Vol. 75/No. 12      March 28, 2011

A total of some 170 refugees broke out of the Australian immigration jail March 11-12 and organized demonstrations at the island’s airport. Protests at the detention center were in response to the arrest of 10 alleged organizers of the escape.

Actions on Christmas Island follow protests last month against the Australian government’s treatment of 22 asylum seekers jailed on the island since their boat sank in the Indian Ocean last December.

The refugees were brought to Sydney to attend a funeral here February 15 for some 50 friends and family members who died in the shipwreck. The next day, supporters of refugee rights demonstrated outside the Villawood prison here to protest the Australian government’s decision to send them back to the island prison.

Seena Akhlaqi Sheikhdost, a nine-year-old boy from Iran, lost both parents in the shipwreck. Despite pleas from family members in Sydney, he was returned along with the others to the Christmas Island immigration prison after the funeral. A day after the protest, however, Labor immigration minister Christopher Bowen announced that Sheikhdost would be released to relatives in Sydney.

There are 2,526 asylum seekers being held on Christmas Island and some 3,668 in prisons on the Australian mainland.
 
 
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