Villawood Immigration Detention Centre
Read the letter from families in Villawood on 8 July 2004, concerned about their possible removal from Villawood to Baxter detention centre or the Port Augusta residential housing project.
Media reports on the removal of families from Villawood
Families to be heard on detention move
The Immigration Department has agreed not to transfer a number of families between two detention centres until it has gauged their response to the move.
Melbourne lawyers Eric Vadarlis and Julian Burnside launched a legal challenge to the department's plans to move 17 families from Sydney's Villawood detention centre to the Baxter facility in South Australia.
[...] Justice Ron Merkel raised concerns that the rights of the 30 children involved were not being taken into account.
Four of the families were moved on Wednesday but the department has now given an undertaking to the court not to transfer the remaining families without informing them of the plans and taking their responses into account.
Asylum seekers win appeal hearing
Outside the court, Eric Vadarlis, a lawyer acting for the detainees said: "The Commonwealth has now given an undertaking that the 13 families will not be moved without first consulting them and asking them what they wish to do, and taking all matters into account including the cost of transport and the like before moving them to Baxter." The court heard that the detainees were liable to pay their own transport costs. Mr Vadarlis described today's decision as a "good outcome". He said: "For the first time these refugees will have their cases heard by the department instead of being told 'you have 20 minutes notice, pack your bags your are leaving, you are going somewhere else away from your friends, and your support structure'."
Mothers in roof protest at Villawood
The two mothers, one Malaysian and one Tongan, held a banner which read "No, forget Baxter, we refuse to go, release the children." The Department of Immigration had made its move earlier yesterday when about 40 officers went into Villawood to speak to what protesters claimed were 10 families, four of whom were then taken from the centre. Frances Milne, of the Coalition for the Protection of Asylum Seekers, said the removals were not voluntary. She said: "The children were screaming and their parents were upset. They had all asked not to be removed." Fathers and sons older than 18 were taken to Baxter detention centre in South Australia while women and children under 18 were taken to Port Augusta, 10 minutes' drive away, in effect putting them under house arrest. Merlin Luck, the 24-year-old former Big Brother contestant, who staged his protest about confinement of children at the time of his expulsion from the show, said: "They are supposed to be moving voluntarily. But the administrators have found it necessary to bring in more security guards." Three reporters were escorted out of the Villawood complex by security guards.
Families take protest to detention centre rooftop
But a spokesman for Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said the four families moved voluntarily. He said those who did not want to move would not be forced to and there were no other transfers planned. ChilOut co-ordinator Alanna Sherry, a campaigner for the release of children from detention, said the families last week signed a letter saying they did not want to move. "We know they have been pressured." Meanwhile, Senator Vanstone has moved to quell scepticism that changes to temporary protection visas would not cover lower-skilled rural workers.
She said minor modifications would be made to visa criteria to help TPV holders who had settled in rural areas, did unskilled work and were sponsored by employers to gain permanent visas.
Detainees fight transfer in court
Julian Burnside QC, representing the detainees, told the court the move would disrupt children's schooling and lead to the separation of men from their wives and children, as the men would go the Baxter detention centre and the women and children would go to the Port Augusta Housing Project. The move would also cost detainees money as they were charged a daily rate for their detention, which was much higher in South Australia. Mr Burnside told the court the cost of detention in Villawood was $111 per adult per day while in Baxter it was $310 per day and at Port Augusta $590.
Claims families in detention forced to move
LIZ FOSCHIA: Litiola, a Tongan who's been in Villawood for seven months, says the officers came this morning and tried to persuade her to attend a briefing with representatives from the Immigration Department.
LITIOLA: That we've, we've been here long enough to mistrust this, with all their dealings with different detainees. So I just told the officers to tell them if they wanted to speak to us they had to come in not, um, have us go outside the fence.
LIZ FOSCHIA: What were you concerned would happen if you went to the briefing?
LITIOLA: Um, yeah I was concerned that they could bring a vehicle into there and just take us from there into the property area and um, and just, what they can do is they can just um…
(pauses, noise in background)
…yeah, sorry, every time there's a knock I think someone's at the door. Um, yeah and then they can send the officers to do our packing.
