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| Down Under |
| Chinese Detainees Slash Their Wrists |
| 2005-06-18 |
| Fourteen Chinese detainees in Sydney's Villawood detention centre have been taken to hospital this afternoon after harming themselves. The Immigration Department says no one has tried to commit suicide. It is understood two women and 12 men have been taken to hospital and that the men have slashed their wrists. Uniting Church refugee advocate Frances Milne says her contacts inside Villawood say the incident began when a Chinese woman with a history of suicide attempts once more tried to take her own life. Ms Milne says an older woman became distressed when she saw the blood and suffered pains in her chest and that both women were taken to hospital. "Now a short time later, 12 male Chinese in another part of Villawood detention centre also cut their wrists, but one, the opinion of one of the persons was that it was more, perhaps of a symbolic gesture, although he's not sure," she said. |
| Posted by:Spavirt Pheng6042 |
| #3 It's one thing to accept defections. It's quite another to let illegals in. Deport the illegals. Now. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-06-18 23:45 |
| #2 "To deport these individuals without determining their refugee status would be a violation of both the spirit and letter of international law," Amnesty International said. "These are vulnerable people who may have fled ... in fear for their lives. To return them there without due process would be a violation of the most fundamental obligation of international refugee protection," the organization added. Its against 'international law' to deport people who claim to 'fear for their lives'. The UN and AI say so. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-06-18 16:13 |
| #1 This is what you get for encouraging them. Fed Govt came out saying they were changing the laws to be softer on illegal immigrants, would let them out etc. So this was perfect opportunity for media savvy illegals to do a bit of self-mutilation and get their pity party in the media to maximise the government's concession. I don't get it. The Howard govt controls senate and floor. We voted them in to take no schtik from illegal immigrants. So what are they doing rolling over like this? Deport them all now. If they've gone through a couple of appeals processes and judges have upheld they are NOT refugees then send them packing don't let them keep appealing and dragging out their time in detention! Real refugees are sitting in third world countries scrabbling in the dust for a bit of food to eat. They don't have thousands of dollars to pay for transit to indonesia and then a people smuggler to get them on a boat unlike these illegals. |
| Posted by: anon1 2005-06-18 13:42 |