FED:Hunger strike starts on Christmas Island

AAP General News (Australia)
04-27-2011
FED:Hunger strike starts on Christmas Island

PERTH, April 27 AAP - A group of asylum seekers on Christmas Island has gone on hunger
strike as other detainees continue a rooftop protest at the island's main detention centre.

An unspecified number of detainees at the island's lower-security Phosphate Hill facility
had advised they were engaging in "voluntary starvation", an Immigration Department spokesman
told AAP on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, eight detainees at the island's Northwest Point secure facility staged
a rooftop protest, holding up a banner saying "Please Help Us".

Their protest coincided with a visit to the centre by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott
and his immigration and border security spokesmen Scott Morrison and Michael Keenan.

The rooftop protest continued on Wednesday, with six detainees on the roof, the immigration
spokesman said.

He said staff at the centre's privately contracted operator Serco continued to engage
with the men to encourage them to come down.

"It is important to note that protest action such as this does not alter the outcome
of asylum claims or any other aspect of detention or processing," the spokesman said.

The Christmas Island detention centre was the scene of mass break-outs and riots in
March, when accommodation tents were burnt down and federal police used teargas and beanbag
bullets to quell rock-throwing rioters.

Since then there have been a series of protests and disturbances at mainland detention
centres, including riots at the Villawood centre in Sydney last week in which many buildings
burnt down.

Three detainees at Villawood, an Iranian and two Kurds, were maintaining a rooftop
protest on Wednesday.

Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has called for them to be removed from the roof
by authorities.

Meanwhile, a four-day peaceful protest by mainly Afghan detainees at the Curtin Immigration
Detention Centre in Western Australia's Kimberley region ended on Tuesday.

Twelve detainees at the centre had indicated they were on "voluntary starvation" but
an immigration spokesman said only two had advised on Wednesday they were continuing their
action.

On Tuesday, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen announced the government would toughen
laws to deter violent behaviour at detention centres.

The proposed changes would mean anyone convicted of criminal conduct while in immigration
detention would automatically be denied a protection visa under character-test rules.

AAP ldj/jl

KEYWORD: DETAINEES XMAS

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