Asylum seekers escape from Woomera

BY SARAH STEPHEN 

Ten years is the maximum penalty for escaping a detention centre
and being “unlawfully at large” — and it is what faces Parviz Eftekhari,
who escaped from Woomera detention centre on June 9.

The escape followed a riot at the detention centre days earlier involving
around 150 detainees, itself an angry response to news that four people
had had their applications for refugee status rejected.

Water cannons were used twice by Australasian Correctional Management
guards to quell the uprising. One asylum seeker tried to sew his lips together,
and another two reportedly cut themselves with glass.

In a daring operation straight out of The Great Escape, Eftekhari
and six others dug through earth loosened by heavy rains and under two
separate security fences to freedom.

Having broken his arm during the escape, Eftekhari was recaptured on
June 11 in Adelaide, 500 kilometres from Woomera. He was about to board
a bus to Melbourne.

Eftekhari appeared in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on June 12, along
with an alleged “accomplice” who had helped him buy a bus ticket to Melbourne.
The Adelaide resident was charged with concealing an unlawful citizen,
and granted bail on condition that he surrender his passport and not contact
any of the other escapees.

Another man, Javad Rajabi, who had made it as far as Sydney, was turned
in on the same day Eftekhari was arrested. He was interrogated by police
before being handed over to the immigration department and sent to the
Villawood detention centre, in Sydney's western suburbs.

Two of the remaining five escapees were recaptured 40 kilometres from
Woomera on June 15. Three escapees are still free. They join a further
30 immigrants who are on the run from authorities.

Federal immigration minister Philip Ruddock has sought to portray the
escape as the work of a conspiracy.

“There would have been accomplices involved, otherwise they would have
been located on a road from Woomera to Adelaide”, he told reporters in
Darwin. “I don't think it could have been accomplished unless there was
somebody relatively close nearby, ready to take them away.”

While there may have been some organised assistance, one factor which
Ruddock hasn't considered is basic human kindness and solidarity.

The June 12 Daily Telegraph ran an interview with an Adelaide
man who had given one of the escapees a lift. Len Reha gave 23-year-old
Iranian Javad Rajabi a 300 kilometre ride from Port Augusta to Kilburn
in Adelaide on June 10, and commented that he “was a really nice bloke.
I hope if he comes forward they consider his refugee application in a positive
light”.

Reha took the man to see a friend in Adelaide who spoke some Arabic
which, although they still spoke different languages, enabled some communication.
He let the Iranian use his shower, washed his jeans, gave him a meal and
a pair of shoes and arranged for him to make phone calls.

Reha had not heard anything of the Woomera breakout, only hours earlier.
He had no reservations about picking up the Iranian.

“He didn't have a thumb out, I just pulled over and offered him a lift”,
Reha said. “I did it because he's a human being and I was just giving him
a hand.”

Ruddock has called for harsher penalties for those who escape from detention
centres, as well as those who assist from the outside.

His proposal has drawn fire from refugee rights advocates.

“Ruddock could be as draconian as possible — he could introduce legislation
to allow authorities to shoot escapees on sight — but it still won't address
the issue”, Patricia Corcoran from Sydney-based Free the Refugees Campaign
commented. “Circumstances will still compel many of these asylum seekers
to take whatever steps they can to save themselves.”

“In fact, one of the escapees contacted a refugee activist in Sydney
and told him that they would prefer to die in the desert than go back to
the detention centre.”

Four of the seven escapees were believed to be due for deportation after
having asylum applications refused, prompting Ruddock to claim that they
were undeserving.

But Corcoran commented, “Just because their applications have been rejected
doesn't mean they aren't refugees. The reason some of them remain in detention
after their applications have been rejected is because they can't be returned
to their country of origin. They either have no passport, or the government
can't guarantee their safety if they were put back on a plane to Iraq or
Afghanistan. To me, that's confirmation that they are genuine refugees.”

Ruddock expects to get the full backing of the Labor party in passing
any legislation to impose tighter penalties on detention centre escapees.

In an ABC radio interview on June 12, Labor's immigration spokesperson
Con Sciacca said that people who have had their applications to stay rejected
should be separated from those still having claims processed.

“These people that are troublemakers are the ones seen to be prepared
to break the law. [They're] engaging in criminal acts. And as such I don't
think they're the sort of people that we want here in Australia.”

Sciacca proposed construction of a maximum security detention centre
which could house all those whose applications for refugee status have
been rejected and are awaiting deportation.

From GLW issue 452