Tuesday 2 August 2011

Australian government suppresses mounting unrest in refugee detention centres

"The Labor government has responded with severe repression to a wave of refugee unrest throughout Australia’s 16 detention facilities, caused by prolonged periods of detention and frustration over their uncertain future. Desperate protests by inmates, attempting to draw public attention to the abuse of their basic legal and democratic rights, are being met by police violence, the arbitrary removal of demonstrators to high-security prisons and threats by Prime Minister Gillard and her ministers to retaliate by stripping refugees of their fundamental right to asylum."