Refugee Action Coalition
MEDIA RELEASE 28/06/2021
Eleven Medevac refugees remain on hunger strike in MITA, with three others of the fourteen protesters in hospital as the protest enters its eleventh day.
One of those hospitalised, an Iranian refugee, has now been in hospital for 7 days, while two others have been in hospital for four days. A number of the eleven protesters in MITA have also been hospitalised for shorter periods over the last eleven days of the hunger strike.
The Northern hospital, where the hunger strikers are being taken for treatment seems overstretched. One hunger striker taken to the Northern hospital on Saturday night, returned to MITA after four hours, when hospital staff said no bed was available for him to be admitted.
The hunger strikers have reiterated their demands. “No-one has told us why we are still in detention”, one of the hunger strikers told the Refugee Action Coalition on Sunday night (27 June.). “Why haven’t we been released? What is the difference between us and those who were released six months ago?”
Serco staff at MITA have told the protesters that they have written to Border Force to try and get answers about their future.
“We are extremely concerned for the hunger strikers, and all the Medevac refugees,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition, “With hopes from their future snatched away from them, there is every sign that the ‘resignation syndrome’ that overcame so many on Manus and Nauru is driving their despair.
“The government has inflicted too much harm already. They need freedom.”
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713
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