Immigration (DIAC) is running a concentration camp for refugees near Weipa in North Queensland.
Sources reveal that Serco contractor is threatening suicidal detainees with deportation.
Serco officers (guards) are putting on ‘shows’ of dragging detainees away with officers playing the role of a Tamil or Afghani (Hazara) refugee screaming out at night ‘don’t take me, don’t take me’.
This is having an adverse effect on some of the refugees. Sources reveal blatant human rights abuses occur daily at Sherga.
Meanwhile the family of one of the refugees who committed suicide is asking the Qld coroner’s office why it has taken so long to release the body of their loved one. They suspect foul play. If the threats continue there will be more deaths – sources say.
DIAC is paying contractor SERCO to hire Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU) members casual rates of $2,100 per week to guard detainees.
Nearby Weipa is unable to accommodate all the workers – some are living in dongas.
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Worse still, some of the refugees (who do not complain) are living in plastic tents during the wet season (which has just finished).
Some of the detainees are not receiving proper medical care.
Employees reveal that the Qld government do not care if there is a detention centre near Weipa or not – what the Qld government is concerned about is that no decision has been made about Sherga and that they do not know whether to allocate resources to fix up the infrastructure.
Sherga is an old RAAF base and has accommodation for 300 people yet there are over 500 detainees presently there. The town of Weipa can’t
accommodate the large influx of Qld government workers there to service the detention centre.
Ian Curr
3 May 2011