Protest outside Transfield AGM

Protesters have gathered outside immigration detention centre operator Transfield's general meeting, calling for the company to stop 'profiting from human rights abuses'.

Protest outside Transfield AGM.

Protest outside Transfield AGM. Source: Omar Dabbagh

Protestors have gathered outside the Sydney Mint to protest during detention centre contractor Transfield's annual general meeting.

The protesters shouted "Free, free, the refugees" as chairwoman Diane Smith-Gander addressed the shareholders.

Transfield has been accused of being complicit in abuses of asylum seekers and breaching international law while running the Nauru and Manus Island offshore detention centres.

The company has denied the allegations, saying it has zero tolerance for abuse.

"We work to improve the lives of asylum seekers and operate to a strict code of business conduct, bound by Australian law and the laws of the jurisdictions in which we work. We reject any suggestion to the contrary," a Transfield Services spokesman said in a statement.

About 150 protesters gathered at the AGM, saying the company had "blood on its hands" and calling for the closure of offshore detention centres.

Asylum seeker lobby group No Business in Abuse has released a report in which it details an alleged 47 human rights abuses at the Nauru and Manus detention centres, which are run by Transfield.

"A company doesn’t need to be the sole cause of an abuse to hold responsibility for it," the report states.

"It can aid and abet that abuse, knowingly providing practical assistance or encouragement that has a substantial effect on the commission of the abuse – like controlling the entry to and exit from a detention centre in which men, women and children are detained arbitrarily, and in contravention of international law."

- with AAP


2 min read

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Source: SBS News



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