) before being released on a Temporary ...
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Jessie Taylor is a barrister who worked with detainees as a refugee advocate in Maribyrnong, Baxter and Villawood detention centres. Taylor first became involved with asylum seeker issues in 2002 when she was invited to visit a detention centre by a friend. She was initially motivated by her faith to ...
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Ida Kaplan is a psychologist and Directive Services Manager for the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture (VFST).  She works with torture and trauma survivors who are refugees, asylum seekers or people holding Temporary Protection Visas.  Kaplan first became involved in asylum seeker issues because of her interest in the psychological impact ...
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