Advocate for detainees receives Papal honour
by Noel Towell
Catholic
welfare agency Centacare and its executive director Dale West have been on
the front line of the fight for the rights of immigration detention centre
detainees since 2000.
Now the UniSA social work graduate has received a Papal honour for his
passionate advocacy of the rights of asylum seekers.
Port Pirie’s Bishop Eugene Hurley awarded West the Venerable Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice at Port Pirie earlier this year but the Centacare director believes that the honour should be shared.
“I see the award as a representative one. The role I’ve played is as a representative of those detained and of detention centre staff, parish priests, church workers and also of organisations like Rural Australians for Refugees,” he says.
Centacare became involved in the refugee issue almost by accident. “One of the services we provide is employee assistance programs. Staff from Woomera were referred to the program in Port Pirie to debrief from their traumatic experiences.
In this way, we became aware of what was going on in the detention centres. But it wasn’t until we were contacted by The Australian newspaper that the issue came to national prominence,” says West.
The agency – and Dale West – have been close to the eye of the storm ever since. At the height of the Woomera controversy, West gave up to 70 media interviews a day both nationally and internationally. When the Family Court ordered the release of the Bakhtiari children, it was into the protection of Centacare.
The family’s future remains uncertain.
West has no intention of backing away from the issue of asylum seekers any time soon. “As long as the detention centres continue to be run the way that they are, we will see ourselves as having a role in speaking out,” he says.
“We like to think that Centacare has credibility in the community and when we say something, people can believe that it’s true.”