UN team probes Australia's detention system
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A United Nations team began investigating Australia's system of mandatory detention of illegal immigrants at one of the country's most notorious centres.
Protesters outside the remote south Australian Woomera Detention Centre said Tuesday asylum seekers had phoned to say they have been on a hunger strike as part of their preparations for the visit.
"They're generally gearing up to hopefully make an impact, they wanted to draw attention to the seriousness of how they see the situation," Ross Parry told ABC radio.
"They've been in there for months, some of them have been in there for years and they are very desperate people."
But a spokesman for Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock denied there was a hunger strike.
"Nobody at the management centre knows about it and people are still turning up for meals," he told AFP.
More than 1,000 Afghans have been offered 2,000 dollars (1,100 US) each, capped at 10,000 dollars per family, to return to Afghanistan, which Canberra says is now safe for their return.
The cash offer is part of the government's push to reduce its detention centre population by encouraging Afghans trapped in the processing centres or fighting deportation to go home.
Many are in the Woomera compound, which was visited Tuesday by an envoy of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson.
The envoy, Indian judge Prafullachandra Natwarlal Bhagwati, was to spend the day interviewing asylum seekers at Woomera, which has seen months of rioting, arson and self-mutilation by detainees. Many are what Canberra calls "rejectees" -- failed asylum seekers.
Bhagwati spoke to Jeremy Moore, a lawyer for detainees at Woomera, Monday night.
"It's incredibly important that Australia be under the spotlight of the world and that people can see exactly what is happening in Australia," Moore said.
"I'm expecting the UN to be scathing of how we treat refugees in this country."
Bhagwati's arrival coincided with a visit by the UN Working Group of Arbitrary Detention, headed by Frenchman Louis Joinet, which will visit centres in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales.
Findings from the trip will be reported to the 59th session of the Commission on Human Rights next year.
The inspections come as Australia steps up efforts to repatriate illegal immigrants and Afghans who no longer qualify for asylum after the fall of the Taliban regime.
The UN team has declined to talk to media.
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