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Suicide attempts in Port Hedland
Port Hedland immigration detention centre, in the far north of Western Australia, is the site of deep depression, despair and suicide attempts. All of its 54 prisoners have been there for more than three years.
On April 20, an Iranian and an Afghan man attempted suicide by taking a drug overdose. On April 21, another man also attempted to overdose on tablets. On April 22, an Afghan man who has been in detention for more than four years took an overdose before hiding so nobody could find him.
The man was later discovered lying on the floor as if dead. He was rushed to hospital, where he joined the other two men.
It is common for asylum seekers attempting suicide to be taken to hospital, have their stomach pumped, and be returned to an isolation block for many weeks.
Sarah Stephen
Iraqi refugees reunited in New Zealand
In New Zealand on April 22, two Iraqi refugees were finally reunited with their families after five years.
Hamed Al Satkham and Jaaffer Al Asadi spent the past four years living on temporary protection visas in the western Sydney suburb of Auburn.
Their wives and Al Asadi's two teenage children were among 284 asylum seekers detained on Nauru in 2001, when the Tampa freighter which rescued them near Christmas Island was barred from delivering them to safety on Australian territory. New Zealand took the majority of asylum seekers that were rescued by the Tampa, including seven families separated by Australia's "pacific solution".
Sarah Stephen
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, April 29, 2004.
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