AUSTRALIA: A group of 35 asylum-seekers facing repatriation escaped from a remote Australian detention centre yesterday, as a hunger strike at the camp entered its fifth day.
The asylum-seekers escaped from Woomera camp, one of six controversial centres in Australia housing illegal immigrants. The camp has had hunger strikes, escapes, riots and attempted suicides in the last two years.
The government, whose immigration policies have been criticised by human rights and religious groups, said it would stand by its tough line.
An Immigration Department spokesman said pro-asylum activists in vans breached a perimeter fence at Woomera, in the South Australian desert 450 km north of Adelaide, and helped 35 Afghan, Iranian and Iraqi detainees escape.
"This escape was an organised criminal action and involved detainees whose refugee applications have been refused," he said.
A police spokeswoman said four activists had been arrested shortly afterwards and five escapers captured. A search was continuing with aircraft, vehicles and dogs. She said the activists were likely to be charged with assisting an escape, an offence carrying a 10-year jail term.
A spokesman for Immigration Minister, Mr Philip Ruddock, said the detainees involved could face prosecution for escaping from lawful detention, an offence punishable by five years in jail.
He said 15 escapees were believed to be part of a planned break-out while the others took advantage of the opportunity.
A leading refugee advocacy group, the Refugee Council of Australia, said the escape could harm the asylum seekers' cause.
"If people escape from detention centres they face criminal proceedings and this can stop them from ever getting a visa for this country," the council spokesman, Ms Margaret Piper, said.
"It also impacts on community opinion while we are trying to reassure Australians these people are worthy of being here."
The break-out occurred as 162 of Woomera's 210 detainees, including 17 children, were refusing food and water in the camp's latest and growing protest. Two protesters have sewn up their lips. In March about 50 detainees escaped from Woomera and in January more than 200 mainly Afghan migrants staged a 16-day hunger strike over the time it takes to process refugee claims.
Refugee advocates said the last group of protesters feared threats by Ms Ruddock to begin forcibly repatriating Afghan detainees if they did not accept A$2,000 ($1,126) to return home.
Canberra has run one of the world's toughest immigration regimes since 1994, detaining all illegal arrivals while their cases are handled, which can take years if appeals are lodged.
Last year the conservative government tightened policy further by deploying the navy to divert rising numbers of mainly Afghan and Middle Eastern migrants arriving by boat to camps in the Pacific nations of Papua New Guinea and Nauru.
No asylum-seekers have reached the Australian mainland in 10 months and the number held in mainland camps has fallen to about 1,200 from 2,500 before Australia sealed its borders last August.
- (Reuters)