Australia's Mandatory Detention

Deported Tamil asylum seeker interrogated for 16 hours then released but still in danger

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 08:34:11 +0000

Refugee Action Collective Victoria Media Release July 27th 2012 Distraught family members of deported Tamil asylum seeker Mr Dayan Anthony have finally been reunited with him. Anthony was deported on July 25.

Anthony was interrogated for 16 hours after being handed over to the Sri Lankan police intelligence unit (CID) at Colombo airport. During this time, the Sri Lankan police refused to give the family any information.

Geography:

Global/International

Australia

Keywords:

Australia's Mandatory Detention

Refugee Action Collective

Tamil asylum seekers

Tamil refugee from the Oceanic Viking attempts suicide overnight

Anonymous — Mon, 14 May 2012 07:45:15 +0000

RAC Press Release - 14/5/2012 A Tamil man who was on the Oceanic Viking has attempted suicide in Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation in Broadmeadows overnight. Jasee is the third Tamil with a negative ASIO security clearance to try and take his own life this month. Tamils in this situation face a life of indefinite detention, unable to be returned to Sri Lanka as they have been recognised as refugees, but the Immigration Department refuse to release genuine refugees if they have unappealable negative security clearances from ASIO.

Geography:

Melbourne

Keywords:

human rights

asylum seeker

Australia's Mandatory Detention

ASIO security clearance

self-harm

Seven refugee protesters from southern cities arrested in Darwin

Anonymous — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:22:32 +0000

Media Release 8th April Seven people from several Australian cities were arrested by Northern Territory police for trying to make contact with refugees inside the Wickham Point Detention Centre outside Darwin.

They were out at the remote site to show support to the 500 people locked up there for legally seeking asylum in Australia. The protest occurred the day after a refugee inside Wickham Point tried to commit suicide.

Geography:

Darwin

Keywords:

asylum seeker protest

Australia's Mandatory Detention

Darwin Immigration Centre

Man stitches his lips in Broadmeadows Detention Centre

Flowerpower — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 05:07:49 +0000

Refugee Action Collective Victoria Press Release 14th February 2012 As tentions once again rise at MITA (Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation) in Broadmeadows, an Iranian man, aged 28, stitched his lips up this morning (Monday) as a sign of desperation. He has been detained for 11 months.

Geography:

Melbourne

Keywords:

Australia's Mandatory Detention

RRAN media release - 140 children in Leonora - protests and visits and Serco lies

Gerry Georgatos — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:11:14 +0000

MEDIA RELEASE

REFUGEE PROTESTERS FIND LONG TERM DETENTION KIDS AT REMOTE LEONORA
DETENTION CENTRE

Around 40 refugee supporters of the Refugee Rights Action Network
(RRAN) travelling to Leonora this weekend have been shocked to
discover children who have been in detention for over a year when they
visited the remote Western Australian detention centre.

Around 140 unaccompanied minors have been moved in recent weeks from
Christmas Island and Darwin to the detention centre. The RRAN
activists have called for the immediate release of the children from
detention.

Geography:

Western Australia

Keywords:

Australia's Mandatory Detention

Serco lies again: Day 1 at Leonora

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 03:20:31 +0000

Republished from RRAN

Almost 40 refugee activists travelled the twelve hour journey from Perth to Leonora to visit refugees and protest mandatory detention at the Leonora Detention Centre on the “Australia Day” weekend.

Geography:

Western Australia

Keywords:

Leonora Detention

Australia's Mandatory Detention

RRAN

Media Release: Refugee Action Collective condemns Labor putting Nauru on the table

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 10:15:10 +0000

The Refugee Action Collective (Victoria) condemns any move by the Labor government to put Nauru or any other third country as an option on the table in an attempt to push through offshore, denying the fundamental right to seek asylum. We demand that onshore processing remains policy and that refugees are assisted in arriving to Australia by whatever means necessary. We reiterate our opposition to any form of offshore processing, be it Malaysia, Nauru or anywhere else.

Geography:

Melbourne

Keywords:

Australia's Mandatory Detention

Asylum seeker policy

: Refugee Action Collective calls on the government to decriminalise people smuggling

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:55:19 +0000

Media Release 19th December The Refugee Action Collective (Victoria) is saddened by the news of over 200 asylum seekers who have potentially died at sea on their way to Australia to seek asylum. The Refugee Action Collective also condemns the anti-people smuggling policies of the Gillard Labor government and places them with the blame for the death of possibly over 200 asylum seekers off the coast of Java on Sunday morning.

Geography:

Victoria

Keywords:

Australia's Mandatory Detention

Refugee Action Collective

Asylum seeker policy

Gillard & the Australian government directly responsible for the tragic drownings off Java

Gerry Georgatos — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 01:09:00 +0000

Media release by the Human Rights Alliance Australia owns significant responsibility for yesterday’s tragic sinking of another asylum boat off Java and of the many drownings. Australia should assist in repatriation, counselling and compensation of and for the survivors. The boat was carrying Hazara and Irani refugees. Ms Gillard's push for Indonesia to criminalise those assisting asylum seekers in the passage to our shores is directly responsibly for this sinking and drowning, and for people's desperation.

