MEDIA RELEASE 16 Jan 2014 MORRISON’S HIDING THE TRUTH ABOUT (XMAS ISLAND) DETENTION PROTEST. ABBOTT GUILTY OF REFUGEE WAR CRIMES Immigration Minister Scott Morrison told a media conference that the protest on Christmas Island was “under control”. Communication with asylum seekers on Christmas Island is extremely difficult, but reports from asylum seekers that are filtering out indicate both the scale of the protest and that the Christmas Island detention centre is far from being “under control”. A BBC Persian news item yesterday (Wednesday, 15 January), reported that 12 people have stitched their lips, and that nine people have attempted suicide or have seriously self-harmed with razor blades and glass; stitched their lips. Other sources have told the Refugee Action Coalition that four asylum seekers who attempted suicide on the night of 12 January were taken to the medical centre. One Iranian had sewn his lips together on 8 January after being separated from his sister and brother-in-law and their eight year-old girl. Some of the asylum seekers in the single men’s compounds have been on hunger strike since 10 January. The BBC reported that around 350 people in one of the family compounds joined the hunger strike on Monday 13 January and say they will protest for a week. The asylum seekers have been pushed to take the protest action by the unbearable conditions – the too few and unhygienic toilets and showers; the lack of medical care – and the threat that they will be sent to even worse conditions on Nauru and Manus Island. Other asylum seekers have reported that the family protests are in Aqua compound, notorious for its overcrowding and bad conditions. Asylum seekers in Lilac (also a family compound with bad conditions) met on Wednesday and wrote a letter to Immigration asking for answers about the threat to send them to Nauru. “We have already been told that all of us will be sent to Nauru, but let us know how long will it take? What will happen eventually for us?” one asylum seeker posted on Facebook. “The asylum seekers on Christmas Island are asking the same questions as journalists at Scott Morrison’s press conferences and are getting just as few answers. But it is the lives of the asylum seekers that are at stake,” said Ian Rintoul, from the Refugee Action Coalition. “The Minister has admitted that neither Nauru nor PNG has any plans for the housing or secure resettlement of those in off-shore processing centres who are found to be refugees. Scott Morrison is sending asylum seekers to indefinite detention in off-shore hell holes. “Meanwhile the Australian navy is effectively capturing asylum seekers and trafficking them to Indonesia. Tony Abbott says he is ‘at war’ with people smugglers, but in a war situation deliberately targeting civilians or holding them hostage is a war crime. To wage war on the most defenceless of people fleeing war and persecution in their home countries is just as criminal.” For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275713
Posted on: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 06:19:00 +0000
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