Fed: UN representatives visit Nauru

AAP General News (Australia)
12-17-2003
Fed: UN representatives visit Nauru

The federal government has been labelled as callous for the way it's treating asylum
seekers on Nauru.

Representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees will visit Nauru
today where 25 asylum seekers are on a hunger strike.

Six of the group are in hospital as more asylum seekers prepare to join the protest
against their detention on the Pacific island.

Chairman of Austcare Refugee Week, URI THEMAL, says it's shocking to realise Australia's
led by a callous government which mocks the suffering of the asylum seekers by calling
their actions blackmail.

HASSAN GHULAM, president of the Hazara Ethnic Society of Australia, says the hunger
strikers' statement is -- freedom or death.

Lawyers have lodged a writ in the Supreme Court of Victoria, alleging the asylum seekers
on Nauru are being falsely imprisoned.





Under Australia's so-called Pacific Solution, 284 people, including 93 children, remain
in detention on Nauru.

AAP RTV jfs/rcg/jas

KEYWORD: DETENTION UN (BRISBANE)

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