A number of refugees in the Christmas Island detention centre remain in a state of lock-down, following an argument over a pool table on November 21.
A Tamil refugee, who wished to remain anonymous, told Green Left Weekly that he had been placed, with10 others, in what was known as the Red Compound since the scuffle.
He said he wasn't part of the scuffle but had been in the same room.
He said that Red Compound was like a maximum-security prison, with everyone locked in their own private cell. Refugees are under constant camera surveillance, even in the toilets.
They can communicate with each other through the walls, but are not allowed to go outside. He said he didn't know how long he would be kept in the compound.
The man said he had been in prison in Sri Lanka, where he was tortured. This came after the end of the 26-year civil war between the Sri Lankan state and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who were fighting for an independent state for the Tamil minority.
The LTTE was crushed in 2009 and about 30,000 Tamils were killed in the conflict. Surviving Tamil refugees were herded into camps by the Sri Lankan military.
The man said he was eventually released and escaped to Malaysia, where he registered with United Nations High Commission for Refugees before coming to Australia. He has been held in the Christmas Island detention centre for seven months.
A hunger strike was held by more than 150 refugees on January 28 and 29. He said the hunger strike was launched because very few Tamil refugees are being granted visas — only about five or six at a time. The Tamils were promised that 50-60 visas would be granted in one go.
When this didn't happen, Tamil refugees began a hunger strike.
There are other issues causing frustration among detainees, such as overcrowding and bad food, but he said the main issue behind the protest was the slow pace of granting humanitarian visas.
Ian Rintoul, from the Refugee Action Collective, told GLW on February 5 that the punishment of refugees for the poolroom scuffle was "overkill".
"This was really just a minor incident and the pressure that refugees are under is immense. There's huge overcrowding."
Rintoul said detention centre staff were restricting detainees' access to mobile phones. "While they are letting people keep phones they already have, they're not passing on new phones that refugees advocates have bought for people inside.
"I think the government is cheesed-off with the information that has come from contact with refugees. They're embarrassed that we know the level of overcrowding and want to control the flow of information in and out of the centre."
[Contact immigration minister Chris Evans to support the appeal of the Tamil refugees to be treated fairly and granted visas: Phone: (02) 6277 7860; Fax: (02) 6273 4144; Email: minister@immi.gov.au.]