Human Rights Game Explores Life (and Death) In Domestic Detention Centers

The New York Times reported Saturday on an interesting web game based on the experience of immigrant detainee Boubacar Bah, a Guinean tailor held in a New Jersey jail for overstaying his visa. After sustaining an injury at the Elizabeth Detention Center for the federal government, Bah was left in an isolation cell and denied treatment for more than 13 hours. Bah remained in a coma until he died four months later.

The game is called Homeland Guantanamos. From The Times:

The video game casts the player as a reporter seeking clues in the death of Mr. Bah, 52, who suffered a skull fracture and brain hemorrhages in the Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey. A cartoon guide leads the way to actual video testimonials of former detainees and information that unlocks the mystery of Mr. Bah’s fate.

The fictional framework plays fast and loose with traditional rules of journalism — the reporter takes an undercover job as a detention guard and writes a first-person appeal for change rather than an article — but the content encountered along the way is backed by links to real newspaper articles, court documents and other factual material.

Homeland Guantanamos was created by Breakthrough, the international human rights organization that published ICED earlier this year. ICED (I Can End Deportation) puts players in the role of immigrants who must try to avoid being deported before they are able to obtain citizenship. Malika Dutt, executive director of Breakthrough, told The Times that "The Department of Homeland Security's enforcement measures have become increasingly draconian and are leading to severe consequences, including death for many."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement have already denounced Breakthrough's new game. On Thursday, spokeswoman Kelly A. Nantel said that Homeland Guantanamos is "a work of fiction that dehumanizes the individuals depicted and grossly distorts conditions in detention facilities," adding she believed that "most informed people know that they leave reality at the door when they enter the world of videogames."

While the blurring of fact and fiction in Homeland Guantanamos may recommend a measured reaction to players of the game (just as with all journalism), Ms. Nantel's suggestion that Homeland Guantanamos' status as a videogame merits a more dismissive attitude from players than other media is bankrupt.

[via The New York Times]