BY PIP HINMAN
& SARAH STEPHEN
On June 23, the same day that 13,000 people took to the streets across Australia to oppose the mandatory detention of asylum seekers, detainees at the Woomera detention centre began a hunger strike. By June 24, 180-190 were taking part, including most of the children — around 90% of those in the centre. Nineteen people decided not to take part due to health problems.
A representative of the hunger strikers denied that children had been pressured into participating. All were taking part willingly because they too are suffering from the government's inhumane policy. As the hunger strike entered its sixth day, all remained defiant. Nothing short of freedom would bring it to an end, they vowed.
The hunger strikers are remaining outdoors, day and night, to prove that they are not sneaking food into their rooms and to give each other support. Temperatures in the remote South Australian area have dropped as low as 3oC at night.
Eighty-five of the detainees fled to Australia from Afghanistan; many of those are members of the oppressed Hazara ethnic group. The Australian government has pressured some of them into signing "consent" forms to be returned to Afghanistan voluntarily. They are now being threatened with forced deportation in the coming weeks if they don't cooperate.
Iranian asylum seekers are participating in the protest in solidarity with the Afghans and fear they might be the next group forcibly deported. While possible deportation is one reason for the hunger strike, all participants emphasise that the main purpose of the strike is to "get freedom for all of us".
Dave McKay from the Refugee Embassy told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly on June 28 that Australasian Correctional Management (ACM), which runs the centre for the government, had stopped administering medications such as anti-depressants, sleeping tablets and pain killers until the detainees end their hunger strike.
"Someone is going to die", McKay warned. "Many of the Woomera detainees suffer from depression. If they don't get their anti-depressants, they are likely to commit suicide." McKay and fellow refugees' rights campaigner Ross Parry have been camping out at Woomera in the Refugee Embassy since Easter to draw attention to the desperate plight of detainees. They provide regular reports on what ACM and the federal and South Australian governments are up to in the Woomera concentration camp.
In a statement released on June 28, McKay and Parry said: "We at the Refugee Embassy regard the present hunger strike as a slow-motion form of mass suicide, brought about by the unjust oppression that these innocent and deeply traumatised people have endured, some for more than two years. Their blood will be on the hands of the minister for immigration and his staff for the rest of their lives... It is time that Australians everywhere spoke up against the demonisation and forced detention of desperate people who have come to our shores seeking refuge from life-threatening situations."
The detainees' protest has been overshadowed by the escape of a number of detainees. McKay told GLW that in the early hours of June 28, more than 30 detainees escaped with outside assistance. ACM has claimed that 35 escaped, however this cannot be verified because asylum seekers are refusing to allow guards to conduct a head count.
By June 30, 23 had been recaptured. Three people have been charged in Port Augusta with aiding and abetting refugees to escape. There were no detainees in their car when they were arrested, McKay said. A previously unknown group, calling itself "Sacred Country", later claimed responsibility for helping the refugees escape.
McKay and Parry had spoken to a group of people on June 27 who were travelling to Port Augusta to appear in court to answer charges relating to the Easter protests at Woomera. Several asylum seekers also escaped during that action.
"We talked about whether a break-out would have a chance of working. I advised against it, arguing that such a thing needed a lot of preparation", McKay explained.
McKay told GLW that it was unclear whether this was the same group of people who helped the refugees to escape. Detainees told him that five car-loads of people arrived and made a lot of noise. Some media sources have misquoted Parry as accusing the group he had met that day of organising the breakout, but he emphasised: "It could have been anybody. In any case, if people were planning to break out, then they surely would have been a lot more quiet about it."
McKay believes that, like the Easter break-out, the June 28 escapes were unplanned and any help that was provided was in response to detainees' pleas. He was also told by detainees that most of them did not want to escape and stayed inside despite having the opportunity to make a run for it.
Dave McKay and Ross Parry can be contacted at the Refugee Embassy on 0407 238 805 or by email on <ross777au@bigpond.com>.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, July 3, 2002.
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