Media tour backfires on Ruddock

BY SARAH STEPHEN

The Curtin Immigration Detention Centre was on show to the media for the first time on June 10, a move the immigration department described as being part of an effort to change public perceptions, created by three riots in close succession, that the camp is a source of "national shame".

But the public relations event was ruined when the asylum seekers imprisoned there began chanting "We want freedom!" and waving signs reading "We hate cages", "Stop demonising us" and "Please stop hating us".

Journalists and photographers were quickly separated from detainees and were given no opportunity to speak to any of them during their visit.

A converted air force base outside Derby, Curtin is in the far north Kimberley region of Western Australia and is the remotest of Australia's refugee detention centres.

From GLW issue 452