Ten refugees and asylum seekers transferred from a hotel-prison in Darwin to the Meriton Apartments in Brisbane four days ago (Saturday 14 November) have not been allowed to leave their rooms.
The refugees are confined, two to a room, on the 71st floor of the Meriton Apartment building in Adelaide Street, Brisbane. There is no fresh air; no place for smoking; no place for exercise.
Although the men lived together in Darwin, they have not been allowed to mix together in the Meriton and requests to visit people in other rooms have been denied.
The ten single men were transferred from Nauru on 4 September for medical treatment. But they have been abruptly shifted away from scheduled medical help in Darwin. It is understood that all of them were approved for transfer to Australia prior to the repeal of the Medevac legislation.
One man, already waiting for medical treatment after seven years on Nauru, missed his 17 November appointment with a medical specialist in Darwin, due to his forced relocation to Brisbane.
Their property, which was transferred from Darwin, has also been withheld. Border Force has issued them two pairs of shorts, two T-shirts and one pair of long pants.
“We are calling for the men to be immediately released from detention, and for a full enquiry into the conditions of their detention. There needs to be an explanation for the appalling conditions they are being subjected to,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.
“The conditions in all the hotel-prisons are intolerable, but the Meriton-prison conditions are even worse than other detention hotels such as Kangaroo Point, or the Mantra in Melbourne,” he said, “It is horrific that they are being denied medical treatment, while their mental health deteriorates under the uncertainty and conditions of close confinement.
“It makes a mockery of Morrison’s supposed concern for mental health, that he has created and maintained the mental health crisis inside the hotel-prison and detention centres.”
This morning, Serco officers told the Meriton prisoners that they might be allowed one hour of exercise at the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation sometime today, Wednesday 18 November.
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713