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

The most powerful evidence is visual. Yet for 10+ years, the Australian government has inhumanely detained refugees in offshore detention centres, banning cameras & journalists. There is no visual evidence. Only by making injustice visible, can we provoke change. Introducing Exhibit A-i.

Social justice law firm, Maurice Blackburn, conducted 300 hours of interviews with refugees, documenting the atrocities they faced in offshore detention. Together with AI technicians, survivors then generated the first visual evidence of their experiences. Details were made as accurate as possible, from the colour of tents to subjects’ facial expressions. While photojournalists were consulted to guide composition & image quality.

The evidence was compiled into a book, submitted to members of Australian Parliament & used in 1:1 conversations with policy-makers. It was sent to journalists, garnering worldwide attention, before being shared with the public in OOH, exhibitions & online, as well as integrated into stock libraries alongside

Exhibit A-i doesn’t use AI for tech’s sake, but to generate visual evidence of injustices that occurred in Australia's offshore detention facilities — places where cameras are banned. Hundreds of hours of interviews were conducted with survivors, who then worked with AI technicians to create visualisations of their experiences. Workshops were held with survivors to ensure details were as accurate as possible, from the colour of the tents to the subjects’ facial expressions. To make sure our visuals were as evocative as possible, we consulted photojournalists to ensure the images had the same composition & quality as real photography. The images now sit alongside real photojournalism in editorial stock libraries, and on the desks of Australian politicians in a book. The evidence was also shared in exhibitions, OOH and social.

The campaign softly launched on 26.03.23, with a hero launch on 04.04.23 and will continue throughout the year.

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.