Refugees on hunger strike against indefinite detention in the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation are so ill their bodies are shutting down. Chloe DS spoke to Arya, one of the hunger strikers.
Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation Centre
Amin Afravi, a refugee who came to Australia under the Medevac laws from Manus, speaks to Green Left from Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation.
A second refugee has self-immolated in the detention centre on Nauru, just days after 23-year-old Iranian refugee Omid Masoumali died in similar circumstances.
Hodan, a 19-year-old Somali woman, has been taken to Brisbane by air ambulance, but she suffered burns to more than 70% of her body and her condition remains critical.
Witnesses told Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) that all her clothes had been burned off. Another said she had suffered burns to her upper body and face at least as bad as Omid.
Asylum seekers from Iran whose claims for refugee status have been rejected are being intimidated into “voluntary” repatriation. The Australian government does not have an agreement with the Iranian government which will not accept the forced return of those who have fled the country.