January 23, 2002	Wednesday	Ziqa'ad 8, 1422

SYDNEY, Jan 22: The hunger strike of more than 200 asylum-seekers in South Australia’s Woomera detention centre entered a seventh day on Tuesdya and has spread to another detention centre in Melbourne.

Many of the Woomera hunger strikers, including children, had sewn their lips in protest against delays in processing their asylum applications and adverse living conditions at Woomera, where they are detained for more than a year.

A government-appointed committee, headed by a former federal minister of the ruling Liberal Party, today visited the detention centre and inspected the conditions of the hunger strikers. The committee is trying to put an end to the protest and is hoping to see the immigration minister, Philip Ruddock, to suggest ways of resolving the Woomera protest.

The lawyers of the protesting asylum seekers say the detainees want the United Nations called in, if the Australian Government continues to refuse to process their visa applications. Tarana Hassan, a lawyer representing the Woomera detainees, welcomes the visit of the advisory committee but says United Nations may well be needed.

“The message to the Australian Government from the refugees who are participating in the hunger strike is that if the government doesn’t to process their applications then please call in the United Nations and let United Nations make a decision on these people’s future. They don’t want to hang in limbo any more,” said Ms Hassan.

In another development, 17 asylum seekers have been released on temporary visas from the Woomera Detention Centre. The Immigration Department says one is an Afghan who had participated in a hunger strike in December last year. But the Department denies the release was initiated by the new hunger strike taking place at the centre.

GOVT CRITICIZED: Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner, Sev Odzowski, has criticized the government for the treatment of detained children.

Dr Ozdowski says he is concerned about reports of children witnessing mouth-sewing and hunger strike at Woomera and urgently sending a team to investigate the conditions of children being held there. He says Australia may be in breach of human rights conventions on the treatment of children.

“We clearly signed and ratified the international convention on the rights of the child and we should do much more to adhere to it and therefore I am sending my officers to the detention centre, to Woomera, to assess the situation,” declared Dr Ozdowski.

The Woomera detention centre houses 863 asylum seekers, mainly from Afghanistan and the Middle Eastern countries and include 251 children, 24 of them not accompanied by any adults.

A statement of the immigration department has confirmed that 36 of the 202 people staging a hunger strike at Woomera are children and one male child is among 64 who sewn lips. Another four children were taken to hospital on Sunday and have had their stitches removed from their lips.

A suicide-prevention expert has criticised the government after visiting and witnessing the plight of children at Woomera Detention Centre. Michael Dudley, who is the chairman of Suicide Prevention Australia, says children in Woomera have previously been put in solitary confinement and were exposed to violent episodes. “This .... may have a lasting impact on their overall development, their depression, their anxiety, a whole range of things,” said Mr Dudley.

The immigration detention advisory committee that visited the detention centre on an invitation from the Immigration Minister, says the hunger strikers were exposed to hot weather and are determined to have their problems solved.

“This is the seventh day now, and no, its not a stunt, but it’s obviously done to draw attention to their situation and .... they are fairly adamant about what they are doing to date,” said John Hodges, the head of the committee and a former immigration minister.