Activists shut down ‘Department of death’

November 12, 2021
Issue 
Activists blocked the entrance to the Department of Home Affairs with fences and barbed wire. Photo: Supplied

Refugee activists shut down the offices of the Department of Home Affairs in Meanjin (Brisbane) on November 11.

They sealed the doors shut and blocked entrances with barbed wired fencing, mimicking the horrific conditions that refugees are subjected to in detention centres.

A sign that read “Department of Torture Camps — Closed” was attached to the fencing and slogans, including “Set us free!” and “Let us breathe!”, were spray painted on walls.

Refugee Solidarity Meanjin said the Home Affairs Department “is a euphemism”.

“It’s really a department of torture, a department of concentration camps, a department of death.”

The action was organised after the Federal Court ruled on October 13 that a refugee who has been detained in Australia for eight years must be released into the community or moved to Nauru. Federal Minister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews has refused the court’s order and the refugee is still imprisoned.

Activists want him to be freed and all refugees imprisoned both onshore and offshore to be released.

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