Mieke
New Member
vandaag las ik in de krant van gisteren "the Age" het volgende verhaal over een jonge nederlandse vrouw, die haar 3 maanden toeristen visum van 2004, met meer dan 2 jaar overschreed en 2 weken geleden werd gearresteerd in verband met de overschrijding van haar visum. Ik weet niet hoe andere forumleden, die allemaal heel veel moeite doen om te emigreren over deze case denken?
By Andra Jackson
March 31, 2006
A DUTCH woman who came to Australia to take part in a reality television program and overstayed her visa has accused the Immigration Department of breaching her human rights.
Iris de Kool, 26, said she was having a shower at home in Melbourne two weeks ago when six Immigration Department officials arrived to detain her. Her flatmate opened the door and they walked through the house, she said.
"I was naked and they wouldn't give me any privacy. They just stayed with me as I got dressed," Ms de Kool said.
She was held at the Maribyrnong detention centre, where she said she was denied medical treatment and subjected to degrading treatment by the guards.
The 26-year-old said she was released eight days later, after her father in the Netherlands and friends in Australia paid a bond of $20,000. She has been ordered to leave by Tuesday. The department originally demanded $35,000, she said.
"No one ever had a bond that high," she said.
"People who had been illegal for five years and been involved in fraud got out on $5000 bonds."
She has also been presented with a $877.80 bill for the days she spent in detention.
Ms de Kool first came to Australia in August 2001 on a visitor's visa organised by a Dutch television company. She was one of eight contestants filmed taking part in a stunt-work course at the Australian Stunt Academy in Queensland.
She returned to the Netherlands in December 2001 but came back to Australia on a working visa and temporary resident visa. She had to return to the Netherlands to reapply to enter Australia when her visas ran out. Her last entry to Australia was on April 3, 2004, on a three-month visa. She said she stayed on illegally when she could not raise the money to return to the Netherlands.
Ms de Kool, who has a brother in Australia, said she was 10 points off the 110 she needed to migrate. "My life is here now," she said.
She admitted she was in the wrong for overstaying her visa, but said that did not justify "the inhumane" way she was treated. She said she wanted to speak out about conditions in Maribyrnong to help the 42 men and 11 women detained there for overstaying their visas and the two asylum seekers.
Ms de Kool said there was nothing for the women to do and there were only two televisions, one showing programs in Chinese.
"The hygiene was very poor. When I came into my dormitory there was hair everywhere, and in the showers there was mould," she said. "Everyone used the same nail clippers."
Ms de Kool said she had an infected tooth and could not sleep. She asked to see a nurse but was told she had to wait. The nurse left the next day without seeing her.
"The guards ignore you … and you have to get extremely angry to get them to respond," she said, adding that many of the detainees had poor English and did not understand the system.
An Immigration Department spokesman said the claims would be investigated.
"We would always encourage clients who feel they have not been fairly treated to raise their complaints with the department directly or with the Commonwealth Ombudsman," he said.
By Andra Jackson
March 31, 2006
A DUTCH woman who came to Australia to take part in a reality television program and overstayed her visa has accused the Immigration Department of breaching her human rights.
Iris de Kool, 26, said she was having a shower at home in Melbourne two weeks ago when six Immigration Department officials arrived to detain her. Her flatmate opened the door and they walked through the house, she said.
"I was naked and they wouldn't give me any privacy. They just stayed with me as I got dressed," Ms de Kool said.
She was held at the Maribyrnong detention centre, where she said she was denied medical treatment and subjected to degrading treatment by the guards.
The 26-year-old said she was released eight days later, after her father in the Netherlands and friends in Australia paid a bond of $20,000. She has been ordered to leave by Tuesday. The department originally demanded $35,000, she said.
"No one ever had a bond that high," she said.
"People who had been illegal for five years and been involved in fraud got out on $5000 bonds."
She has also been presented with a $877.80 bill for the days she spent in detention.
Ms de Kool first came to Australia in August 2001 on a visitor's visa organised by a Dutch television company. She was one of eight contestants filmed taking part in a stunt-work course at the Australian Stunt Academy in Queensland.
She returned to the Netherlands in December 2001 but came back to Australia on a working visa and temporary resident visa. She had to return to the Netherlands to reapply to enter Australia when her visas ran out. Her last entry to Australia was on April 3, 2004, on a three-month visa. She said she stayed on illegally when she could not raise the money to return to the Netherlands.
Ms de Kool, who has a brother in Australia, said she was 10 points off the 110 she needed to migrate. "My life is here now," she said.
She admitted she was in the wrong for overstaying her visa, but said that did not justify "the inhumane" way she was treated. She said she wanted to speak out about conditions in Maribyrnong to help the 42 men and 11 women detained there for overstaying their visas and the two asylum seekers.
Ms de Kool said there was nothing for the women to do and there were only two televisions, one showing programs in Chinese.
"The hygiene was very poor. When I came into my dormitory there was hair everywhere, and in the showers there was mould," she said. "Everyone used the same nail clippers."
Ms de Kool said she had an infected tooth and could not sleep. She asked to see a nurse but was told she had to wait. The nurse left the next day without seeing her.
"The guards ignore you … and you have to get extremely angry to get them to respond," she said, adding that many of the detainees had poor English and did not understand the system.
An Immigration Department spokesman said the claims would be investigated.
"We would always encourage clients who feel they have not been fairly treated to raise their complaints with the department directly or with the Commonwealth Ombudsman," he said.
