Weekend unrest at Australia’s Christmas Island detention center, triggered by the death of an asylum-seeker who reportedly tried to escape, has focused renewed attention on the human rights abuses of detained refugees.
Fazel Chegeni, an Iranian Kurdish man in his early 30s, was found dead on Sunday on a cliff bottom after he reportedly attempted to escape from the facility, where refugees are detained roughly 1,242 miles northwest of Perth in the Indian Ocean.
The cause and circumstances of his death are currently unknown. But voices from inside the center and immigration advocates on the ground say Chegeni’s escape should spotlight the dire need for reform of Australian detention camps, which are rife with allegations of human rights abuses.
“Like so many others, Fazel was suffering the effects of long-term, arbitrary detention,” said the Refugee Action Coalition Sydney (RAC).
The unrest reportedly started after center officials announced that Chegeni had been found “in the jungle” and had been dead for “some time.” In the ensuing protests, detainees knocked down walls and fences and burned the center’s canteen as guards abandoned their posts.
Gordon Thompson, president of the local municipal government, told News Limited that Chegeni had been “driven to death by his detention.”
Chegeni arrived in Australia in 2010 and had been held at various detention centers since that time, although he was briefly released on a good behavior bond in Melbourne before being re-detained over a fight that had taken place months earlier at Curtin Immigration Detention in Kimberley. He was granted refugee status in 2013, but remained in custody until his death. He had been at Christmas Island for about 10 weeks before the escape attempt.
Refugee rights activist Dana Affleck, who knew Chegeni, said he had previously attempted suicide and was battling depression while being held at the various centers.
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