A 37 year-old Bosnian refugee, Adin (not his real name), is on hunger strike at the Brisbane Transit Immigration Accommodation (BITA) detention centre.
Today (Sunday, 29 November) marks the sixth day of his protest at being held in BITA’s high security Moreton compound. Adin has been held in immigration detention since his refugee visa was cancelled in 2015.
Adin became a refugee after he, and his family, fled the war in Bosnia. He was 17 years old when he left Croatia in 2001 to join his mother after she had been accepted as a refugee in Australia.
In October, this year, Adin signed to voluntarily return to Bosnia. But he has been told he ‘will not be going anywhere any time soon.’
Then, at the beginning of November, with no explanation from Border Force or Serco, he was forcibly placed in Moreton, the cramped, high security isolation compound in BITA. Border Force’s move against Adin, comes after some months of increasing harassment.
In June, 2020, he released videos onto social media revealing an attempted suicide and the presence of armed police inside BITA during the restraint and forced sedation of a Vietnamese man.
Adin became known for standing up to the abuses inside detention, and speaking out for others. Prior to being placed in punitive isolation, he was even warned off using the internal complaints system.
Adin’s forced isolation is yet another instance of unaccountable, extra-judicial punishment used by Border Force and Serco inside Australia’s detention regime.
So-called trouble-makers, like Adin, are routinely victimised for speaking out against detention abuses. Other refugees have recently been forcibly moved from hotel-prisons like Kangaroo Point to BITA after they have spoken to the media or been involved in protests.
“We are calling for Adin to be immediately released from punitive isolation in BITA,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.
“There needs to be a full inquiry into Serco and Border Force’s use of extra-judicial punishments. The use of handcuffs has recently drawn attention to some of its, brutal, standard operating procedures. That is just the tip of the ice-berg of abuse that characterises Australia’s detention regime.”
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713
