Refugee Rights Action Network WA
18:51 AEDT Mon Dec 12 2011
Protesters have targeted the immigration detention centre at Perth Airport in a bid to stop the deportation of two Tamil asylum seekers to Sri Lanka.
They prevented a car from leaving the centre on Monday, believing it contained a Tamil man about to be deported.
But the Immigration Department says protesters only succeeded in stopping the car taking an asylum seeker to torture and trauma counselling.
Refugee Rights Action Network spokesman Alexis Vassiley said about a dozen protesters blockaded a vehicle believed to be carrying a deportee on Monday morning, preventing it from leaving.
He said refugee activists were concerned that two Tamil men were due to be deported on Monday and Tuesday from Perth to Sri Lanka “where we believe they will be in danger”.
The government should not be sending asylum seekers back to Sri Lanka where there were a high number of disappearances and many Tamils were still in concentration camps, Mr Vassiley told AAP.
He said the protesters had learned on Monday afternoon that a High Court injunction sought by refugee lawyers had been granted, preventing one of the Tamil men from being deported.
An Immigration Department spokesman confirmed a court injunction had been granted preventing the removal of one Sri Lankan national.
He said “irresponsible protesters” at the Perth detention centre had prevented a departmental car from taking a detainee to torture and trauma counselling.
source: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8388589/protests-target-perth-detention-centre
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