Several people live in this Australian hotel but aren't allowed to leave. The reason: They are refugees and asylum seekers who arrived on ships to the country. Everyday detainees unfurl posters made from garbage bags taped to railings of the Kangaroo Point Central Hotel with help of shoelaces. One of them reads, “Where's the justice?”
The hotel has been in use as an alternative place of detention or Apod (Australian partners of defence).
All suffer the effects of prolonged and indefinite detention.
The men had been brought to Australia under the drug law. Some of them were suicidal, others had brain injuries, undiagnosed gastrointestinal bleeding, heart conditions, and broken bones that needed surgery.
Most of these detainees were being held at Papua New Guinea or Nauru for six years before they were brought to this hotel.
But some say the conditions at the Brisbane hotel are worse than PNG or Nauru.
“You are in prison here. In PNG (Papua New Guinea), you have a little freedom. You can move. There are no ABF, nor security guards around you,” Farhad Rahmati, an Iranian refugee who was transferred to Australia from PNG last July was quoted as saying in a CNN report.
On Saturday, Australians took to the streets demanding that the refugees being detained be freed. Around 70 protestors stood in front of Town Hall and did laps of the block as part of the "Free the refugees: national day of action".
Approximately 120 men being held inside were being silent about their plight. But this changed in March when the number of coronavirus cases began to rise. They started making posters large enough to be seen from the streets as they feared that guards coming in and out of the facility could lead to the virus infecting them.
The government ignored calls by infectious diseases experts to release the detainees to reduce the risk of an outbreak.
After posters of pleas to free them started getting noticed, the protests have turned into a blockade of human rights, with activists demanding that the men be released.
James Supple of the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) on June 13 had said, "People are attempting suicide, their mental health is deteriorating rapidly, their medical issues are not being properly treated, there's an urgent issue there for the people who need to be released."
Protestors are accusing the government of seeking to silence the detained refugees and asked the asylum seekers to be moved. Protestors are also demanding the government cease transferring the asylum seekers.
While an Australian Border Force personnel was quoted as saying in the Guardian that the protesters blocked detainees from attending basic medical appointments and prevented food from being delivered; the refugees disagreed. They said the protests had improved their morale and had not prevented them from receiving meals or medical attention.
Ebrahim Obeiszadeh, an Iranian man in Kangaroo Point who was held on Manus Island before being transferred to Australia for medical treatment last July, was quoted in the Guardian as saying, “I think the government should understand that they keep us for a long time in detention and that’s more damaging than other things that they mention at this point.”
In late March, shortly after a Kangaroo Point guard tested positive for COVID-19, the government halted all visits and banned excursions to the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation (Bita) detention centre to prevent an outbreak.
Detainees in Bita were told this week that they would soon be allowed visits from immediate family members, but those in Kangaroo Point do not know if they will also be allowed to see their family.
Activists from a group called Refugee Solidarity Brisbane/Meanjin began weekly Friday afternoon protests outside the hotel.
Last week, when the Australian Border Force attempted to move a few men to the Bita facility near the airport, the protesters began a full-time blockade last week.
Before taking office, Australian PM Scott Morrison had helped strengthen the country's border protection policies, which require that people arriving by boat will be prosecuted on the high seas and won't be allowed to settle in Australia even if they are considered refugees. According to the government, the policy eliminates the demand for human smugglers and prevents deaths at sea.
David Manne, the executive director of Refugee Legal, said the law also allows the minister to release them. Manne added that there was important information to question whether they are receiving or have received the required medical treatment.
“It is very clear that the prolonged and indefinite detention of these men, who were seriously ill and were brought to Australia for treatment, almost certainly exacerbates the severity of their medical conditions,” he said.
