Refugees Protest Asylum Rejections By Sewing Lips Shut

by Bob Burton

Protests at the Woomera detention center, located near a small town built to support a rocket testing range in the remote South Australian desert, escalated dramatically after the pre-Christmas announcement by the government that it would no longer process applications for asylum from Afghan refugees.

The government argues that the toppling of the Taliban regime in November means they are no longer fleeing political persecution -- and are therefore ineligible for refugee status.

Many of the Afghans participating in the hunger strike -- one estimate suggests 70 men, 15 women and several children -- have sewn their lips shut and refused to accept fluids, even as temperatures in the remote desert soar above 120 degrees.

The Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs confirmed January 22 that 18 of the hunger strikers were treated after collapsing from dehydration, and another seven men were hospitalized after drinking shampoo and painkillers.

However, Minister for Immigration Phillip Ruddock insists the protests will not expedite the processing of refugee applications.

A letter from the hunger strikers reveals their desperation. "We have no hope, we see no future," the letter said. "We are ready to die. We only request the Australian people help us, otherwise we have no choice but to continue the hunger strike until the end of our life."

Two weeks ago, Ruddock disdainfully described Afghan and Iraqi asylum seekers who arrived on Australia's shores as having made "a lifestyle choice to travel to Australia, breaking the laws of many countries on the way."

The executive director of the Refugee Council of Australia, Margaret Piper, believes Ruddock's use of the phrase "lifestyle choice" reveals a lack of understanding of the desperation of the asylum seekers, not to mention a lack of compassion.

"Yes, it might be a 'lifestyle choice' where you don't have to look over your shoulder the entire time and you are not risking being put in prison or your kids aren't going to go out and play and pick up and landmine and blow themselves to bits," she said. "I think they are valid 'lifestyle choices'."

In an attempt to defuse the growing crisis, Ruddock dispatched five members of the government's detention advisory group to the Woomera detention center to persuade the hunger strikers to abandon their protest. They were unsuccessful.

After speaking to 30 of those involved in the hunger strike, the chair of the committee and a himself a former minister for immigration, John Hodges, acknowledged this morning that the hunger strikers were determined to continue the protest and that some of the hunger strikers may die.

The government's own agency responsible for human rights, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), has indicated that the conditions at the Woomera center were such that Australia may be in breach of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

On Jan. 21, Human Rights Commissioner Sev Ozdowski, who is now undertaking a national inquiry into children in immigration detention, issued a statement expressing "deep concern" about the impact on children held in detention and "witnessing horrific incidents in detention such as mouth sewing and hunger strikes."

Ozdowski indicated he would seek permission to revisit the Woomera camp. However, later that day, Ruddock warned Ozdowski against investigating "what is in fact a live issue."

The human rights commission buckled to the pressure and has subsequently refused to respond to media inquiries.

"If you're calling about the press release that was about the Commission visiting Woomera, there's no public comment being made about this visit at this stage. When the report is received it will form part of the national inquiry report to government," a recorded message said to callers.

The current hunger strike is the latest in a series of protests at the Woomera detention center.

In December 2001, 300 asylum seekers broke through an inner security fence in protest against conditions there. Security guards responded with teargas and water cannon to disperse the crowd. In February last year, more than a dozen Iraqi men stitched their lips together in a short-lived protest.

The crisis for Ruddock grew when the chairman of the Council for Multicultural Australia, Neville Roach, announced his resignation late yesterday in protest over the government's policies towards the asylum seekers.

Roach, who had been reappointed by the Ruddock himself, said that continuing to chair the advisory body was "impossible."

"Every time a humanitarian issue is raised in relation to the asylum seekers, their (the asylum seekers') deviousness and even criminal intent is proclaimed. I think the way in which the government has handled these issues...has tended to give comfort to the prejudiced side of human nature," he said.

"The greater tragedy is that the vilification, abuse and even violence that has resulted has not been directed exclusively toward asylum seekers, but to the wider Islamic community and others of Middle Eastern appearance," Roach argued.