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Protesters urge Australia to close offshore detention camps

Thursday, 01 December 2016 2:18 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 01 December 2016 2:51 PM ]

Protesters attached to ropes hang above the main entrance of Parliament House, Canberra, Australia, December 1, 2016 after unfurling a banner. (Photo by Reuters)

Australian activists have staged a protest near the Parliament House in Canberra for a second straight day to show their opposition to the mistreatment of the asylum seekers held at government-run offshore detention centers.

On Thursday, the protesters breached parliament security and called for an end to the government’s contentious policy of sending the refugees who arrive by boat to the detention facilities it runs in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

Both of the protests were organized by grassroots organization Whistleblowers Activists and Citizens Alliance.

The right group’s spokeswoman, Zianna Fuad, told reporters that the demonstrators want Australia’s Pacific camps used for the detention of asylum seekers to be closed.

Fuad predicted “widespread” protests “until the camps are closed,” adding, “I actually think we’ve tried all our other avenues of civil debate.”

Activists on Thursday waded into a forecourt pond at the parliament headquarters and added red dye to symbolize blood while holding placards calling for the closure of offshore immigration detention facilities.

Simultaneously, two people rappelled down the parliament building to unfurl a banner reading “close the bloody camps now.”

“This is a humanitarian crisis,” said a protester, adding that refugees “are being raped, murdered and tortured and our entire parliament is completely complicit in that. Our democracy is not working properly when it continues this human rights abuse; that’s why we are calling for them to close the camps right now.”

The protest came a day after some 30 people disrupted parliamentary Question Time, chanting “close the camps” and “where is your moral compass?”

Both major Australian political parties in the parliament support the offshore detention policy despite widespread criticism both at home and abroad.

Canberra sends refugees trying to reach Australia by sea to isolated Pacific outposts on Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, where they are held in dire humanitarian conditions.

UN special rapporteur, Francois Crepeau, this month said Australia’s “punitive approach” to boat people has tarnished its human rights record following an 18-day mission that took him across the country and to Nauru.

The government has defended its position as necessary to stem waves of refugees arriving from crisis-hit areas, particularly the Middle East and North Africa.

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