“MITA is worse than jail. People are losing their minds,” Joey Tangaloa Taualii, a prisoner in Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation told a Refugee Action Collective forum. Chris Slee reports.
Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation
Activists tried to stop several people from being removed from the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation centre, likely to be deported. Felix Dance reports.
The Refugee Action Collective held a rally outside the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation (MITA) in Broadmeadows to demand freedom for those inside. Chris Slee reports.
Refugees on hunger strike against indefinite detention in the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation are so ill their bodies are shutting down. Chloe DS spoke to Arya, one of the hunger strikers.
About 20 protesters demonstrated in front of the Melbourne Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) on June 6 over allegations of asylum seeker mistreatment. Police presence was described by observers as extremely heavy, ranging from two dozen to fifty officers.
About 20 protesters demonstrated in front of the Melbourne Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) on June 6 over allegations of asylum seeker mistreatment. Police presence was described by observers as extremely heavy, ranging from two dozen to fifty officers.
About 20 protesters demonstrated in front of the Melbourne Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) on June 6 over allegations of asylum seeker mistreatment. Police presence was described by observers as extremely heavy, ranging from two dozen to fifty officers.
People who regularly visit refugees and asylum seekers detained in the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation in Broadmeadows have reported that the rules for visiting have recently become much more restrictive.
Visitors must now give 24 hours notice. They must give the names of the specific detainees they wish to talk to, and are not allowed to talk to any others. This makes it hard for them to make contact with new arrivals in the detention centre. Requests to visit are often refused on the pretext that the visiting room will be full, whereas in fact the room is often half empty.
Most Melbourne people wouldn’t know that there is a refugee detention centre, called the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation, in Broadmeadows. It is hidden away behind the Maygar army barracks on Camp Road with no sign to indicate it is there.
The Socialist Alliance organised a protest outside the centre on August 11 to publicise its existence. When the local media was notified about the protest, none of the journalists approached had heard of it.
