Victoria Times Colonist: Mandatory Detention

James Travers Fellowship Dept: SOLACE IN DRAWING, according to Vancouver Sun. His best-known piece of work is an intricate black-and-white drawing of a rope, knotted, tangled and twisting around itself. "Everyone is trying to untangle their life, trying to untangle our life in detention," Jafari says quietly and when two migrant ships carrying 568 Tamils arrived off Victoria's shores, the federal government cracked down, bringing in a tough refugee law that will throw future boat people into mandatory detention in provincial jails. The plan is modelled on the one used by Australia - a system that studies say has cost huge amounts of money and has failed. Victoria Times Colonist reporter Katie DeRosa, funded by the inaugural James Travers Fellowship, travelled to Australia to examine the system and what it could mean for Canada and Canadian taxpayers. Murtaza Ali Jafari sits on a deck in a large backyard in the picturesque Blue Mountains outside Sydney, adding light strokes of black felt pen to the image of a waxy candle on his notepad. Deep lines on his forehead and around the corners of his eyes make him look older than his 24 years. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.