SYDNEY, Jan 20: More than 70 out of almost 300 hunger striking asylum seekers in an Australian detention Centre have sewn their lips to protest against a slow process that decides their refugee status in Australia.

They also complain that they are detained in an isolated place that was used for nuclear testing. “We are crying out and nobody is listening,” a detainee told Australian Radio, ABC on the phone.

Three children, who were part of the protest and had stitched their lips, have been taken from Woomera Detention Centre in South Australia to a nearby hospital and there are concerns they are suffering from dehydration. It is believed 24 children are involved in lips sewing protest.

A sign that read ‘Quest for Liberty’ could be seen this evening on one of the building of Woomera Detention Centre. The Australian Immigration Minister, Philip Ruddock says hunger strike and sewing of the lips by detainees is a wasted effort and will have no influence on the outcome of their application for refugee status. He says lips sewing is not life threatening and the health of the detainees is being monitored.

A spokesman for Australian Immigration Department admits the three boys aged between 12 and 15, who are still in the hospital, were part of a group of 66 people who had stitched their lips, while another 140 are hunger striking.

Refugee groups dispute government figures and claimed 350 asylum seekers are involved in the protest. Sources close to asylum seekers told ABC Radio that up to 100 people have taken the desperate action of stitching their lips together and another 250 are on hunger strike.

The Australian human rights groups also disagree with a government claim that lips sewing and hunger strike action began on Wednesday, two days before it was publicly reported. The Coalition for Justice for Refugees and Migrants say the protest started on Monday and information was deliberately suppressed.

“I have received information from various Coalition members that incident has begun at least five days back on Monday,” said Maqsood Alshams, a member of the Coalition. “.... Government is suppressing the information to the public and the media. Australian public has every right to know what’s going on in the detention center,” he added.

Lawyers from the Woomera Lawyers Group, who visited the detention center yesterday, say they were not allowed to see the detainees taking part in the protests. The lawyers who represent asylum seekers and were able to talk to their clients, say those who took the drastic action of sewing their lips together are mostly Afghans.

“This is an act of pure desperation. They are frustrated by the process and this is what they feel is the last resort,” said Tirana Hassan, the spokeswoman of the Lawyers group.

The Australian government has stopped processing the applications of the Afghan asylum seekers after the fall of the Taliban, whose terror was the basis of their claim for refugee status.

The asylum seekers are also complaining of the adverse living conditions in the detention centers and resent that they are forced to live in isolation and away from civilization for a long time.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) interviewed a Woomera detainee, Mohammadi, who told through an interpreter that a lot of people are protesting because the government has stopped the process.

“We are being kept in a place in the middle of nowhere, there has been nuclear testing done before and not even the slightest human rights are being observed .... We are crying out and nobody is listening,” said Mohammadi . The Australian government says delays in processing asylum applications are caused by people arriving without documentations and those who appeal against the rejection of their application. Mr Ruddock told journalists that protesters are given medical attention and no one is in danger.

Reuters adds: Three youths who sewed their lips together were treated for dehydration as a hunger strike by detainees at one of Australia’s controversial camps for illegal immigrants entered its fifth day, officials said on Sunday.

Detainees at Woomera, the nation’s biggest and most remote outback camp, began a hunger strike last Wednesday to protest the length of time it takes to process visa applications.

An Immigration Department spokeswoman said 189 Afghani detainees were refusing food and water, 55 of them with sewn lips. The number of hunger strikers was down from 210 on Saturday.

The spokeswoman said three youths, aged 12 to 15, needed treatment at a nearby hospital overnight where they had stitches removed from their lips, were given food and fluid then sent back to the camp.

A fourth child needed medical treatment at the camp, which houses about 863 mainly Middle Eastern and Afghani asylum seekers.—Reuters