An anarchist news blotter following events in Oceania & South East Asia
5 June – Vandals have defaced the Victorian Labor party HQ in melbourne with pro-refugee slogans during a protest against Labors stance on asylum seekers and mandatory detention.
The protesters painted slogans such as ‘Justice 4 Refugees” and “ALP ur no different to LIBS” during a brazen daylight attack, which they filmed and released online.
The protesters were drawing attention to the plight of the Rohinga refugees and the indifference offered them by the government and the Labor opposition.
6 October, RAC: The protests by asylum seekers and refugees on Nauru that began on Thursday 25 August are continuing, and have now spread to the single men’s camp, OPC 2.
The daily protests inside the family camp show no sign of slowing down. Every evening, between 300 and 500 asylum seekers gather to protest against proposed Australian government policy that would see them left doubly discriminated against and facing a life sentence on Nauru.
Around 90 asylum seekers, mostly Burmese, Bangladeshi and Iranian, have been on hunger strike for the last three days (ie since Saturday 4 October). Hundreds are maintaining a 24 hour protest and vigil at the gates of OPC 2.
Yesterday, Sunday 5 October, around 60 of those found to be refugees held another demonstration in front of the Save the Children offices.
Continue reading “Nauru: Hunger strike starts as protests spread”
31 July: Two teenage asylum seekers have fled from detention in Darwin, the Immigration Department has confirmed.
The ABC understands the two are unaccompanied Vietnamese boys, both aged 16, who were moved by the department to Darwin from Adelaide a month ago.
The pair had previously been living in community detention in Adelaide and attending Woodville High School.
Woodville principal Meredith Edwards said staff and students were devastated that the boys had been sent to Darwin.
“These are 16-year-old boys and up until now, they’ve committed no crime,” she said.
She has been told the boys ran away while they were attending classes at Sanderson High, a school in Darwin’s northern suburbs that teaches many asylum seekers detained at the Wickham Point detention centre. Continue reading “Darwin: two teenage asylum seekers flee immigration detention”
8 June: A Vietnamese man who escaped Serco guards at Perth Airport yesterday while he was being deported is still on the run.
An intensive search involving officers from the Australian Federal Police and WA Police from three stations, backed up by the dog squad, failed to locate the man.
The missing detainee, who is not known to be a threat to the public, was described by officials as “an illegal maritime arrival”.
An AFP spokeswoman said the man escaped while under escort in the international departures terminal.
“At about 9.15am local time a Vietnamese national absconded while on escort at the departures check-in area within the Perth International Airport,” he said about 6pm.
“AFP and WA Police were advised and police assisted Serco in the search for the individual. The man has yet to be located.
3 June: Reports from Christmas Island indicate that at least six people were taken by ambulance out of the detention centre following the bashing of peaceful protesters by the Federal Police riot squad.
Asylum seekers who witnessed the baton-wielding, helmeted riot squad attacking the protesters said they saw people whose faces and shirts were covered in blood. They have told the Refugee Action Coalition that besides the six transported out of the detention centre, other injured asylum seekers are being treated at the detention centre’s medical clinic.
It is believed that there are many injured hands and arms from the baton attack. Continue reading “Christmas Island: protesters injured by riot squad”
5 June: The first two asylum seekers convicted of rioting at the Nauru detention centre have been sentenced to jail.
In July 2013, asylum seekers torched the centre, causing $60m worth of damage. Newly built accommodation blocks, the health centre, offices, the dining room and vehicles were burnt. Only the kitchen and recreation facility remained standing.
Sixty-three asylum seekers face criminal charges stemming from the riots.
On Thursday the Nauru magistrate Ropate Cabealawa sentenced one asylum seeker to two years and five months in jail for unlawful assembly and rioting convictions. The second asylum seeker, convicted of rioting, will serve 11 months at the Nauru correctional centre. Continue reading “Nauru: first two asylum seekers found guilty of riot are sentenced to jail”
I June: Around 75 asylum seekers who began their protest in solidarity with Reza Barati last Tuesday are in their sixth day of hunger strike – having slept Saturday night outside their compounds, in the rain.
In response to the protest, Immigration and Serco have locked down the whole of the detention centre, confining hundreds of asylum seekers inside their compounds.
Now the outside hunger strikers have now been joined by up to 300 other asylum seekers, Iranian, Iraqi and Rohingyan, in the locked down compounds. Hundreds are into their fourth day of hunger strike as the anger and frustration grows.
Seven Iranians in Gold and Green compound have also stitched their lips.
The protesters have been on the island for 10 and 11 months.
“We are getting tired with no activity. But they are always warning, you we will be sent to Manus Island or Nauru. We need freedom. The people outside in the rain are calling for freedom,” one asylum seeker said from inside the detention centre. Continue reading “Christmas Island: Hundreds on hunger strike, seven stitch lips”
