An Iranian asylum seeker on Nauru attempted to hang himself on Tuesday night. He was rescued by guards and fellow detainees. This is the fourth attempted suicide on Nauru since the start of the Gillard government’s Pacific Solution 2.0.
Meanwhile the number of hunger strikers on Nauru is also growing. Asylum seekers on Nauru told the Refugee Action Coalition that there are now 6 or 7 people on hunger strike, at least one of them now for 14 days. “More people are joining the hunger strike,” they said, “We think there will be more day by day.”
“We are getting no answers to anything. There is no immigration in the detention centre. There are only guards and Salvation Army. Every time we ask what is happening to us we are told “We don’t know. You must ask immigration,’ but there is no immigration.
“Even those who came earlier than us, no one has given them answers.
“People are very crazy. Too many people are sick. I knew one man from Christmas Island. On Christmas Island, he was a normal man. Now he doesn’t speak, he walks and walks. The water and the food is making people sick. Many people have dysentery.
“Nauru has too many people and the temperature is too hot. Animals would not be kept in these conditions. Day by day it is getting worse.
“We prefer to die in the ocean than to die like this in Nauru. We came to Australia for protection, not Nauru. We need our processing to begin immediately.
“It is 100 per cent there will be more protests on Nauru.”
For more information contact Ian Rintoul mob 0417 275 713
