Around 20 asylum seekers now in White 2 compound on Christmas Island have been left without enough food or water for more than the last 24 hours.
The asylum seekers were initially in the “protection compound”, Gold 2 on Christmas Island and locked in when the disturbance broke out late on Saturday night.
The doors of the compound unlocked on Sunday morning when fires were set from outside the compound.
The asylum seekers were taken from Gold 2 to Red 2 (the high security unit), where they were held three to a cell with no matresses.
Around 1am Monday morning, prior to police re-entering the detention centre, the detainees were woken and verbally abused by masked Serco guards who ordered them to move from Red 2 to be locked in the basketball court.
They were moved to the basketball court it seems to make room for other detainees who were placed in the high security Red Compound after the police action to re-enter the detention centre.
Early on Tuesday morning they were moved from the basketball court and placed in White 2 – another high security area. Before the moved they were forced to sign consent forms to be strip searched.
They have had little food or water since they were locked in White 2 on Monday morning. They were delivered expired beef lasagne on Monday night on the basket-ball court, but no-one ate it.
On Tuesday morning, after being stripped-searched, and moved to White 2, they were given just two packets of bread between twenty people; for lunch they each got a pie and two potatoes (but no water). On Tuesday night they received no food but their first water in over 24 hours – two litres each. They have only been allowed to the toilet twice in almost three days.
Despite being locked in White 2, there are no guards present in White 2. There has already been one attempted suicide on Monday night that they were left to try and manage themselves.
“The detainees in White 2 asked me to get help for them,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition. “’Why is the government saying the guards are in the detention centre, when it is not true?’ they asked.”
“More than anything they want water. But the asylum seekers also need justice. They should never have been sent to Christmas Island. There needs to be immediate moves to get all asylum seekers and 501s off Christmas Island as a first step to its total closure. And there needs to be a full inquiry to expose Christmas Island’s ‘behaviour management regime’ that has brutalised all those who were sent there.
“The secrecy with which the government surrounds the detention centres has allowed the government and Serco to violate human rights with impunity. The Minister says that order has been restored to the Christmas Island detention centre, but it is the detainees in White 2 tell who tell us what their ‘order’ really looks like.”
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713.
