At least four immigration detainees have begun a rooftop protest in the Blaxland compound of the Villawood detention centre. (Video clip available on request. Banner in photo is the one being displayed on the roof.)
The protest, which started around 12 noon today (Saturday 11 April) is just the latest that detainees in immigration centres and hotels have been taking over the last couple of weeks to demand safety from the COVID-19 virus, testing and release from the high-risk detention environment
Around 200 detainees (including those in Blaxland) have been on hunger strike since last Monday.
“Detention is a virus time-bomb,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition, “The government’s own propaganda names detention as a high risk environment. But detainees are being left in an unsafe situation.”
Refugees have also held protests in Brisbane and Melbourne where they are being kept in over-crowded hotels and detention centres.
For contact inside Blaxland , call 0498 037 437
REFUGEE ACTIVISTS CONDEMN HEAVY-HANDED ARREST OF PROTEST ORGANISER
Refugee supporters have condemned the actions of the Victorian police arresting the organiser of a planned convoy protest and then intercepting the car convoy of refugee supporters on their way past the Mantra Hotel, Preston.
The Victorian Refugee Action Collective’s Chris Breen was arrested at his house an hour before the planned car convoy to the Mantra Hotel, Preston, where refugees are being held in overcrowded and unsafe conditions. He has been charged with ‘inciting a protest,’ and has been bailed on his own undertaking to appear in court on 6 August.
“The police action against the convoy has nothing to with COVID-19 safety measures, or health regulations; it is straight out attack on the right to protest,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.
More than 1200 doctors have called for the release of refugees and asylum seekers from the high-risk detention environment. Over 40,000 people have signed the Human Rights For All petition calling on the government to stop the spread of COVID-19 in detention.
Queensland Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has said that she would raise the detention of refugees at Brisbane’s Kangaroo Point hotel with the federal government, but Victorian Labor premier, Daniel Andrews, has been silent about the conditions in the Mantra hotel and MITA detention centre.
Despite a number of virus scares in detention, the federal government has not moved to release the refugees nor provide safe conditions in detention.
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713, or Chris Breen 0492 910 302
