NEWS
Investigations continuing into detention centre escape WESTERN Cape Chamber of Commerce hopes a breakout by seven Vietnamese asylum seekers from the Scherger RAAF Base Detention Centre last Thursday will not impact on the detention centre’s presence in Weipa on a long-term basis. The Chamber’s Acting President Geoff Bryant said: “The centre represents consistent business for the town.” “This was a one-off incident and hopefully the loopholes will be identified and tied up rather than a knee-jerk shutdown of the facility.” The escape is still under investigation by Australian Federal Police.
The seven escapees have been charged, along with three people who allegedly assisted and communicated with the escaped detainees. In what appears to have been a well-organised operation the asylum seekers fled the detention centre early Thursday morning before boarding a plane to Cairns at the Weipa Airport later that day. They were detained at the popular Cairns night-spot, Gilligans Backpackers. later that evening. Office-in-Charge of Weipa Police Senior Sergeant Brett Jenkins said Australian Federal Police were continuing their investigations and were work-
ing closely with the Department of Immigration and detention centre provider Serco. Weipa Town Authority chairman Peter McCulkin said he had not yet received a formal brief on the breakout, but there were a lot of rumours circulating around the town and in southern press. “This incident is certainly not indicative of the 99.9 per cent of clients currently in the detention centre,” he told the Western Cape Bulletin on Tuesday. “In fact, a local team played a cricket match against some of the clients on Saturday and they were concerned that the escapees actions could affect
the processing of their own visas.” Federal MP Warren Entsch says the escape of seven detainees from Scherger Immigration Detention Centre (SIDC) illustrates the “absolute failure” of the Labor Government’s immigration policy. “It’s clear that they can’t control their borders but they also can’t control the detention centres where they’re putting these people. “This case just illustrates the fact that we’ve got serious issues in regards to immigration and if the situation doesn’t change, it’s going to cost us more and more,” Mr Entsch said.
Decision handed down on asylum seeker death
AN Afghan asylum seeker who died at a Queensland detention centre took his own life, a coronial inquest has found, SBS reports. Meqdad Hussain died at the Scherger Immigration Detention Centre at Weipa on March 17, 2011. A recent inquest delved into whether he died in suspicious circumstances. State Coroner Michael Barnes was also tasked with determining whether Mr Hussain, a 19-year-old Afghan, had been properly assessed for mental health issues. In a decision handed down on Monday, May 27, Mr Barnes found Mr Hussain had taken his own life by hanging himself from his bunk bed. Mr Barnes found Mr Hussain had been properly assessed, found to be a low risk of self-harm and was offered appropriate counselling. Though entries in a notebook found in his room revealed Mr Hussain was in a disturbed mental state, Mr Barnes found authorities could not have been aware of these dark thoughts until after his death. The coroner also found Mr Hussain, who came to Australia on a leaky boat from Indonesia in late 2010, would not have been aware at the time of his death that authorities had rejected his application for refugee status just 24 hours earlier.
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Hassan Ghulam, Family spokesman and Australian Hazara Council spokesman outside the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday following the coronial inquest into the death of Meqdad Hussain.
“I conclude Meqdad Hussain died as a result of his own actions, that he intended to end his life and that no other person contributed to his death,” Mr Barnes ruled. On the coroner saying there were no observable signs that should have alerted the Department of Immigration or the company Serco, that operates the detention centre, Hassan Ghulam, Family spokesman and Australian Hazara Council spokesman, told SBS’s Stefan Armbruster: “During the last two weeks of his life he was living on his own and that was a huge sign of depression etc, but that was not paid attention to.”
Asked how the family feels, he said he spoke with them the night before the findings were delivered. “The family believe he was murdered in the detention centre and between their view and the coroner’s finding there is a huge difference. I don’t know how to fill that gap, I try to convince them of certain facts and issues found in Australia; they don’t believe it, they can’t see it.” Mr Ghulam has visited Scherger and describes it as follows: “Extremely bad, far away from civilisation, in the middle of a mining zone, very dusty, very hot during summer months and very humid.”
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Western Cape Bulletin May 29, 2013 Page 3