Locals on quest to stop detention centre

Five Adelaide Hills residents will seek a meeting with PM Julia Gillard in Canberra on Monday over plans for an immigration detention facility.

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Five Adelaide Hills residents will seek a meeting with Prime Minister Julia Gillard in Canberra on Monday over government plans to establish an immigration detention facility near their homes.

Labor plans to house family groups of asylum seekers in defence accommodation at Inverbrackie, a move largely opposed by the small nearby community of Woodside.

Local federal MP Jamie Briggs says the government is yet to explain itself to the people of the area.

The five, from the Woodside Action Group, also are hoping for a meeting with Immigration Minister Chris Bowen.

Mr Briggs denied the group was coming to protest even though it had no promise of meetings with either Ms Gillard or Mr Bowen.

But the group would meet Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

"We are hopeful that both the minister and the prime minister will see them," Mr Briggs told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

"This is not some political stunt as some would like to describe it."

Meanwhile, the Australian Greens have expressed safety concerns for asylum seekers protesting at the Christmas Island detention centre.

A group of about 10 asylum seekers reportedly have sewn their lips together as part of an ongoing protest that began last Tuesday.

About 200 asylum seekers have been involved in the protest that started as a prayer vigil for an Iraqi asylum seeker who committed suicide at the Villawood facility.

Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young wants an end to long-term detention, which she says leads to people self harming.

"These people are not okay, the mandatory detention system is making people sick," she told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

"It's causing a situation where very desperate people are starting to mutilate their own bodies."

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says overcrowding at the Christmas Island facility had caused tensions to rise.

"We warned that when you have this many boats arrive ... these sorts of consequences are inevitable," he told ABC Radio.

The coalition's immigration policies would help to prevent asylum seekers from self harming, he said.

"When you don't have people in detention you don't have people sewing their lips up."


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Source: AAP


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