Tragic news from Villawood – an Iraqi asylum seeker has taken his own life.
Around 6.00pm, Monday, 4 March, an Iraqi asylum seeker was found hanged in his room in the La Trobe compound. It is the second suicide at the Villawood detention centre in less than two months, and less than a month since a serious suicide attempt in the Melbourne detention centre.
“Peter Dutton can’t fob the issue off any longer – detention is killing immigration detainees. We need an urgent, independent inquiry into immigration detention,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.
All the La Trobe detainees have been locked out of their compound.
There is dismay right across the Villawood detention centre. One refugee inside Villawood told the Refugee Action Coalition, “This has become normal. Suicide is normal in this place. People kill themselves but they don’t care.”
The Refugee Action Coalition understands there were recent warning signs of his deteriorating mental distress.
The suicide comes as immigration detainees in Melbourne and Yongah Hill maintain their protests against long -term and arbitrary detention.
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713
