Sudanese-born men and women are estimated to make up about 10 per cent of people held in Australia's immigration detention facilities, and for most of them, there's little hope of leaving the gated compounds.
When someone ends up in immigration detention, it's usually because they no longer have a valid visa to allow them entry to Australia.
They're held in a detention centre until being granted a new one or being deported to their country of origin.
For those born in Sudan before 2011, however, indefinite arbitrary detention is almost guaranteed.
Juma Chol and his brother Zackaria have languished in Australian detention centres for the better part of a decade. Juma said his Sudanese heritage had everything to do with it.
In 2011, Sudan split into two countries: a northern, mostly Arabic-speaking Sudan, bordering Egypt with Khartoum as its continuing capital; and South Sudan, with various ethnic groups, Dinka being the largest.
The secession of South Sudan and following outbreak of civil war led to one of the worst humanitarian crises in the region and resulted in over 380,000 deaths and millions of refugees.
A side effect of these tragic events is that people who left Sudan before the split have now fallen into an uniquely unclear and hard to define box.
They are not acknowledged as citizens by either country, and are therefore stateless.
Detention has cost $5m so far
Dinka brothers Juma, 35, and Zackaria, 32, have spent almost eight years in immigration detention, despite the fact that their mother and three siblings are all Australian citizens.
Their ongoing detention since 2015 has cost Australian taxpayers about $5 million.
Since the 2020-21 financial year, the average cost of managing a person in immigration detention has increased to $428,451 per person per year.
When Juma and Zackaria escaped Sudan in 2001, they were 15 and 11 years old respectively. After two years in an Egyptian refugee camp with their mother and three siblings, the family was finally granted a refugee humanitarian (XB-200) visa to Australia.
Since resettling in Melbourne in 2003, they've both acquired a significant rap sheet of mostly minor offences, including driving offences, disorderly behaviour, refusal to state name and address to police and trespassing.
But there were also violent offences, culminating in the two brothers assaulting a victim with a baseball bat and fracturing his skull in March 2012.
They have both been convicted and sentenced to prison.
Juma served his full four years and four weeks before being immediately taken to immigration detention. His permanent visa was cancelled by then-immigration minister Scott Morrison.
Zackaria was sentenced to two years and 50 weeks in prison but was released on parole after six months. He was living in the community for 18 months and in full employment, but was still taken to immigration detention when his visa was cancelled by then-immigration minister Peter Dutton.
Not acknowledged as citizens of South Sudan, and without visas, they're stuck in limbo.
"I feel stuck in an endless cycle with no way of breaking it," Juma told the ABC from his sixth consecutive day in solitary confinement after participating in a protest with other Sudanese detainees like himself, against their arbitrary detention in Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation (MITA).
"I feel like I'm just living just to die some day. They have no mercy."
Eight years in detention
The brothers' visas were cancelled on the grounds that their crimes made them "a danger to the Australian community".
But humanitarian lawyer Alison Battisson, who manages their cases, said they never really got a fair go to begin with.
"Integration into Australia is difficult, in part due to racism and police targeting to be perfectly honest, in some cases on the basis of being black," she said.
Juma said he struggled to fit in and had no support, which led him to lash out.
"I felt the racism because I'm dark from day one," he said.
"I learned to deal with it. I learned to be strong alone."
If Juma and Zackaria had acquired their citizenship before their initial imprisonment, they would have been free in the community today.
Ms Battisson said their continued detention was "cruel and unusual punishment", especially when there was "only one solution".
"Release, conditional or unconditional, as a stateless person," she said.
"That is the only solution."
Power to release rests with minister
The power to release the brothers lies with Immigration Minister Andrew Giles, whose ministerial powers give him the ability to grant freedom.
"It should also happen sooner rather than later or the taxpayer is just going to continue shelling out almost half a million dollars a year for his detention," Ms Battisson said.
Their South Sudanese heritage puts them in the same cohort of others like them with nowhere to go back to. They're stateless.
Ms Battisson says it is a systemic problem that the Australian government has not addressed.
"The Australian government should just admit that [that they are stateless] and then move on with the solution," she said.
"Because what's happening now is the effective incarceration of another group of very marginalised migrants."
'Even harsher than prison conditions'
When someone goes to prison, they know when they're coming out. Their sentence has an end date. But for Juma and Zackaria, it's a virtual life sentence.
"It's even harsher than prison conditions," Ms Battisson said.
"There are very few regulations and laws that apply to how an immigration prison should be run, and that makes it dangerous."
When Labor came into government last year, Juma said he felt hope for the first time in years. But a year after Labor took office, he's slowly feeling that hope slip away again.
"Give us a chance. That's all we want. Give us chance," he said.
The Australian Human Rights Commissioner is currently investigating Juma and Zackaria's cases for human rights violations, and is expected to submit a report to the Department of Home Affairs.
A spokesperson for the Australian Border Force, in response to questions about the isolation following the protest, said "all persons held in immigration detention facilities are treated with dignity and respect".
"Detainees may be relocated to more suitable accommodation to enable closer supervision and engagement," the spokesperson said.
The ABC made multiple attempts seeking comment from Mr Giles about Juma and Zackaria's cases. His office was yet to respond at the time of publication.
