Mahmood lives in Perth. He was released from Port Hedland detention centre six weeks ago, on a temporary protection visa. Mahmood is Kurdish and lived in Iran.
Mahmood was involved in the Iranian journalists' union and was a student leader in Kermanshah. He also spent some time working as a medical doctor in an Iranian refugee camp.
He faced imprisonment or death as a Kurdish person, and a left-wing activist, if he remained in Iran. He chose to take the risk of fleeing to a country he thought would offer him protection — Australia.
Mahmood was in the Woomera detention centre, in the South Australian desert, for 12 months, before being moved to Port Hedland, where he was kept for four months.
"For six months, my family didn't know if I was alive or dead", Mahmood said, explaining the conditions in Woomera upon his arrival. The authorities didn't allow him to phone or write to his family in Iran.
He arrived soon after the June 8 uprising in the camp, and was locked up for 45 days before being able to mix with other detainees.
"I was caught with a radio [in my possession], and locked up for four weeks as punishment. I was investigated three times for sending letters within Australia", he explained.
Over time, Mahmood took on a role as a representative of all the Iranians in detention, and became the president of a residents' committee. He believes he was moved to Port Hedland in an attempt to dismantle the organising that was taking place amongst the detainees.
Mahmood described some of the conditions in Woomera and Port Hedland "In detention, you're referred to not by your name but by a number, like 'B41'. I had forgotten my name — if someone had called me by my name, I probably wouldn't have responded."
"There is no privacy", he added. "Guards come into your room at any time, whether you're asleep or with your family. They don't care."
While Mahmood was at Port Hedland, there were around 400 detainees who were separated into two separate 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳. In the isolation section, newly arrived asylum seekers are kept from the rest of the detainees until they have been interviewed by officials from the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. In some cases this has taken close to a year.
Detainees in isolation have no access to newspapers, radio, only cigarettes. "They are allowed fresh air for only two hours a day, but are still kept from mixing with other asylum seekers."
"In the other section of the detention centre, people live up to five in a room", he recalled. "There is a roster for working in the kitchen doing cooking and dishwashing, or cleaning the blocks and the yard. For a 12-hour day, we get paid $6. A packet of smokes costs $14. A phone card costs $10. So for two days long, hard work I can call my family and speak to them for about seven minutes."
"You don't always have work" he added, "because of the roster system. Sometimes you may have no money for six weeks if you don't get on the roster."
Mahmood also added that the guards often treat the detainees badly.
On one occasion, a Moroccan man was beaten by five guards at Port Hedland. "I'm still not sure why. He had some problems with his shoulder [as a result of the beating], and the guards promised an investigation. Eventually the Moroccan man was the one forced to apologise."
[Names in this article have been changed.]