NSW: Govt should rethink mandatory detention - refugee group

AAP General News (Australia)
12-21-2001
NSW: Govt should rethink mandatory detention - refugee group

SYDNEY, Dec 21 AAP - A week of rioting at the Woomera detention centre proved Australia
needed to rethink its mandatory detention regime, a refugee group said today.

Australians for Just Refugee Programs, a collective of refugee groups, said the government's
treatment of asylum seekers was un-Australian.

The group has joined the Human Rights Council of Australia in lobbying the government
to reform its stance on the detention of asylum seekers.

Group spokesman Howard Glenn today described Woomera as a "pressure-cooker situation
in the middle of the Australian desert in summer".

People were detained not knowing how long they would be held, he said.

"(They are) desperate for their future but (have) no idea what is happening to them.

It breeds frustration," Mr Glenn told Channel Seven's Sunrise program.

He said there was no justification for the violence at Woomera, where detainees this
week rioted and set fire to buildings.

But he blamed government policy for the situation.

"When we see criminal arson elsewhere in the community we have to punish that, but
you look at the circumstances - we are breeding some serious problems," Mr Glenn said.

The mandatory detention regime was the "root of the problem", he said.

"We are not treating the people with the human rights that they're entitled to - rights
to not be involved in arbitrary detention.

"Now we've got to sit back and think this is messy, this is not Australia in the 21st
century, there must be better ways."

AAP nf/tnf/de

KEYWORD: WOOMERA REFUGEES

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