Protests build as asylum seekers grow desperate
BY PAUL BENEDEK
SYDNEY — On the afternoon of July 29, riot police were used to force more than 50 asylum seekers at the Villawood Detention Centre in Sydney's western suburbs onto buses to be transported to newly upgraded high-security detention camps in Port Hedland and Woomera.
The asylum seekers were participating in a hunger strike, begun by Villawood detainees on July 24, in a desperate attempt to draw attention to their plight. The asylum seekers, from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Turkey and Sudan, some of whom have been in detention for many months, are frustrated with the government's inaction on their applications for refugee status and angry about the detention centre's prison-like conditions.
The hunger strike is the latest challenge to the federal government's harsh anti-refugee laws. In June there were mass break-outs by asylum seekers held in detention centres in Woomera, Derby, Port Hedland, and there have been a growing number of protests outside the centres by supporters of refugee rights.
Australia is the only industrialised country in the world to mandatorily detain asylum seekers who enter the country without the proper papers. New legislation, passed with bipartisan support in December, severely restricts asylum seekers' chances of gaining permanent residency and curtails rights to basic welfare.
At Villawood, the detainees launched the hunger strike by staging a sit-in on the centre's lawns before moving as a group into a hall. The authorities tried to isolate the detainees, cutting off all phone communications between them and their friends, relatives and supporters on the outside. Visiting rights were removed.
On July 26, riot police armed with batons, shields and tear gas stormed the centre in an unsuccessful attempt to quell the asylum seekers' protest.
Without phone communication, it was difficult to get information from the centre during the hunger strike. But, according to Cyrus Sarang from the newly formed Refugee Action Collective (RAC), at least one detainee slit his stomach and was taken to hospital.
In solidarity with the asylum seekers' strike, the RAC held a number of solidarity actions in support of refugee rights. Noisy demonstrations by former Villawood detainees, relatives of the hunger strikers and supporters were held outside the centre on July 24 and July 27.
Chanting "Free the refugees" and "Refugees yes, racism no, detention centres have got to go", protesters on July 27 were confronted by a wall of security and barred from seeing the asylum seekers. RAC activists presented a list of immediate demands, including the reinstatement of phone communication and visiting rights, freedom of movement and no forced removals.
The RAC has also called for: full citizenship rights for asylum seekers, not temporary visas; funding for settlement, not detention; and a stop to racist scapegoating. The group is stepping up its solidarity actions, calling another protest on August 4 at 2pm, at Blacktown Migrant Centre, 125 Main St, Blacktown, where immigration minister Philip Ruddock will be speaking.
A major rally is planned for August 26, starting at Villawood railway station at noon and marching to the Villawood Detention Centre.
To get in contact with the RAC, call 9687 5134, or join the email group at <RAC_NSW@egroups.com>.