Refugee activists have condemned Serco and the Immigration department\u2019s ban on visits to Darwin\u2019s detention centres over the Easter weekend.<\/p>\n
Even before protests were scheduled to start, Serco and the Immigration department banned visits to the detention centres.<\/p>\n
Although visits to Darwin\u2019s newest detention centre, Wickham Point, had been approved and confirmed for Thursday evening, a DIAC officer, at the gate, stopped visitors who had come from Sydney and Melbourne, to tell them that all visits had been cancelled for \u201coperational reasons\u201d.<\/p>\n
No protest had been planned for Wickham Point until Sunday, but it seems that visiting at all Darwin\u2019s detention centres have been banned until Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a ridiculous lock-out that has the potential to blow up in Serco\u2019s face,\u201d said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the refugee activists\u2019 convergence on Darwin.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year a similar ban on activists\u2019 visits resulted in a mass hunger strike by asylum seekers at Curtin detention centre.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ban is typical of Serco\u2019s arbitrary and unaccountable management of detention centres. Detainees, aware of the interstate Easter visits for weeks, have been shamefully left waiting for visits that won\u2019t happen. The lock-out will also apply to local people that have been regularly visiting asylum seekers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe visiting ban makes a mockery of the ‘people our business’ slogan and the supposed \u2018detention values\u2019 of the Immigration department,\u201d said Ian Rintoul, \u201cDarwin has become the detention capital of Australia. Twenty years after the introduction of mandatory detention, there are still thousands of asylum seekers and hundreds of children in detention.\u201d<\/p>\n
The weekend of protest will begin with a rally and march through the centre of Darwin, starting at noon at Parliament House and marching via DIAC offices to a barbecue at Christ Church Cathedral. This will be followed by a protest on Saturday at the Northern Immigration Detention Centre at 10.00am and then a \u2018family-friendly\u2019 protest in the afternoon, at the Darwin Airport Lodge which is holding over 350 children and families. The NIDC also holds Indonesian fishermen and crew of asylum boats.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, a protest will be held at Wickham Point, which holds around 800 asylum seekers and which will soon be expanded even further.<\/p>\n
For more information contact Ian Rintoul mob 0417 275 713.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Refugee activists have condemned Serco and the Immigration department\u2019s ban on visits to Darwin\u2019s detention centres over the Easter weekend. Even before protests were scheduled to start, Serco and the Immigration department banned visits to the detention centres. Although visits to Darwin\u2019s newest detention centre, Wickham Point, had been approved and confirmed for Thursday evening, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311091,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-press-releases"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t