Refugee kids extend suicide deadline in Australia
Refugee kids extend suicide deadline in Australia
Reuters Woomera, Australia
Eleven Afghan teenagers on Tuesday extended by 24 hours a deadline for a suicide pact aimed at forcing the Australian government to free them from a desert refugee camp.
Afghan and Middle Eastern detainees at the Woomera detention center have tried to hang themselves, drunk disinfectant and sewn up their lips to protest at the months, and sometimes years, it takes to process asylum claims.
More than 200 detainees have been on hunger strike for the past two weeks and the disturbances have spread to most of Australia's controversial detention centers.
Lawyer Rob McDonald, representing the asylum seekers, said the 11 Afghan children, aged 12 to 17, had threatened to kill themselves by 5 p.m. on Tuesday (1:30 p.m. in Jakarta) if they were not taken out. They later agreed to hold off till the following evening.
"I think the children understand how slowly our government is moving despite the serious threat that they are facing," he told reporters gathered outside the camp, behind a road block.
But McDonald said earlier that a 16-year-old Iraqi had tried to hang himself on Monday night. Guards intervened.
A committee set up by the government to act as an intermediary arrived at Woomera on Tuesday evening, along with a representative of the national Human Rights Commission.
The first of two days of talks with asylum seekers on ending the hunger strike went well, said committee member Ray Funnell.
"I don't think everything is going to be finished tomorrow but I hope good progress will be made," he told reporters.
The United Nations refugee agency said in Geneva on Tuesday that Afghan teenage asylum seekers who have threatened suicide at a camp in Australia were being manipulated by their "irresponsible" parents.
Kris Janowski, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), also reiterated the agency's opposition to Australia's policy of detaining asylum seekers, but said it stood ready to help if invited to by the government.