FED:Detainees to sleep on roof for sixth night

AAP General News (Australia)
04-25-2011
FED:Detainees to sleep on roof for sixth night

By Lema Samandar

SYDNEY, April 25 AAP - The three detainees on the roof of Sydney's Villawood Detention
Centre could be sleeping on top of the building for a sixth night as negotiations to get
them down continue to be unsuccessful.

Social Justice Network spokesman Jamal Daoud says because of the way the immigration
department is handling the situation, the three men could be on the roof until at least
Tuesday morning.

Mr Daoud says the protesters were told by negotiators that a representative from the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees had arrived to talk to them, but they didn't believe
it.

"It could be that the government just wanted to give them false hope to come down.

They did this with the Chinese asylum seekers last year," Mr Daoud told AAP.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Immigration said security company Serco had been
handling all the negotiations and no details of the process could be revealed.

On Monday afternoon, hundreds of refugee supporters gathered outside the detention
centre to support the three detainees protesting on the rooftop who have been supplied
with water but not food.

However, the centre's other detainees were in lockdown, unable to communicate with the crowd.

The supporters marched the two kilometres from Chester Hill Railway Station to the
detention centre in Sydney's southwest to show their solidarity with those on the other
side of the fence.

"Freedom!" they chanted, and the cry was returned by the men on the roof.

The three men have been protesting since Wednesday.

On Wednesday night a riot involving 100 detainees left nine buildings at the centre
gutted by fire.

Twenty-two of the alleged rioters were taken to Sydney's Silverwater jail.

Majid Parhizkar, 24, from Iran, and stateless Kurdish men Mehdi and Amir, whose applications
for asylum have been twice rejected, are refusing to come down from the roof.

Majid's brother Hadi, 25, has been camping outside the detention centre since Thursday
and said he was worried about his brother, who has been without food since the protest
began.

"It's not good, he's very hungry and they can't resolve the problem," Hadi told reporters
at the scene.

"It's dangerous for him and I want (him to come down).

"We came to Australia together two years ago and I was accepted after six months and
Majid has not been and we want to know the reason."

His brother could not go back to Iran because he might be killed for converting to
Christianity, Hadi said.

Majid felt as if he had nothing to lose and if he came down from the rooftop he might
be sent to jail or be deported, he said.

The refugee supporters maintained a one-minute silence for Anzac Day, as police and
detention centre security guards closely monitored the area.

AAP lxs/wjf/apm

KEYWORD: DETAINEES WRAP (PIX AVAILABLE)

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