Neither Indonesia and Australia should be criminalising the seeking of asylum and people should be allowed to map out their journey openly, to travel with various public assistance and in seaworthy boats. The Gillard government has manifest the desperation that gives rise to unseaworthy boats and passage under the cover of the clandestine.
Related:Refugee Action Collective(Vic)Press Release -- Refugee Action Coalition (Sydney)Statement

Geography:

Promotion:

Keywords:

Australia's Mandatory Detention

Asylum seeker policy

From Perth Airport - forcible deportation blockaded - Vigil ongoing - Come on out here if you can. UPDATE - two injunctions secured

Gerry Georgatos — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 07:19:19 +0000

A Tamil person, fearing for his life if returned to Sri Lanka, Emil, was due to be forcibly deported at 2:05pm from Perth International Airport and due to set foot in Sri Lanka at just after midnight (our time - WST). The Federal Magistrates Court in Sydney heard a last minute plea to review his case and an injunction was sought. While this injunction was being sought and heard, government agencies, in their obvious immorality and in many ways their criminality were prepared to deport him.
He has now been taken off the airplane. If he was on the plane while the appeal for an injunction was being heard then this is unbelievable immorality to have had him on the plane.

Confusion asunder at the Perth Domestic Airport Immigration Centre where a vigil has been underway to protect the rights of Emil and Vithuran(due to be forcibly deported tomorrow) - one of them was bundled into a vehicle by SERCO personnel however this vehicle was blocked by six protestors - there were no arrests and after some time SERCO personnel returned the person to the confines of the IDC - it turned out to be Vithuran, who they were obviously relocating in readiness for tomorrow's disgraceful, despicable and inhumane forcible deportation.

UPDATE: 13.12.2011 - The Injunction for Emil was secured late yesterday in the High Court. This morning an Injuction was secured for Vithuran in the High Court -thanks to the RAC Sydney and lawyers - for the time they cannot be deported.

Geography:

Perth

Keywords:

Australia's Mandatory Detention

The Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions will no longer oppose bail for the Indonesian children

Gerry Georgatos — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 22:00:20 +0000

The Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutors will no longer oppose Bail when Indonesian children dispute their age. The CDPP will not exclusively rely on the wrist bone scan to assess age. This is a positive step, and time in Immigration Detention will count as custodial (though I believe that in terms of the predicament of bail they should be in the care of the Indonesian Consulate(s).

Geography:

Global/International

Keywords:

Australia's Mandatory Detention

Indonesian children in adult australian jails

Villawood Detention Centre death early this morning. We have long warned that more deaths would arise. How many more?

Gerry Georgatos — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 22:02:24 +0000

ANOTHER DETENTION CENTRE SUICIDE - WE HAVE LONG WARNED. As a PHD reseacher in deaths in custody I am disgusted in the Australian Government and from a criminological perspective. More detention centre deaths will come. A Tamil person lost his life to the abject despair of suicide at Villawood, another victim of the Australian government's harsh attitudes towards our Asylum Seekers. The man committed suicide early Wednesday morning, nearing dawn, 26 October. He took poison and died in hospital.
Related:HRA Media Release from May predicting more suicides -- Refugee Action Coalition Statement on suicide

Geography:

Global/International

Promotion:

Feature

Keywords:

Australia's Mandatory Detention

Refugee activists call on pro-refugee Labor MPs to cross the floor

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 08:29:05 +0000

Media Release 13/9/2011 The Refugee Action Collective condemns Labor’s plan to try and change the Migration Act to make the Malaysian “solution” lawful in the wake of the High Court victory.

We reiterate our demand to end all offshore processing. Asylum seekers should be processed on the mainland, in the community.

Geography:

Victoria

Keywords:

Australia's Mandatory Detention

Refugee Action Collective

Protests continue at Darwin Detention Centre

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 07:28:28 +0000

Sydney Refugee Action Coalition: Media Release 9/11/2011
The daily protests inside Darwin detention centre are continuing. For the last five days, up to 70 asylum seekers have been holding hourly protests twice a day – between 12.00 and 1.00pm and from 6.00-7.00pm. More protests will happen today. The protests involve all nationalities in the detention centre– Iranians, Iraqis, Afghans, Burmese and Ahwaj Arab Iranian minority.

Geography:

Darwin

Keywords:

Australia's Mandatory Detention

Children in adult prisons STILL LANGUISH - Justice delayed is justice denied.

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 10:57:11 +0000

There are near one hundred of the world's most impoverished children incarcerated, whether on remand or sentenced, in Australian adult prisons. The brunt of these numbers are in Western Australian adult prisons. It has been confirmed to me by various authorities and by an Indonesian Vice-Consul that at least 16 of the age-disputes are in HAKEA Correctional facility, a maximum security prison which I have visited on a number of occasions over the years. There may be up to 40 age-disputes in Western Australian adult prisons.
Related: Campaign Facebook page -- Interview with Gerry Georgatos on the Drum -- Hadi Kurniawan one of the 100 children in Australian adult prisons

Geography:

Western Australia

Promotion:

Feature

Keywords:

Human Rights Alliance

Australia's Mandatory Detention

children in adult prisons