LIZ FOSCHIA: She says she doesn't want to go to Baxter because she fears being cut off from the support system she's established in Sydney and she's afraid that it will be easier to deport her and her two children from there.
LITIOLA: People that have cases pending, you know. We're just scared that, you know, this is it. This is our last fight here. You know, we're not going to be able to have a say over there.
Rooftop protest over relocations
Two mothers and their children today staged a rooftop protest at Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre after several families at the facility were relocated to South Australia. Refugee action groups claim four Asian families who left the centre in a convoy of white vans today were forcibly removed to the Baxter Detention Centre at Port Augusta. But immigration officials said the group of Indonesian and Chinese detainees had agreed to the shift after consultations.Asylum seekers 'forcibly removed'
FIVE asylum seeker families had been forcibly removed from Sydney's Villawood detention centre, bound for a remote facility in rural South Australia, a refugee action group said today. Five white mini-vans loaded with people and baggage left the centre in convoy at 12.30pm (AEST). Alanna Sherry, co-ordinator of action group ChilOut, said two Indonesian and three Chinese families were en route to Sydney Airport, bound for SA's Baxter Detention Centre. A further 10 families were expected to leave shortly, she said, adding that a total of 31 children were involved in the transfer. "We are outraged and appalled that the government is resorting to these measures," Ms Sherry said. "Relocation was supposed to be on a voluntary basis, not forced." But immigration officials today denied the asylum seekers were being forced to move from Villawood to Baxter.
Asylum seekers 'forced out' of Villawood
Amir Mesrinejad, an Iranian asylum seeker who has been detained at Villawood for four years, said guard numbers at the centre had been increased today before they were later withdrawn. He said 12 officers usually patrolled the centre at any one time, but this morning there were more than 50 officers by 9am, focusing on areas housing family groups. "(Detainees) were crying, and lots of the parents were stressed and worried, they don't want to go, they don't know anyone down there, this is their home," Mr Mesrinejad told AAP by phone from inside the detention centre. One family in particular was very distressed because their two children had been born in detention and Villawood was all they knew, he said.
Govt denies forcing asylum seekers to relocate
The Immigration Department has denied it is forcing asylum seekers at Villawood in Sydney to move to new housing projects at South Australia's Baxter detention centre. The Federal Government wants to move families into new residential housing projects, saying Villawood is not designed for long-term detainees and conditions are not suitable for families. [...] Virginia, an asylum seeker from Villawood who did not want her full name revealed, says that is not the message the detainees were given this morning. "They have no choice," she said. "Some of the families, they're told they say, 'if you agree to go you come back, you pack your own stuff, otherwise, the guard will pack your stuff'."
No forced transfers: immigration
ASYLUM seekers held at the Villawood Detention Centre in Sydney would not be forced to move to the Baxter facility in South Australia, immigration officials said today. However, some detainees had agreed to the shift after consultations, a spokeswoman for the Department of Immigration said.
Protest at detention centre
Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said a number of refugees were being removed for relocation [from Villawood] to the residential housing project at the Baxter Detention Centre in South Australia. "We had a phone call this morning to say there were up to 60 extra guards actually in the detention facility and that one family already had been grabbed by the guards for removal to Baxter," Mr Rintoul told ABC radio.
Villawood detainees fear agenda will split families
The Federal Government has been accused of trying to separate families at Villawood detention centre, after Immigration officials allegedly tried to persuade parents at the facility this week to move to a housing project in South Australia that does not permit fathers to live there. The parents of 17 families being held at Villawood - most of them from South-East Asia and the Pacific Islands who have overstay their visas - told the Herald in a letter yesterday that they feared being forcibly separated from each other and their support groups in Sydney after being visited by department officials on Wednesday.
Government Separates More Families
Families detained in Villawood yesterday received letters from the department saying they will be moved from Sydney to the Baxter facility in South Australia, a decision that will tear families apart, the Australian Democrats said today. "These families are compliance cases, not asylum seekers. Some of the children are Australian citizens and will not even be able to visit their mum anymore. I am aware of at least 2 cases where the mother is detained and has children living outside in the community. What does that tell us about this government's family values and sense of caring towards a child's welfare?" said Leader of the Democrats and spokesperson on immigration Senator Andrew Bartlett.