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Vol. 77/No. 20      May 27, 2013

 
Australia actions oppose jailing refugees
 
BY LINDA HARRIS 
SYDNEY — More than 100 people marched to the Villawood detention center here April 28 as part of a weekend of protests against the government’s incarceration of immigrants seeking political asylum. Some 300 others rallied outside the Yongah Hill prison in Northam near Perth, Western Australia.

Last year there were 17,202 arrivals by sea and 886 asylum seekers were deported. In the last four years more than 600 people have drowned on boats that sank on their way to Australia.

The Labour government of Julia Gillard “is committed to deterring people from taking dangerous journeys by boat,” said Immigration Minister Brendan O’Connor in April after 38 of 66 Sri Lankan refugees were deported following a 44-day arduous sea voyage.

There are 2,589 refugees detained on Christmas Island, an Australian territory nearly 1,000 miles from the mainland. Last year the Gillard government reopened detention centers on the Pacific island of Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island.

Some 270 refugees are being held in Manus Island indefinitely until their claims are processed. According to an Immigration department report, the center “is cramped and recreation facilities are limited … there is no reliable power supply [and] limited potable water.”

In February asylum seekers on Nauru sewed their lips together to protest conditions and their indefinite detentions.  
 
 
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