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Media
Beatup on Refugee Escape story
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Saturday July 6 - AAP
Call for army to find Woomera escapeesThe army should be asked to search for Woomera Detention Centre escapees still at large after last week's breakout, lawyers for the detainees said. Woomera Lawyers Group spokesman Jeremy Moore said the federal government was demonstrating a lack of regard for the lives of asylum seekers by not using its full resources in the search. "If it was my child out there I can assure you the Australian army would be out there finding them," Mr Moore told AAP. "If it was your brother or sister the Australian army would be out there finding them. "We have to ask. 'What is the price of a refugee's life? What are we prepared to tolerate?' "The federal government needs to engage the search with all the resources they've got, which might include getting the army involved. "Those people might have been out in the desert for eight days now." Ten escapees, including two children, remain at large, after 35 inmates fled nine days ago. A police spokeswoman said the search had been called off and would not be restarted unless further sightings were reported. |
| "They've done as much as they
can do," she said.
"The protesters have advised police that those still outstanding are safe, and we have to take their word on that. "If there are more sightings we'll act on them, but there's nothing more we can do at this moment." Mr Moore also accused detention centre guards of taunting those inmates who were on a hunger strike, now in its 13th day. He said some guards were walking around at night eating food in front of the hunger strikers, and offering it to them. Mr Moore said while the hunger strikers were becoming depressed and weak, he supported their right to continue their protest action. "I'd much prefer a respectful protest like a hunger strike which isn't intended to hurt anyone," he said. "Gandhi is a good example of someone who hunger striked and was prepared to do the hurting himself with the purest of motives. "This is drawing the world's attention to the problems of Woomera, which (Prime Minister) John Howard needs to come in and sort out. "Our once-proud human rights record is now in tatters." |
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NEVER
NEVER LET THE FACTS Anyone who's been following the saga of the escape of the asylum seekers from Woomera would know that not only were they sprung from the detention centre but they were also left in the desert to fend for themselves without food and water. The people responsible must be a heartless lot of rat bags who should be put in jail and the key thrown away. Sounds cut and dry doesn't it? Youšve seen it on T.V you've heard it on the radio and you've read all about it in your local paper. It must be true. Ah looks like youšve fallen for the oldest trick in the book, if it appears in the media it must be true. Unfortunately youšve forgotten the first rule of journalism never let the facts get in the way of a good story. Lets go back to the original story it seems that the people who freed thirty five detention seekers from Woomera were in two cases out manoeuvred by the State and Federal police. Trying to get people out of such an isolated area in the middle of no where is obviously fraught with difficulties. Lets look at what actually happened. It seems that ten of those that escaped have now reached safe houses. The other twenty-five have been arrested, twenty are currently in remand waiting to appear in court, and five children have been sent back to Woomera. What happened to the twenty-five that were arrested? |
| Ten were in one vehicle that
was caught up in a police road-block at Cooper Pedy. When the two women
driving the bus came across the road-block they stopped the bus so that
the detainees could escape, four were detained by police on the spot, a
further six were handed in by the good citizens of Cooper Pedy.
The other bus with fifteen detainees on board came across another police roadblock, so they off loaded their charges in the company of one of those who helped the asylum seekers escape so that they could evade arrest. They set up camp behind a large tree 350 metres from the Stuart Highway, hoping that the bus could and would come back to pick them up. The asylum seekers could at any time have given themselves up if they felt they were in danger as they were only 350 metres from a major highway. When the police came across them one ran away into the dessert, fourteen were arrested. I don't believe that anybody except the Australian Media and police could say that the activists who helped the detainees escape intolerable conditions of Woomera callously abandoned them to their fate. Anon |
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Australia's treatment of
refugees
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