Refugees escape, DIMA raids activists' homes

BY PAUL BENEDEK 

SYDNEY — In the days following the escape by 14 refugees from the
Villawood detention centre on March 26, more than 50 homes of people who
had visited detainees were raided by officers from the Department of Immigration
and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA).

“The police bashed at the door, totally surprising my flatmates”, explained
Arsalan Nazarian, an activist in the Free the Refugees Campaign (FRC),
who was not at home at the time police raided his house. “After showing
some identification, the officials barged in, demanded 'where is Arsalan’,
and started going through the unit. They tried to get in to a room where
a woman flatmate was getting dressed. All this happened while two children
aged six and eight looked on in shock and fear.”

Nazarian said he rang DIMA compliance to express concern at the raid
and victimisation. When he asked if the officials had a warrant to search
the premises, DIMA replied that the woman in the house had invited them
over!

“It is already appalling that refugees are locked up like criminals”,
Nazarian said. “Now those who support refugee rights are being criminalised.
Is it illegal to support human rights?”

The Villawood escape, involving seven men, two women and five children,
occurred after the group got hold of pliers used during construction work
at the centre. The group had all had their applications refused by the
notoriously harsh refugee review tribunal, and feared deportation.

Nazarian explained the desperate situation of the detainees: “The detention
centres are hellholes, holding innocent children, women and men, in some
cases for several years, in prison like conditions, with abuse common.
The government's harsh procedures mean that many deserving refuge are told
they are to be deported. Just last week, one detainee attempted suicide
after hearing he was to be deported. After returning from hospital, the
government attempted deportation, only to have the detainee returned from
Malaysia. Refugees came here for a new life — not continued persecution.
Is it any wonder they try to escape?”

The FRC staged an emergency protest at DIMA just two days after the
raid. In a vibrant show of solidarity with the refugees who escaped and
those still detained, the 25 protesters served a “warrant” on DIMA, immigration
minister Philip Ruddock and Australasian Correctional Management, whom
they point to as the real criminals.

Democratic Socialist Party activist Trish Corcoran, who spoke at the
action along with Nazarian, pointed out that “human rights supporters don't
have a problem with the 14 people who have escaped. It's the hundreds who
remain locked-up and abused that are the concern. DIMA, Ruddock and ACM
are overseeing massive human rights abuses — they are the ones who should
be raided and all there dirty secrets exposed. And the only way to stop
the abuse is to close the camps.”

The FRC will hold a solidarity rally at Villawood detention centre on
Sunday April 8, at 12 noon. The FRC is also organising to build the national
day of action for refugee rights on June 3. The FRC needs your support.
To get involved phone Kobra on 0404 865 421 or Paul on (02) 9687 5134.

From GLW issue 443