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Terror
Stalks Chinese Asylum Seekers in Australian camps Chinese detainees in immigration detention centres live in abject fear of forcible deportation. This has been exacerbated by the forcible removal last week of two Chinese asylum seekers from Villawood and is resulting in suicide attempts and escapes. On Saturday afternoon a man in Baxter detention Centre who was on a 15 minute suicide watch, was found in a pool of blood and removed to the local hospital, and then by Air ambulance to Adelaide. This man was so stricken with terror after hearing of the Villawood removals that he decided he would rather die by his own hand than risk involuntary return to China where he believes torture and execution await him. Two people have escaped from Villawood because of fear that they too will be returned to their own countries. Others are in psychiatric hospitals around Australia in such a severe state of mental illness that even the immigration department has not attempted to deport / remove them. This includes one man who was detained in Villawood with his wife. When she was eight months pregnant with their first child, the wife was seized from their room, handcuffed and forcibly removed despite the distress of both of them. Many of the Chinese detainees were exposed to Chinese Embassy staff by the Minister's department who escorted them through the detention centres. This has increased their fear. Common threads of these asylum seekers are persecution because of their religious beliefs either because they are Christian or Falun Gong practitioners. A Chinese woman who agreed to return voluntarily from Baxter in 2006 - because she feared for her sanity if she stayed -has given the details of her return. This woman did not have strong fears which is why she returned. Even so she was imprisoned on arrival because Australian officials did not keep their promises. MM said “As you know, in the Detention Centre, he (case co-ordinator) promised to give me the passport back as soon as I boarded the airplane. He’s cheating me. When I board the airplane, they handed over the passport to the captain. When I got off the plane, they gave the passport to the Frontier Defense Station and they caught me. And I stayed there for whole night in cold cell with one quilt sleeping on ice cold floor.” MM was transferred two more times to other prisons over the next few days. During one transfer she gave a guard 100 yuan to make a call to her family, who then brought bribe money to get her out. She says that her name was checked on lists but was not there which allowed her release. From her experience as a low risk voluntary return it is clear that a person with a political or religious background would be at risk. We ask the Minister to seriously review these cases. These people fear for their lives, and the human rights record of the Chinese government is such that Australia must not place their lives at risk on a gamble that they might survive. Pamela Curr |