Shame in the name of security

Baxter Immigration Detention Centre sits on a narrow strip of road that intersects the highway looping around the top of the Spencer Gulf from Port Augusta to the Eyre Peninsula. It is enclosed by electrified fences and razor wire and isolated from the raw beauty of coastal mangroves and arid red plains by buildings that face only inward.

It is a sobering corner of remote South Australia, built on an old Army base solely to house illegal immigrants, overstayers and asylum seekers until their fate is determined: deportation, or acceptance as refugees.

For four months this was home to Cornelia Rau, a German-born Australian resident who had arrived as a toddler and worked as a Qantas flight attendant until claimed by schizophrenia. Desperately ill, ranting at guards, smearing faeces on walls and eating dirt, Rau was put in solitary confinement and remained there until last week, when her identity and resident status were confirmed.

During her time at Baxter, and in the previous six months she spent in a Queensland jail, Rau's illness was neither recognised nor treated. Nor were police or her family able to find her, despite being listed as missing and posted on the network co-ordinated by the Australian Federal Police's national missing persons unit.

Rau, 39, is now the centre of a political storm raging on four fronts: the failings her case exposed in Australia's mental health system, the national tracking of missing persons, the identification and treatment of mental illness in immigration detention centres, and the continuing controversy over the system of mandatory detention itself.

The incarceration of a mentally ill Australian resident in a prison for illegal aliens has appalled everyone, including the Government of Prime Minister John Howard, despite his refusal to apologise on legal grounds.

Howard has now ordered an inquiry, but its terms of reference and the decision to hold it in private have outraged Australians across a broad political and social spectrum, from distinguished mental health experts and human rights organisations to the Senate and the Labor Opposition, which continues to push for a full, public, judicial inquiry.

Professor Phillip Boyce, president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists warned there could be dozens of Cornelia Raus lost in detention and denied access to appropriate professional help. Added Human Rights Commissioner Dr Sev Ozdowski: "From the circumstances reported, this shocking case only confirms ... that a law requiring mandatory detention of persons found in Australia, pending confirmation of the lawfulness of their presence here, is inherently unjust and is contrary to a person's human rights."

Howard conceded in an interview on Sydney radio station 2GB: "This case raises questions not only about the immigration detention system, which has attracted all the critical attention, but it also raises some questions about the mental health policies that this country has followed for a long time."

Rau's story is tragic, complicated by a severe illness that nonetheless confounded police, immigration and German consular officials and eluded psychiatrists. It is all the more disturbing given the assessment that her 10 months in detention have tipped her irretrievably into a mental abyss, and her own refusal to have any contact with her family.

Rau arrived in Australia with her parents at the age of 18 months, growing up in Sydney and working for Qantas. Her sister Chris described her in the Sydney Morning Herald as a vibrant, gregarious and empathetic person. All that began to change in 1998 when she was diagnosed as suffering from bipolar disorder and, later, schizophrenia. Although disappearing for various periods she would always return to her family for love and reassurance.

In March last year Rau discharged herself from Manly Hospital's psychiatric unit and vanished. Her family waited vainly for her to show up, but in August reported her missing to Sydney police. They had no word of her until she surfaced at Baxter, largely due to the concern of refugee advocates alarmed at reports of a deeply disturbed woman placed in solitary confinement because of her behaviour.

In theory, Rau should have been identified by the network operated by police and other organisations involved in finding the 30,000 people reported missing every year. The system, co-ordinated in Canberra by the national missing persons unit, is usually very efficient, locating more than 90 per cent of them - one third within a week. Although by this time held in detention for months, Rau slipped through the system.

An Institute of Criminology analysis four years ago concluded that though largely successful, improvements to the system were needed. The Government has now suggested a new national database for missing persons may be required, tapping into the sophisticated federal Crimtrac criminal database and including a wider range of information, including any relevant medical conditions.

Rau was, in fact, in custody within days of leaving Manly. She had arrived at Coen, a tiny Aboriginal settlement in the middle of Cape York Peninsula on the remote northern tip of Queensland, obviously disoriented and claiming to have no money. Worried locals called the police, who found an apparent German tourist calling herself both Anna Brotmeyer and Anna Schmidt, the name she now insists is hers. Rau also had a stolen passport, and a considerable amount of money.

Rau's delusions made life even more difficult for officials. She claimed to be a German citizen who had entered Australia on a temporary visa and who was now illegally in the country. She gave detailed information to back her story, none of which could be confirmed by Australian or German authorities.

Refugee advocates who met her during her incarceration in Queensland insist Rau maintained her innocence of any crime and insisted her rights were being abused. Queensland Premier Peter Beattie this week in response released a transcript of an interview Rau gave during an inquiry into prison conditions, in which she maintained her name was Anna Schmidt and said she was an illegal German immigrant.

Rau was regarded as odd, but not ill. In August she had a psychiatric assessment at Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital, which failed to recognise the schizophrenia for which she had previously been receiving treatment and medication.

Four months ago Rau was transferred to Baxter. Fellow detainees, alarmed by her behaviour, alerted refugee activists who began making inquiries and demanding action. Graphic descriptions of her condition appeared on the internet. Two months ago Jonathan Harley, South Australia's Public Advocate - who protects the interests of the mentally impaired - began making similar efforts but was stonewalled by Baxter officials.

Frustrated, he told ABC radio he had been considering action through the Federal Court when Rau's real identity emerged. 

Deep flaws in the mental health system were exposed in a national inquiry in 1993. Among the key issues was the plight of mentally ill people detained by the criminal justice system who were, the inquiry found, frequently denied effective health care and human rights protection. Procedures for detecting and treating mental illness and disorders were inadequate.

Despite a number of important improvements, recent studies have concluded that more than a decade later, many of the inquiry's major concerns remain.

College of Psychiatrists president Boyce said the Government should now use the Rau case to address the broader failures in the system: "The Government is aware of the high rates of mental illness among people in detention and should have taken action earlier to prevent the regrettable lapses that occurred in the Cornelia Rau case and other sufferers whose plight went unrecognised."

The extent of mental illness in immigration detention centres was detailed in last year's Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission report on children in detention, which found that despite policies to detect and treat psychiatric disorders - including a requirement to seek outside help and care in serious cases, such as Rau - widespread problems existed.

Refugee activists have pounced on Rau's tragedy to further condemn mandatory detention, joining a growing chorus demanding a wide-ranging public inquiry. "The rights of innocent people are at risk when the Government can detain people without judicial review," Amnesty International Australia refugee co-ordinator Dr Graham Thorn said. "Detention should be a last resort and for those who are detained there must be sufficient safeguards put in place to ensure that their rights and dignity are protected.."

Added Mental Health Council chairman Keith Wilson: "On the evidence available, mental health services and clinical standards have completely failed [Rau] and her family. This is first and foremost a failure of mental health services. We believe the inquiry must be centred on an extensive review of the clinical care and decisions made in this case."

But Howard has resisted calls for a judicial review or royal commission, announcing instead that a former Australian Federal Police Commissioner, Mick Palmer, will conduct a closed inquiry.

This, Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said, would protect Rau's privacy, ensure the report was completed as quickly as possible and prevent its being used "by those with agendas outside of the scope of this inquiry".

Tragedy exposes multiple flaws

1. Failures in the mental health system

2. Weaknesses in the tracking of missing persons

3. Desperate conditions in immigration detention centres

4. The entire system of mandatory detention