Detainees take refuge in friendship

Solitary confinement, barbed wire fences and little hope for the future. Life is tough for detainees at the Maribyrnong and Broadmeadows detention centres. Mental illness is rife, and detainees feel isolated and abandoned.

People like Sivan Barak are doing whatever she can to provide the detainees with a sense of friendship, a sense of family, but most importantly, make them feel like a human being and not just a number.

Daniel Connell reports