Eighty two Afghan asylum-seekers pushed over two electrified fences at the Darwin Immigration Centre yesterday - one inside the centre, the other on the perimiter, both carrying 11,000 volts. The men eventually gave themselves up to police and then staged a 7 hour peaceful protest on the side of the busy Stuart Highway. They have been transferred to the Curtin Detention Centre in the far north - in the middle of nowhere. So what's it all about? They told reporters the majority were rejected applicants for refugee status and have been in detention for nine or ten months. They are tired of waiting for their appeals for visas to be processed.
Four days earlier, 120 accused Indonesian people smugglers set fire to mattresses and rubbish at the Darwin facility.
WA Premier Colin Barnett is concerned about over-crowding in detention centres. Shifting more asylum-seekers into already crowded facilities could lead to serious trouble. "There is no doubt that if you have people crowded into into a facility, some of them very angry and frustrated and you have hot conditions over summer, that is an ingredient for unrest" he said.
There are 500 people detained at the Curtin centre and 150 at Leonora in the goldfields. After the removal of the Afghans yesterday, there are about 400 people left at the Darwin centre.
There was confusion last night as to how the men managed to break out of the supposed secure Darwin facility. A private security company Serco has the contract to run the centre and will be issuing a report to the Department of Immigration in the near future.
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