Scenes were reported of people burying themselves in shallow graves in the Christmas Island detention centre on July 24, as refugees across the country continued defiant protests despite harsh crackdowns.
Hunger strikes and ongoing protests also took place in the Northern Immigration Detention Centre in Darwin and the Scherger military base detention centre in far-north Queensland.
At Christmas Island, after riot police assaulted refugees with tear gas and “bean bag” shootings, they raided rooms and rounded up supposed “ringleaders”.
Nine asylum seekers that took part in Christmas Island’s chaotic protests were taken to Silverwater prison on July 24 and 25, but were not charged with any crime, the said. Three others were taken to Villawood detention centre in Sydney.
The distress of asylum seekers locked up in Christmas Island led to rooftops protests, small-scale rioting and some refugees barricading themselves in a dorm and threatening to commit mass self-harm, the .
As intimidation from Serco guards and federal police continued, RAC spokesperson Ian Rintoul said: “Some asylum seekers have already staged mock burials and buried themselves up to their necks in a symbolic protest that detention is killing their bodies and their minds.”
About 100 Hazara Afghan men at the Scherger detention centre carried out a five-day hunger strike over July 21-25. They held a sit-down protest in the compound and demanded to hear from the immigration department about their cases.
Scherger is a military base on the Cape York Peninsula. In October, the isolated compound was converted to hold about 300 male asylum seekers.
In March, a 20-year-old Afghan man hanged himself with a bedsheet at the centre, fearing he would be deported back to Afghanistan.
As the sit-down protest grew, Serco staff locked the hunger strikers in an isolated part of the detention centre and prevented others from joining them. Supporters outside heard from the protesters that some refugees had collapsed and others could not stand.
The immigration representative at the detention centre told the asylum seekers: “You can join the hunger strike or you can go back to Afghanistan”, reported the .
Melbourne-based refugee advocate Pamela Curr told that two fasting men in Scherger had cut themselves, “one on his arm and one on his throat”.
The strike ended on July 25 after immigration officials said the refugees’ cases would be reviewed. “The calls gave us hope,” an asylum seeker told . “But we will see what immigration does now. If they do not live up to what they say, we will start our protest again.”
In Darwin, 10 Iranian and Afghan refugees staged a rooftop protest and more than 50 started a hunger strike on July 24. , the Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and Advocacy Network said an Iraqi man attempted suicide days earlier.
Spokesperson Carl O’Connor said: “The growing crisis in Australia’s detention centre shows the government must reconsider its detention policy and pursue more humane approaches to asylum seekers as a matter of urgency.”
He said many involved in the protests were already accepted refugees, but were waiting in detention for “security checks”. More than six suicide attempts and daily cases of self-harm have created a toxic environment for asylum seekers.
In Victoria, less than a month after the government said it had “met its commitment” to move children out of detention, three teenagers in detention sewed their lips shut and posted photos on Facebook on July 24.
said Daniella Olea, from Refugee Action Collective tried to visit them after the photos were posted, but was not allowed.
“When asked why the boys had sewn their lips together, she responded: ‘They have done that as form of protest at their desperation at being locked up for a long period of time’,” Crikey said.
The Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation centre in Broadmeadows still houses about 60 young refugees aged between 13 and 17.
The immigration department later trivialised the gruesome actions. A spokesperson said the “injuries were minor”.
Two hundred people rallied outside Sydney’s Villawood detention centre on July 24. The protest opposed the “Malaysia solution” and called for an end to mandatory detention.
Many refugees in Villawood have been locked up for more than two years — some for more than three years — even though they have been granted refugee status.
The immigration department and Serco issued a notice saying it would not “provide visitor access” to detainees.
The decision meant many refugees could not be visited by family members that day. Rally organisers said it was a clear attempt to punish refugees and discourage protest.
As lives continued to be destroyed in Australia’s detention system, he would begin an inquiry into the “upsurge in the number of incidents of self-harm and attempted suicide”.