Protesters target ACM

BY ANGELA LUVERA

SYDNEY — Angry at the imprisonment of asylum seekers in its detention camps, more than 150 protesters descended on the offices of Australasian Correctional Management offices early on the morning of May 17.

The protest to "shut down ACM" was called by the Refugee Action Collective. Protesters, predominantly students, blockaded the front doors of the building, directly in front of a line of police.

While there were other available doors, police persisted in attempts to bring people through the front entrance, leading to scuffles in which one man was arrested. He was later released without charge.

The Daily Telegraph claimed that a police officer was taken to Sydney Hospital after being pricked twice in the chest with his identity badge.

Protesters blockaded the front doors until their aim was achieved — to deliver their demands to a representative of ACM.

They called on ACM to: provide proper facilities to detainees including adequate supplies of food and water; provide them with communication to the outside world; open the detention camps to inspection by Amnesty International and the UN Human Rights Commission; provide detainees with independent legal aid and advice and allow independent reviews of cases and regular information regarding the status of cases.

ACM agreed that it would respond to the demands at the June 3 national day of protest for refugee rights.

From GLW issue 449