MEDIA RELEASE
Vigil for Hodan – end offshore processing
A vigil will be held by friends and supporters of asylum seekers from midday tomorrow (Thursday 5th May) at the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, cnr Spring & Lonsdale Sts Melbourne. This will be in honour of Omid, in support of Hodan, and in solidarity with and support of all people currently detained in immigration detention.
This will be followed at 4:30pm by a speak-out called by the Refugee Action Collective (Victoria), demanding the end of offshore processing. Speakers will include Pamela Curr from the ASRC, Somali Community speakers, and Margaret Sinclair from the Refugee Action Collective.
Hodan is a young Somali refugee who set fire to herself on Nauru and who is currently in a critical condition. Her self immolation follows the death of Omid, the 23 year old Iranian refugee who set fire to himself last week.
Hodan was one of three refugees snatched by Border Force office at 3.00am from the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation last Wednesday morning, 27 April.
She was carried bodily out of the detention centre by Border Force officers.
The removals came in the early hours following the news that the PNG Supreme Court had found that the Manus detention centre was unlawful.
Hodan was brought to Australia in November last year – after suffering a serious head injury. People who knew her did not believe she had recovered from the injury. She was on suicide watch at BITA before being taken and on suicide watch in OPC1 on Nauru.
Dutton has put the blame for suicide attempts on refugee advocates for “building false hope”. But it is the government that is responsible for the appalling conditions they have created on Nauru and giving people no hope. Announcing the accumulated closure of 17 detention centres is no solution to the crisis in offshore detention, or the brutality of boat turn backs, temporary visas and deportations.
Hodan is a young Somali refugee who set fire to herself on Nauru and who is currently in a critical condition. Her self immolation follows the death of Omid, the 23 year old Iranian refugee who set fire to himself last week.
Hodan was one of three refugees snatched by Border Force office at 3.00am from the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation last Wednesday morning, 27 April.
She was carried bodily out of the detention centre by Border Force officers.
The removals came in the early hours following the news that the PNG Supreme Court had found that the Manus detention centre was unlawful.
Hodan was brought to Australia in November last year – after suffering a serious head injury. People who knew her did not believe she had recovered from the injury. She was on suicide watch at BITA before being taken and on suicide watch in OPC1 on Nauru.
Dutton has put the blame for suicide attempts on refugee advocates for “building false hope”. But it is the government that is responsible for the appalling conditions they have created on Nauru and giving people no hope. Announcing the accumulated closure of 17 detention centres is no solution to the crisis in offshore detention, or the brutality of boat turn backs, temporary visas and deportations.
“In fact, the announced closing of detention centres is actually an accumulation of closures over the last three years, as people are stuck in Indonesia, offshore, turned back, deported or left struggling below the poverty line on BVs or TPVs,” said Lucy Honan, for the Refugee Action Collective. “Detention centre closures mean nothing- or worse than nothing in this context. Offshore detention and the entire deterrence regime must end.”
For more information contact Lucy Honan 0404 728 104
Our hearts are with all detainees.