Border Force has confiscated protest banners from refugees, and closed the second floor balcony of the Kangaroo Point hotel, where refugees had been holding daily “Freedom” protests. (Photo of one of the protest banners at right.)
The move to try to end the embarrassing protests at the hotel comes after four refugees who had been central to organising the protests were forcibly transferred from the Kangaroo Point hotel to the Brisbane detention centre, on 16 November.
The balcony was closed on 24 November – see attached photos. Advocates believe the closure of the balcony is just the first step to closing the section of the hotel that directly overlooks Main Street – one of Brisbane’s busiest roads.
The protests inside the Kangaroo Point Hotel began in March this year, when visiting was ended due to the COVID risk. (Despite visits being re-established in Queensland correctional facilities, there are still no visits allowed in detention centres.)
The very visible protests, inside and outside of the hotel, have drawn nation-wide attention to the indefinite detention of around 200 refugees brought from PNG and Nauru for medical attention, while the Medevac law was in force. One of the high-profile protesters has been Somali refugee, Saif Ali, who has been separated from his family for three years despite his wife and son living in a Brisbane suburb just twenty minutes from Kangaroo Point.
Instead of freedom and medical attention, the refugees have been deliberately detained (so far, for as long as two years) while their physical and mental health deteriorates.
Meanwhile, 14 refugees (10 in Brisbane, and four from Villawood) who were brought by Border Force during 2020, (after the Medevac law was repealed) have been released into community detention.
“The government’s political bias is obvious. The medical transfers made under the Medevac law continue to be viciously punished by the government in retribution for their parliamentary defeat over the Medevac Bill,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.
“Now they are trying to stifle the very protests inside Kangaroo Point that have exposed the government’s arbitrary and vindictive policies. There was never an excuse for detaining the medivacced refugees; now they should all be released.”
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713