DIMIA, police and detention center staff have been seen to be excessive in their responses.
There are reports that on New Years Day all detainees at Woomera were indiscriminately teargassed and handcuffed and subsequently herded to basketball courts where they were held all day under the desert sun without water.
There are also reports that Baxter detainees were prevented from evacuating burning compounds, and teargassed. Refugee advocates claim that every single Asylum Seeker detained at Baxter were presented with letters from DIMIA stating that their applications have been rejected. – baxterwatch.net
Reports out of the detention centers are becoming increasingly difficult due to the confiscation of detainees’ contraband mobile phones, while calls to and from the centers’ official phone lines have been suspended. Refugee advocates have stated that the fires are no surprise, and that the detention centers, Baxter in particular, are “designed to run people’s spirits into the ground.”
Human rights activists from around Australia are gathering for a national convergence on Baxter over the Easter weekend, April 18-21 2003.
CALL TO ACTION – Baxter Convergence – Easter 2003
Refugee rights activists around Australia invite you to join a national convergence on Baxter Detention Centre from April 18-21 2003. Baxter is located on Old Whyalla Road approximately 12 kilometres South-West of the Port Augusta, South Australia, township and is some 275 kilometres North-Norwest of Adelaide. As at 9 December, 215 refugees are detained women and 41 children.
This purpose-built facility is an attempt to redress the “hell-hole” label attached to Australia’s detention centres and to demonstrate the government’s alleged commitment to “humane detention”. During an orchestrated media tour of the centre in July, before it opened, immigration minister Philip Ruddock described the accommodation at Baxter as “three-star”.
In fact the Baxter is perhaps the most brutal centre for asylum seekers on mainland Australia. As one man locked up there said: “After the people have called Woomera a hell-hole there is no word for Baxter.”
Refugees at Baxter are confined in segregated compounds, surrounded by a 9000 volt electric fence and subject to 24-hour camera surveillance. People have been beaten and sent to isolation units for asking to visit their friends, refusing to say ‘please’ to the guards, and demanding edible food. By all accounts, the facility resembles a maximum security prison. The difference is that there are no convicted criminals inside.
There are constant protests and acts of resistance by the people inside Baxter. They continue to fight for their freedom, and demand visas and release. Meanwhile the ALP has capitulated to the government’s racist agenda.
The protests Woomera detention centre in September 2001 and again at Easter 2002 played a vital part in exposing the terrible truth about the centre and focusing both international and local attention on mandatory detention laws.
The government has responded to this condemnation with the down scaling and likely closure of Woomera in early 2003.
At Easter, converge on Baxter to show your solidarity with people imprisoned simply for violating Australia’s racist immigration laws. Join with the detainees inside Baxter in struggling for their freedom – and for our own.
Baxter2002 will be part protest, part liberation camp, and a powerful convergence of those who seek to put an end to Australia’s racist border control policies.
The protest will include a myriad of actions and workshops, in solidarity with the detainees across Australia and their struggle for freedom.
