Detainees at a high-security Melbourne detention centre say they have launched a hunger strike, with up to 200 men protesting what they describe as brutal conditions in the new compound.
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Their protest comes as distressing footage emerges of two men being forcibly dragged from a mess hall at the centre, one with a security guard's arms locked around his neck.
Iranian asylum seeker Ali told The Age and Sydney Morning Herald about 200 men were in their third day of a hunger strike on Thursday over the harsh conditions at the Broadmeadows detention centre compound, MITA North, including being put into lockdown overnight."It's not suitable for living," he said. "We're not a harm - we're not criminals."
The Department of Home Affairs flatly denied there was a hunger strike under way at MITA, saying in a statement, "Some detainees have been staging a peaceful protest, but continue to eat and drink."
One detainee, Ali, said of this: "They're lying".
MITA North, a high-security compound at the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation centre in Broadmeadows, was opened late last year, weeks before the government closed the high-security Maribyrnong detention centre.
Just over a month ago, there were still 107 detainees at Maribyrnong.
The government hailed the closure of Maribyrnong as a win for its tough border protection policies, but many of the detainees from that centre have been transferred to the newly-built compound at MITA.
MITA North caters for detainees awaiting deportation, men whose visas have been cancelled for various reasons, and asylum seekers.
A video shot at an adjoining compound, MITA South, showed an asylum seeker - who fellow detainees said had asked staff for garlic to put on his meal - being set upon by five guards and dragged out of the mess hall. When another man tried to intervene, he was forcibly restrained by three guards and similarly dragged from the room. Footage taken through the window outside showed three guards restraining the second man; one with both forearms and fists locked around the man's neck.
The Department of Home Affairs did not respond to questions about whether it was satisfied that the actions of the guards were defensible, and what it was doing to defuse the situation.
John, a New Zealand-born detainee facing deportation on Friday, said he had been in detention almost three years after serving a four-and-a-half year sentence for armed robbery and causing injury.
He said MITA North was worse than his time in jail.
"The living conditions here - we sleep on metal bunks, the food portions are small, we're not allowed to go for second portions. There's only metal chairs, no couches. We're just calling for decent living conditions."
Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said the conditions at MITA were "inhuman".
"Border Force control has created militarised detention centres that are worse than prisons,” he said.
The number of people in immigration detention peaked at about 10,200 in the middle of 2013, with the vast majority boat arrivals, but now stands about 1250.
The 1250 people now in immigration detention in Australia are roughly split between three categories: boat arrivals dating back to 2013 or earlier; people who have had their visas cancelled on character grounds, usually because they’ve committed crimes; and people who have over-stayed their visas.
Once a common feature of Australia's detention centre network, hunger strikes have become less common on the mainland in recent years. In July, 40 women held a hunger strike in Sydney's Villawood detention centre, while hunger strikes and other protests are a regular occurrence in Nauru and Manus Island.
with David Wroe
