Following up from my earlier post on the apparent censoring of an asylum seeker tow-back video by the ABC, a translation of what was said on the uncensored version has emerged.
Not being able to speak Farsi myself, I can’t personally verify the translation is correct, but it does match up with a small section that was included – (with audio) – in the stock ABC news report on the video. I obtained the translation via this tweet.
| Transcript Of Asylum Seeker Tow-Back Video |
“We are 36 people including a pregnant woman and a one year old baby.”
“It is one week since Australian Navy took us and put us in this small boat.”
“From this side you can see a warship – its number is IMO 4906551 Triton Darwin.”
“They don’t care about the baby and pregnant woman.”
“They are animals, animals.”
“Today is Wednesday in the first week of February. We don’t know what the exact date is!”
“They didn’t allow us to even wash our face or go to the toilet.”
“Last time, two weeks ago, they had taken us and abandoned us in the jungle. For four days we wandered in the jungle and one of us sank (drowned?) in the river!”
“This time we asked them please don’t do this to us! And they said OK! But it seems they do this crime again to us!”
“This is one of the blue bracelets from one of them that was left behind in this boat. The number of this boat was 879 and it seems there were 34-35 people.”
“This is an army ship which escorts us.”
“This is a warship and this is a fucking boat that they [Australian government] want to kill us with!”
“And they are fucking soldiers.”
I make no assertions as to whether or not the claims made by the people in the video are factual – I simply present this for the record.