BY SARAH STEPHEN

While the spotlight may have moved off refugee detention centres, the misery of asylum seekers there has worsened.

On November 18, six Iranian asylum seekers escaped from Woomera, the “hell-hole” of Australia's detention centres, by hacksawing through two perimeter fences but were all quickly recaptured. On November 20 there was a demonstration of 200 detainees and three buildings were set alight. Protesting detainees chanted “Visa, visa, visa”.

South Australian lawyer Jeremy Moore told the November 23 Age that some detainees were unhappy and frustrated after being in the centre for up to six months when others from the same country had been processed relatively quickly and released into the community.

“People are now being released or processed in six months or six weeks, depending on which boat you came on”, Moore said.

“It is the absolute frustration of people inside the centre, and some of them are really smart people — doctors, engineers, professors. They know what is going on. It was clear to me then there was going to be a demonstration.”

Magistrate Stefan Metanomski, who heard the case of the six escapees on November 22, found it “disturbing” that the defendants had been in detention for between 10 and 23 months.

“It could be argued with some force that they are already, by virtue of the length of their detention, being punished due to their refugee status”, Metanomski said.

The men pleaded not guilty and were granted bail — which meant they were returned to detention at Woomera rather than being held in Port Augusta jail. They are scheduled to appear again on December 10.

“To refuse these people bail would effectively be punishing them for being refugees”, Metanomski said. “In good conscience I cannot and will not do that.”

The Iranian asylum seekers were picked up within a few hours of breaking out of Woomera — at Pimba, five kilometres south of the detention centre.

“They were not pissing off, they were protesting”, their lawyer explained. “They got to Pimba, and just hung around until they were picked up.”

The men's legal defence will be based on a claim that the detention of asylum seekers is unlawful. Counsel will put the proposition that detention at the Woomera centre is too punitive to be validly authorised under the Migration Act and therefore illegal.

From Green Left Weekly, November 28, 2001.
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