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Pastimes : Rarely is the question asked: "is our children learning" -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Sladek who wrote (1571)	12/20/2003 7:21:42 AM
From: John Sladek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2171

Australia watches as death looms in Nauru asylum camp By Kathy Marks in Sydney 16 December 2003 Two years after Australia introduced its so-called "Pacific Solution" for asylum-seekers, eight Afghans on the remote island of Nauru were taken to hospital yesterday after refusing food and water for almost a week. The eight are among 284 people, including 93 children, being held in a detention camp on the South Pacific island in conditions condemned as deplorable by refugee advocates. Campaigners claim that several protesters are urinating blood, and fear they may be close to death. Twenty-four men - 23 Afghans and one Pakistani - have joined a hunger strike that started last Wednesday in protest at Australia's refusal to grant them refugee status. Four have sewn their lips together. Elaine Smith, spokeswoman for Rural Australians for Refugees, an advocacy group, said: "They've come to the end, really. They're going to have kidney failure." Lawyers say that the asylum-seekers on Nauru, out of sight and out of mind, would have been resettled if they had reached the Australian mainland. The Canberra government recently said that nine tenths of "boat people" who had arrived in Australia in recent years had ultimately been recognised by the authorities as genuine refugees. The Pacific Solution, which involved intercepting refugee boats before they reached Australia and sending their occupants to far-flung islands to be processed, was implemented after the Tampa crisis of 2001. John Howard's government triggered international condemnation after refusing to allow Afghan refugees plucked from a sinking ship by the Tampa, a Norwegian freighter, to land on Australian shores. In subsequent months, more than 1,000 people were taken to Nauru, while others were diverted to Manus Island, part of Papua New Guinea. Three hunger strikers were discharged from hospital yesterday after being rehydrated, while the rest remained under close medical supervision. They have said that they would rather die than remain in detention, and vowed to continue their protest "until the last drop of blood in our bodies". One detainee is understood to have attempted suicide last week. Australia has threatened to deport the Afghans if they do not leave voluntarily. "These people should be under no illusions that by taking these actions they will influence the Australian government to provide them with entry to Australia," an Immigration Department spokesman said. "Blackmail will not work." The spokesman described the hunger strikers as "failed asylum-seekers who are engaged in voluntary starvation". He said they should return to Afghanistan and "get on with their lives". The detainees say it would be unsafe for them to return home to Afghanistan, a claim backed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Howard Glenn, a human rights advocate, said five family groups on Nauru had fathers or husbands who were living in Australia after being granted refugee visas. Mr Glenn said "a dire, perhaps fatal, episode in the dreadful story that started with the Tampa crisis" was being played out on the island. The Immigration Department said all the men in hospital were in a stable condition and being provided with the best possible care by the International Organisation of Migration (IOM), which administers the Nauru camp. Refugee groups said that the hunger strikers had been lapsing in and out consciousness. They said that they were given intravenous fluids last week after collapsing from heat exhaustion. Cy Winter, local head of the IOM, said: "Of the group of nine who started the hunger strike ... there are four or five that doctors are concerned about and watching more closely." Mr Winter said some protesters were refusing to go to hospital. Medical staff were placing wet towels on their faces and bodies to keep them hydrated. Ms Smith said: "The men on the hunger strike are lying quietly. It is too painful to speak. Helpers wash their bodies down with cool cloths. If you knew anything of their lives in Afghanistan, you will know that they've been facing these serious situations for a long time. By comparison, I guess the hunger strike is the lesser ... of what they have to face. "I don't see any chance of them backing down, which is really worrying, because they can be pushed to the limit." No refugees have reached the mainland since the government implemented its border policy, the harshest of any Western-style country. When a boat carrying Kurds landed on Melville Island, off Darwin in the north of Australia, last month, Canberra sent them back to Indonesia and attempted to "excise" the island from its immigration zone - depriving them retrospectively of the right to claim asylum. news.independent.co.uk