The treatment of refugees and asylum seekers by Australia has been described as cruel and inhuman by the United Nations. In 2014 Australia launched a campaign to deter refugees from coming to Australia. Its slogan read ”No way. They will not make Australia home”.
When international tennis star Novak Djokovic was denied entry to Australia and detained at the Park Hotel in Melbourne, a migrant detention centre, there was a silver lining for the refugees held alongside him; men who came to Australia seeking asylum, seeking refuge, many of whom were just boys at the time.
But now, almost a decade later, they have languished in various detention centers, some of them for as long as nine years. The Australian practice of sending refugees who arrive by boat to offshore detention centers which have been compared to Guantanamo Bay.
Australia wants all the power but none of the responsibility, forcibly transferring refugees to nearby Papa New Guinea or the island nation of Nauru, keeping them in horrific conditions.
People are beginning to question why Australia is treating these men like criminals and not meeting its obligations under international law or abiding by any International Refugee Conventions.
International tennis star Novak Djokovic was slated to compete in the Australian Open tournament. Non citizens must be vaccinated in order to enter Australia. However, Djokovic was given an exemption for mandatory COVID-19 vaccination.
Once the Serbian tennis player arrived on Australian soil on January 5, he was denied entry and his visa revoked. The Australian government suddenly changed its mind claiming the Djokovic didn't meet the country's entry requirements, and that his presence would encourage 'anti Vax' sentiment in the country. Djokovic was detained and held at the Park Hotel in Melbourne.
One might wonder what's so bad about being in the Park Hotel? But this isn't any ordinary establishment. This particular Park Hotel is used by the Australian government as a migrant detention centre where refugees and asylum seekers are sent and ‘temporarily’ held, for years in some cases.
People began showing up outside the hotel in solidarity and support of Djokovic, seemingly unaware of what else was going on inside the building.
His lawyers went to court to dispute the Australian government's decision to revoke his visa and there was a public hearing, a live stream of which attracted around 80,000 viewers on YouTube.
While Djokovic was allowed to leave the Park Hotel after just a few days, the refugees were not. many of these men came to Australia as teenagers, seeking asylum, fleeing war, and are now men having been locked up in detention since arrival.
Currently, there are around 33 men who are held at the facility. They were transferred to the Park Hotel from other offshore detention centers in places like Nauru and Papua New Guinea for medical treatment.
However, in late 2021, the place essentially became an incubator and was nicknamed 'outbreak hotel' because of the unsanitary conditions which caused COVID-19 to spread rapidly. At least half the refugees in the hotel caught the virus. The conditions in Melbourne's Park Hotel are quite horrendous.
One of the refugees 'housed' at the Park Hotel posted a picture of the food that the refugees have been given. It was covered in mould and full of maggots.
The refugees are not allowed to leave the hotel. They cannot even open their windows for fresh air since they have been sealed shut. But at least they have been granted air conditioning.
Transferred from various offshore detention centres, many of these refugees have been in detention and shuffled around facilities for years. For instance, an Iraqi asylum seeker Salah Mustafa has spent eight years in detention.
Another refugee, Thanush Selverasa, from Sri Lanka was first detained in 2013 on Manus Island and Papua New Guinea for six years and then in a prison hotel in Melbourne for another year. He was finally released in January 2021.
SOURCE: Press TV
