Hotline Asia Urgent Appeals -- SUA020128(1)

Action Requested || Sample Letter || Background
Please respond on or before 15 February 2002
Update

Summary

Detainees in Woomera (475 kilometers north of Adelaide) in South Australia resorted to protest and hunger strikes since 16 January 2002 to bring attention to their plight in the detention centre. According to the Australian government's hard-line policies toward them, refugees and asylum seekers are held in detention centres for months while their visa claims are being processed.

Nine prominent Australian charities and church-affiliated human rights organisations sent a joint letter, adding to a growing chorus of disapproval for the Government's stance. They even offered that they would care for the inmates if the Government released some of them.

Please write polite letters to the diplomatic representatives of Australia in your country, expressing concern about the plight of the detainees. Ask for an explanation regarding:

1. what is the situation of the detainees in Woomera and other detention centres; and

2. what measures are provided by the Australian government to ensure a better living condition to protect children and women in the detention centres.

Sample Letter

Background

Since late August 2001, Prime Minister John Howard's conservative Government has adopted a tough policy of turning away asylum seekers who try to sneak into Australia on boats operated by people-smuggling gangs. If the boat people refused navy orders to turn back, they are picked up and shipped to the Pacific nations of Papua New Guinea and Nauru, where they are held in detention camps while their applications for asylum are assessed.

More than 1,000 asylum seekers have since been shipped by the Australian navy and air force to Australia's Pacific neighbours. Another 540 boat people are stranded on Christmas Island after Fiji and Kiribati refused to take them.

Prime Minister Howard has vowed Australia will not soften its hard-line policy, which has allegedly won strong public support and which he claims helped him secure a third term in November's federal election.

Opposition to the tough policy:

In early December 2001, the Catholic Church joined international criticism of Australia's hard-line policies on illegal immigration, accusing the government of inciting xenophobic fears in the community. In a special edition, the Australian Medical Journal had also published a series of articles attacking the Government's policies. Two academics from the Sydney based University of New South Wales compared recent accounts from inside migrant detention centers with descriptions of concentration camps in World War II.

Asylum seekers' protest:

According to news reports, in mid December 2001, detainees demanding to be given visas after months of waiting, ran amok at the Woomera detention centre in South Australia. Refugee groups claimed that it is a measure of the frustration felt by those inside the detention centre that they resorted to such protest.

On 16 January 2002, 55 Afghan asylum seekers, including children, sewed their lips together in protest at conditions in Woomera detention centre. Hundreds of other detainees apparently are also on a hunger strike.

Woomera and other detention centres are run by a private company, the Australasian Correctional Management (ACM), on behalf of the Government. ACM has a policy of referring inquiries about their detention centres to the Immigration Department, therefore it is often difficult to establish an accurate picture of life behind the barbed-wire fences.

Call for action:

Bishop Morris, Acting Chairman of the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council, wrote a message on Australia Day, 25 January 2002, calling Australians to welcome asylum seekers and refugees. He wrote, 'We have earned a good international reputation by our commitment to a fair go for everyone, our friendliness, and by our welcoming of people from all over the world. This heritage is something to be proud of and to build on. It should not be squandered through closed attitudes and harsh policies towards those in need who seek to be part of Australian society.'

The opposition Labor Party, previously a supporter of the government stance, now says that women and children should be released from Woomera.

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