Asylum seekers delay suicide pact

From AAP

29jan02

TEENAGE asylum seekers at the Woomera detention centre have postponed acting on a suicide pact as federal government advisers recommended the outback compound be closed.

The developments came as the immigration department said nine unaccompanied children, aged 16 to 17, had been removed from the troubled centre in South Australia's north.

The five Afghan and four Iraqi children removed from Woomera had been placed in the care of the South Australian Department of Human Services, a department spokesman said.

The children, while removed from the Woomera centre, technically remained in detention, he said.

A separate group of nine detained at Woomera had extended a deadline for their suicide pact until 5pm CDT tomorrow, detainee Hassan Varasi told ABC Radio.

The group, who the government has said were all 18 years old and had arrived unaccompanied by parents, had threatened to commit suicide by 5pm CDT today if they were not removed from the detention centre, one of four around Australia where hunger strikes are under way.

A lawyer for some of the asylum seekers, Robert McDonald, said a 16-year-old detainee attempted suicide overnight by hanging and required hospitalisation.

Today, the federal government's Immigration Detention Advisory Group (IDAG) returned to the facility after earlier recommending it be shut.

Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said it was possible the government would change the way the Woomera centre was operated.

"I do not think it's appropriate that the decision should be taken in the context of duress," he told reporters in Sydney.

"Secondly, decisions may well be taken if numbers continue to fall and we do not get new boat arrivals.

"Thirdly, we have a new facility that will come on stream probably in a couple of months.

"(IDAG) has made it very clear that there is a role for Woomera. They have suggested some changes in relation to that role and I have asked them to give me advice and I will look at that advice.

"The totality of the advice is not about closing Woomera."

The plan proposed by IDAG would have Woomera used only as an emergency overflow centre.

At the Woomera centre today, 246 asylum seekers - 220 men, 21 women and five children - remained on a hunger strike which started 14 days ago, the immigration department said.

Of the 246, nine had sewn their lips together while overnight 36 detainees had asked to have stitches in their lips removed, the spokesman said.

At the Port Hedland detention centre in Western Australia, 16 detainees - one fewer than yesterday - were on a hunger strike today with one having sewn up their lips, he said.

At the Curtin detention centre, also in WA, three detainees today were on a hunger strike - again one fewer than yesterday, the spokesman said.

One detainee at the Villawood detention centre in Sydney had sewn their lips together during a hunger strike - three less than yesterday.

And at the Maribyrnong detention centre in Melbourne, there were no detainees on hunger strike today, the spokesman said.

On Sunday, 22 asylum seekers at Maribyrnong began a hunger strike.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister John Howard in New York intimated it now appeared the cost of the government's Pacific solution would come in under initial estimates of $285 million, although by exactly how much was not yet known.