NSW:Villawood detainees demand freedom

AAP General News (Australia)
04-21-2011
NSW:Villawood detainees demand freedom

By Danielle McGrane

SYDNEY, April 21 AAP - A group of detainees on the roof of Sydney's Villawood Detention
Centre are demanding their freedom in return for ending their protest.

Speaking by mobile phone to Social Justice Network spokesman Jamal Daoud, one Iranian
detainee said he had been in the centre for 20 months.

"I'm not an animal, I'm human. I've been in the detention centre for 20 months," he
said on speakerphone on Thursday.

"I don't have a criminal record. We're put in prison just for freedom."

The man, named as Majid, said he would come down when he got freedom.

"Give me freedom and I'll come down," he said.

Mr Daoud said the detainees, who are protesting their incarceration and claim they
haven't seen any paperwork on their residency applications, want to meet with the immigration
department.

Mr Daoud claimed one detainee had tried to commit suicide in Villawood on Wednesday.

Another detainee, named as Melad, who is from Iraq, said the group of about seven men
had been "left with no other option" but to protest.

He confirmed reports a detainee had thrown a roof tile at fire crews as they battled
a blaze at the centre overnight.

"There was just one detainee that threw tiles," he said.

"What crime did we do to stay in the detention centre?"

Mr Daoud said the detainees had complained that firefighters were pouring water on them.

Melad said he had been in the centre for 11 months.

The protest at the centre was triggered after two men climbed onto the roof of the
main centre early on Wednesday.

They were soon joined by 11 others and by midnight up to 100 people were involved,
vandalising and setting fire to buildings.

An oxygen cylinder was torched leading to an explosion shortly after 2am (AEST) on Thursday.

AAP dmg/klm/jnb/apm

KEYWORD: DETAINEE DEMAND

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