34 Asylum-Seekers Break Out of Camp

http://story.news.yahoo.com ^ | Thu Jun 27,11:05 PM ET | By PETER O'CONNOR, Associated Press Writer

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

34 Asylum-Seekers Break Out of Camp
Thu Jun 27,11:05 PM ET

By PETER O'CONNOR, Associated Press Writer

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - Thirty-four asylum-seekers escaped from Australia's most notorious detention center when their supporters dragged down fences with a car, the government said Friday.

Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said 15 asylum-seekers were involved in the late Thursday breakout from the Woomera detention center, a former missile testing base in central Australia. The other 19 fled into the desert during the confusion.

"This is a deliberate, organized breakout by people who have been in contact with detainees," Ruddock told Melbourne radio station 3AW.

Ruddock said members of an asylum-seeker support group drove up to one of the razor-wire fences at the camp, pulled down part of it and then ferried the asylum-seekers away.

Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio said it received an e-mail from the group Our Sacred Country claiming responsibility for the breakout.

Ruddock said five detainees were recaptured and another 10 were spotted by police scouring the surrounding area.

Woomera is one of five camps where hundreds of boat people, mainly from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan ( news - web sites), are being held while authorities consider their requests for asylum. The policy has been criticized by human rights activists but is popular with most Australians.

New Zealand started detaining its asylum-seekers at detention centers after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. A judge ruled Thursday that the new policy was unlawful and "fundamentally defective," but the government Friday rejected that ruling.

Woomera has been the most troublesome of Australia's camps, plagued by riots, hunger strikes, arson and self-mutilation by inmates.

Earlier this year, 47 inmates escaped when hundreds of people protesting the mandatory detention of asylum-seekers tore down part of the fence. Most of them were recaptured.

Most of the people now at Woomera have had their applications for refugee status refused but cannot be returned home because Australia does not have repatriation arrangements with their home countries.

Some have been in the camps for more than three years.

[rintense]

The other 19 fled into the desert during the confusion.

The outback? Dead men crawling.

[Bogey78O]

'The policy has been criticized by human rights activists but is popular with most Australians.'

Sounds like intelligence is popular in Australia.

[AngrySpud]

The folks from "Our Sacred Country" should be rounded up, tried, and sentenced for sedition. The 10 escapees that are wandering the bush should be left alone; they'll be dead in 2 days and the dingos can have 'em.

[MissAmericanPie]

Who ever tore down the fence needs to be stripped of citizenship and deported to the "asylum seekers" country of origin.

[AAABEST]

Forget about their race or what the situation is.

Everybody is just yearning to be free, just like hamsters that won't quit chewing on their habitrails. God gave us all this incredible desire to be free at all costs.

Some people bury this instinct or maybe their life experience perverts it, but it's our natural state.

[rintense]

Agreed. They are doing the right thing holding them. NZ really surprises me though. Gotta give a good on ya to the Kiwis for holding asylum seekers!

[Senator Pardek]

A dingo ate my detainee!

[rintense]

Hahahaha!

[PoisedWoman]

You really cannot blame people from hellholes like Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan for trying to find a new life for themselves. Could be they are perfectly fine people. But it's become dangerous to take them in. Give me your tired and your poor but not your terrorists. And who can tell the difference? Quotas, background checks, and secure borders are necessary.

[Freedom4US]

I tend to agree -- but ya know, the old Emma Lazarus poem is just that -- a poem, on the statue of liberty 'tis true, but it's not a constitutional requirement we accept "wretched refuse" by any stretch of the imagination. Maybe somebody better tell the INS.

[The Old Hoosier]

It's all well and good to take in the huddled masses, but they didn't used to be intent on blowing us up.

[jadimov]

If Australia doesn't want them, it should see if a third country is willing to accept them. How much does it cost to hold an illegal immigrant in indefinite detention? Offer an amount to any country willing to take the illegals. Raise the amount until a country accepts. WIN WIN WIN. Australia loses an immigrant it doesn't want. A poor country gains some cash. An immigrant escapes oppression.

[wardaddy]

Doesn't sound like much of a joint if one can crash out with a car thru the fence. I would like to see someone try that at USP Atlanta or USP Leavenworth...LOL

[B4Ranch]

Tattoo them first with, "Come back and you will be executed" in their native language on the inside of their forearm. Then keep the promise!

[B4Ranch]

Tattoo them first with, "Come back and you will be executed" in their native language on the inside of their forearm. Then keep the promise!

[lewislynn]

'The policy has been criticized by human rights activists but is popular with most Australians.'

Sounds like intelligence is popular in Australia.

It's popular here too...with the exception of politicians...president(s) on down.

[CyberAnt]

Hmmmm? I just think it's intersting this story should surface so quickly after we have just heard about the FBI looking for a group of men supposed to be aboard a ship headed for this country.

[FITZ]

You really cannot blame people from hellholes like Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan for trying to find a new life for themselves. Could be they are perfectly fine people.

Yes it's sad if they are fine people and must endure this. There are too few countries that aren't hellholes, it's time to make some more places liveable because the solution isn't to put all the people in the world in only two or three countries. Freedom is good but some of these people need to be like our forefathers and fight for freedom in their homelands.

[ex-Texan]

More information ! Looks like over 800 people from the M.E. are being held in detention ..... and children are threatening suicide. Gee, why do they want to kill themselves and innocents?

Detainee children 'in suicide pact'

January 28, 2002

Asylum seekers held at Woomera are getting more desperate

By Grant Holloway CNN Sydney

WOOMERA, Australia (CNN) -- Lawyers representing detainees at Australia's remote Woomera detention center say that as many as 15 unaccompanied children held at the camp have forged a suicide pact.

Paul Boylan, of the Woomera Lawyer's Group, told CNN Monday that one of his group's lawyers spoke with the children on Sunday night about the suicide threat.

Boylan said the information had been passed on to South Australian state authorities.

The children, who do not have parents staying with them in the camp, are reported to be aged from 12 to 17.

The lawyer who spoke to the children, Rob McDonald, said they were threatening to take their lives because they wanted to get out of the Woomera camp, which holds about 800 mainly Middle Eastern asylum seekers, and this was the only way they could achieve this.

"Various methods have been mentioned – sharp implements, jumping off the razor wire and ingesting some substances," McDonald told The Australian newspaper.

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