BY SIMON BUTLER & BRONWEN BEECHEY
Ten Iraqi asylum seekers, charged with inciting the desperate riots at the Woomera detention centre in August, are now being systematically denied even their most basic rights as prisoners, according to lawyers acting for them.
Lawyers representing the asylum seekers told the Adelaide Magistrate's Court on September 12 that the Iraqis, now held at the Adelaide Remand Centre, have been singled out for far harsher treatment than other prisoners.
Under South Australian law, prisoners on remand must have the right to exercise, visits, fresh air, newspapers and communication with the outside world. However, lawyer Greg Meade testified that these rights are being withheld.
Meade told the court, "I am instructed that they are kept in bare cells. They have no reading material, no radio, no TV. They are kept in cells all day, with no access to fresh air. In fact, they have been given no more than five minutes' exercise each day within a wing of the Adelaide Remand Centre."
Attempts have also been made by the prison authorities to restrict the ability of the asylum seekers to communicate with their lawyers, Meade said.
"We only see them behind glass screens for legal visits", he testified. "Their hands are shackled during visits. Out clients have to speak to us through a telephone, with their manacled hands both held up to their heads in order to hold the phone handpiece ... If it goes on, the trials of these matters are likely to be delayed considerably while we painstakingly obtain our instructions."
The Iraqis, forced to flee to Australia by Saddam Hussein's regime, were originally interned in the Woomera detention centre under the Australian government's policy of mandatory detention of asylum seekers. Most had languished in the camp for over six months.
Officials from the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs have disallowed them from applying for refugee status.
Supporters of the refugees held a lively protest outside the court, displaying placards saying "Lock up Ruddock, not refugees" and "Accept refugees, not nuclear waste". The protest was organised by the Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance, which organised protests outside the remand centre on September 3 and outside the Magistrates Court on September 4.
The party's Adelaide branch secretary, Kathy Newnam, told Green Left Weekly, "The treatment of these refugees as dangerous criminals is part of the federal government's attempt to demonise them and minimise public support. It is particularly outrageous when you consider that most of them have not even been charged yet, and those who have been charged have not been convicted. Whatever happened to the principle that you were innocent until proven guilty?"
The DSP and Resistance will be protesting at the remand centre again on September 17, and are organising a protest outside the Magistrate's Court, on the corner of Angas and King William Streets, at 9.30am on September 22.
Newnam said the party is planning to set up a network of supporters of refugee rights, which will seek to end the mandatory detention of asylum seekers.
For more information, or to become part of the network, phone Kathy Newnam on 8231 6982.