Vol.64/No.25 June 26, 2000
Refugees stage breakouts in Australia
BY RON POULSEN
SYDNEY, Australia--More than 650 refugees mostly from the Middle East, carried out mass breakouts from three detention centers in remote parts of the country June 8 and 9 in protest over interminable delays in processing their visa applications, long-term mandatory imprisonment, and the conditions they face in captivity.
Press headlines continue to brand these refugees and prospective immigrants without papers as "illegal immigrants" and "boat people."
At Woomera in South Australia about 400 people staged an overnight sit-in in the town center until authorities promised to begin releasing refugees into the community in a week.
Within 13 hours, 250 refugees staged similar breakouts from two camps in northwest Western Australia. Twelve arrests were made by West Australian police to end a road sit-down by 150 refugees at Curtin, near Derby, while arrests were also threatened at Port Hedland.
Most of the thousands of detainees, including about 1,400 at Woomera, are from Afghanistan and Iraq.
Canberra's role in Middle East
Canberra sent military and naval forces to participate in the murderous Gulf War against Iraq in 1991, and in the subsequent imperialist blockade to try to strangle Iraq's economy. The Australian rulers also supported Washington's criminal missile strikes against Afghanistan and Sudan in 1998.
Federal immigration minister Philip Ruddock announced plans to review security measures at the centers and indicated that 600 will be deported as "ineligible for refugee status."
Curtin escapees said three people had attempted suicide last week because conditions were so bad. Helal Faili, a Kurd, told the Sydney Morning Herald that detainees were abused and beaten by guards. "Even for minor things they get out their batons and hit people," he said. "They torture us because they see us as coming from ugly countries. They tell us nobody likes us in Australia and we shouldn't have come."
David Bitel, head of the Refugee Council of Australia, said, "These are the actions of desperate people who, having fled persecution in their own countries, suffer further hardship under Australia's much-criticized mandatory detention regime."