BY KATIE NEVILLE

MELBOURNE — Reacting to a crackdown on asylum seekers in the Maribyrnong detention centre, 20 activists from the Refugee Action Collective staged a protest action outside the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs' city office on November 30.

As public servants ventured in and out on their lunch hour, activists handed out a statement by 30 Maribyrnong detainees demanding they be “treated like human beings not criminals”.

Pamela Curr from the Greens told passers-by of conditions inside the detention centre, while Pierre Moro from Australia Asia Worker Links spoke of the impact of the restrictive temporary protection visas now issued to refugees.

The Refugee Action Collective's Rachel Evans spoke of how badly asylum seekers, including children, have been mistreated: “They have been subjected to tear gas, water cannons, having been witness to and in some cases experiencing physical abuse by [Australasian Correctional Management] and seen cases of suicide and self-harm by adult detainees.”

From Green Left Weekly, December 5, 2001.
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