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if you travel by boat without a visa you will not make Australia home the rules apply to everyone families children there are no exceptions refugees trying to come to Australia are detained in places that redefine isolation access to the camps on Manus Island and Naru is virtually bad so it's very difficult to get a sense of what life is really like in offshore detention but there were a few people willing to speak to us for this story who have experience in the detention centers themselves the Naru one is in the middle of a mining camp so it's kind of all white stone and gravel on the ground big high fences and big white Nike tents there is some hard buildings shipping containers that have been converted into portable rooms Manus Island is very similar it's right on the water though so one side of the camp is closed off with a big fence that goes onto the the sea and the other side of the camp is the kind of the jungle and it's pretty remote inside these camps access to technology is incredibly limited photography and mobile phones are banned and access to social media is restricted via camp computers I don't like phones they don't like photography and because all mobile phones these days have cameras they don't want that inside the centre and that's how they stop that communication they don't want images of children locked up because that would create sympathy or empathy for people in detention and people would actually question why are we doing this the restrictions on Facebook on Nauru I think give a pretty clear example of how governments are trying to control the way people are getting in touch with those on the outside whether it be family or the media or their lawyers so if you were able to get on to a Facebook page regarding Australia it very limited access because they didn't want the asylum seekers to see anything in regards to Australian cities or beaches but the communication back to the home countries and their families was allowed and that was encouraged because the asylum tech was in telling the countrymen of their families held bad it was Manus Island is part of Papua New Guinea and in April 2016 the Supreme Court there ruled that indefinite detention on Manus Island was illegal since then we've seen the centres open up to somewhat with information coming out of the camps thanks to mobile phones that have gone in I got in touch with one refugee their burrows bouhanni Peru's is a journalist who fled Iran soon after he arrived on Manus Island he sold his clothes for some cigarettes which he traded for a beat-up old phone God's confiscated that phone and threatened him but then he sold more possessions and bought another mobile he's been messaging me and other Australian journalists via whatsapp he's been publishing photos on his Facebook page and he's even written articles for Australian media outlets while he's still in detention he told me technology is so important to us it gives us the power to send out our voice Tech is also a way to shine the light on the horrors of detention without access to technology he said the Australian government could do anything to us even kill us and no one would know 1,300 asylum seekers are currently in offshore detention with some having been detained for up to three years we've heard countless allegations of human rights abuses over the years and these stories were confirmed in grim detail in August 2016 when the Guardian published more than 2,000 reports made by staff in the Naru processing centre the story of a woman sharpening a pencil with a razor blade before cutting her own wrists a young person sewing their lips together rape claims dismissed by centre staff cockroaches found crawling in a child's hair one woman told staff I just want to die I was involved in three attempted suicides two of which I was the first responder so I was saved two persons lives or I'll save them from certainly committing suicide Manus Island this facility itself would not be allowed to operate here within Australia it breaks every rule in regards to incarceration images and messages were once smuggled out of detention but greater access to technology is enabling refugees in these camps to be seen and heard and the world needs to listen you