Detention centre escapees hold protest

1 Sep 2010, 10:57 am   -   Source: AAP
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Detainees have reportedly broken out of a centre in Darwin. (AAP)

Detainees have reportedly broken out of a centre in Darwin. (AAP)

A group of about 90 detainees, believed to be asylum-seekers, are staging a roadside protest after breaking out of Darwin Detention Centre.

A group of about 90 detainees, believed to be asylum-seekers, are staging a roadside protest after breaking out of Darwin Detention Centre.
  
Paramedics are on standby amid concerns for the protesters' welfare in Darwin's 30-degree heat, with a maximum temperature of 34 degrees expected.

The men, who are understood to be fasting for the holy month of Ramadan, are protesting in the open beside the Stuart Highway. They have been offered bottles of water.

Some of the protesters have said they'll be killed if they are forced to return to Afghanistan and the group is holding up banners saying "We need protection not detention" and "Show us mercy".

Earlier, some of the protesters told reporters they'd recently been advised they did not qualify as refugees.

"If I go back, they will cut off my head," one of the men, Kazemi Syed Zulfiger, said.

Another, Hussaine Ali, handed reporters what he said was a threat he'd received from the Taliban saying he'd be killed if he returned home.
  
The immigration department has said it cannot comment on the men's cases other than to say all matters are dealt with according to procedure and on the available evidence.

"We are managing the situation and attempting to have them moved back inside," a spokesman for the department said.

He said an investigation would determine how so many of the detainees were able to breach the facility's security fencing.

"My understanding is it's a group of about 60 or 70. It's believed they are Afghan," the spokesman said.

Police had earlier put the number at 92.

The standoff follows two days of unrest involving alleged Indonesian people smugglers being held at the facility.

Those involved climbed onto the roof to demonstrate and set mattresses on fire.





 

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Your Comments

Lifestyle?

Milan V - from Goodna, 2 years ago

as soon as they are out of the country where they are threatened, they are out of danger. they could apply for assylum to India, Nepal, Thailand, Indonesia, China or anywhere else with eqaul validity but once the initial threat problem is solved then they are making an economic and lifestyle choice. for who ever has transited through other neutral countires to get to Australia, this is a lifestyle choice.

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