Australian Activists Rally in Support of Refugees

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, January 28, 2002

Australian Activists Rally in Support of Refugees

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Refugee activists called for rallies around Australia on Sunday to protest at the government's treatment of asylum seekers as detainees continued hunger strikes and attempted suicides at an outback refugee camp.

An Immigration Department spokesman said an illegal immigrant who had thrown himself onto a razor wire fence at the controversial Woomera detention centre on Saturday was being monitored in hospital but gave no details about his condition.

The detainee who tried to escape from the camp, located under the baking sun of the desert 475 km (295 miles) north of Adelaide, was one of 200 asylum seekers who staged a violent protest at the months it takes to process refugee claims.

Refugee groups on Sunday planned to hold demonstrations in Sydney and Melbourne in sympathy for the illegal immigrants at Woomera, some 35 of whom still had their mouths symbolically sewn shut with a strand of thread.

In Sydney, activists planned a demonstration outside the Villawood detention centre and detainees there said they would also start to refuse food and water.

The protests have already spread to the Curtin refugee camp in Western Australia as the government's policy of detaining all illegal immigrants spirals into an international embarrassment.

The government has refused to bow to what it calls moral blackmail and insists it will not be at fault if people die.

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