For over ten years, people seeking asylum in Australia by boat have been stopped by the Australian Navy & sent to offshore detention centres in Nauru, Manus Island & Papua New Guinea. They wait indefinitely to be processed, held in privately-owned prisons. Cameras & journalists are banned. Guards are all-powerful. Neither the public nor politicians know what occurs inside, leading to atrocities that have been hidden from view.

Australia’s leading social justice law firm, Maurice Blackburn, had been running a class action lawsuit on behalf of survivors against the government, arguing that indefinite offshore detention should be unlawful. Unfortunately, in 2021, due to a change in the law, the case was dismissed. However, Maurice Blackburn still believed survivors’ stories deserved to be heard. Their brief was to create widespread awareness of the atrocities survivors experienced to try to use these stories to provoke policy change discussions.

Exhibit A-i restored humanity to the thousands whose trauma had been hidden from view, and did justice to these individuals’ requests for their stories to be shared and understood. It also exposed the hidden horrors of Australia’s offshore detention to the public, politicians and press — receiving $2.5M+ in earned media in one week and reaching over 340 million people with over 300 pieces of coverage.

Our collated images and statements have become a body of evidence that’s used as a tool in policy-change conversations with members of Australian Parliament and in 1:1 meetings with key decision-makers within the coalition government.

Exhibit A-i was presented to Australia’s Minister for Immigration, who is now evaluating the evidence.

“A project like this goes to the very heart of what it means to be a lawyer at Maurice Blackburn. We are guided by the values of fairness, compassion and a tenacity to use the law for the betterment of society.” — Jacob Varghese, CEO, Maurice Blackburn.

Maurice Blackburn is Australia’s leading social justice law firm. Since its founding in 1919 by eponymous activist and progressive thinker, Maurice Blackburn, the firm has influenced some of Australia’s most important human rights legal decisions, including the 40-hour work week and equal pay for women and Indigenous workers. Recently, they had taken action to address the plight of those seeking asylum in offshore detention with a class action lawsuit on behalf of survivors against the Australian government, arguing that indefinite detention should be unlawful. Unfortunately, in 2021, the class action was dismissed. However, Maurice Blackburn still believed these stories deserved to be heard.

In 10+ years, over 4,183 people seeking asylum have been processed through Australian offshore detention. Many are not granted permanent visas afterwards, meaning they live in fear of deportation.

Nauru remains Australia’s sole offshore processing centre, after the detention centre on Manus Island was ruled unlawful and ordered to be shut down by that country’s supreme court.

As of 28 February 2023, there were 1,099 people in detention facilities. This included 1,050 men and approximately 47 women.

They live in fear of violence.

Those who were released are afraid they’ll face retribution for speaking out.

So we helped these survivors tell their stories anonymously for the first time, to show the world what happens in offshore detention in excruciating and confronting detail