Marat and his mum in hospital after trying to jump from the audience hall

Posted to the coordrac list by Jamal

The 9 day of Aminov's hunger strike was dramatic. As expected, son Marat had tried to commit desperate act by trying to jump from the audience hall to the main hall. Luckily he was stopped by parliament security before he hurt himself.
He was then taken to Canberra hospital for treatment of back pain in result of 3 security jumping on his back trying to stop his movement.
Then his mother was taken to hospital as she collapsed after hearing that her only son could have hurt himself. She is currently in Belconnen hospital for dehydration and treatment for Diabetes and hypertension.
Son Marat was released from hospital and he will be back (with his father) to continue their hunger strike outside the Federal parliament tomorrow.
Please take an action to support the family. You can call the minister on 6277 7860 or fax him on 6273 4144 or simply sign the petition on http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/aminovs/
Thanks
Jamal Daoud
(attached is the pic of Alija in hospital after collapsing outside the parliament)
__._,_.___

The inquiry was sparked by the illegal detention of mentally ill Australian resident Cornelia Rau
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/21/2397495.htm

Govt flags compensation for 191 wrongful detentions

Posted Tue Oct 21, 2008 6:28pm AEDT
Updated Tue Oct 21, 2008 8:31pm AEDT

The Federal Government may compensate as many as 191 people for wrongfully holding them in immigration detention centres, a parliamentary hearing has been told.

A Government ombudsman last year reported that 247 Australian citizens, permanent residents and legal visa holders were incorrectly detained by the Immigration Department between 1993 and 2007.

The inquiry was sparked by the illegal detention of mentally ill Australian resident Cornelia Rau for more than 10 months in 2004 and 2005 and the wrongful deportation of Australian citizen Vivian Solon to the Philippines.

The chief lawyer for the department, Robyn Bicket, said the department had now reviewed all the cases.

"Currently we are at 191 cases [where] we believe there is risk of legal liability for compensation and 56 cases where we believe there is no compensatable risk involved," she told a Senate estimates hearing.

Ms Bicket said that the department had offered compensation in 40 cases and settlements had been reached in 17 instances.

The Immigration Department says it has paid out just over $4 million in the past financial year to 14 Australian citizens who were wrongfully held.

More than half the money was paid to Cornelia Rau.

The payouts are separate from the $1.2 million the department has paid to 17 other Australians who were also wrongfully detained.

The Howard government adopted a controversial policy towards asylum seekers and illegal immigrants, making immigration detention mandatory even for children.

-AFP/ABC

Long-term detainees deported to danger. Refugee Groups Call For Minister to
stop the deportations

Dear All,

below is a press release that was put out today (Tuesday) regarding the
on-going deportations - actually there
are not only long term asylum seekers being deported. Another young Indian
man faces deportation on 26
October.

With Zac, we were able to get him back into legal process and his appeal
from the RRT to the Federal
Magistrates Court is on Friday. But in the longer run, there needs to be a
fundamental change in the way both
long termers and deportations are dealt with by Evans amnd the Department.

Ian

MEDIA RELEASE

Long-term detainees deported to danger. Refugee Groups Call For Minister to
stop the deportations

Refugee groups have called on the Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, to
stop the deportation of long-term
detainees and live up to Australia’s obligation not to return asylum
seekers to danger.

“Australia has an obligation to long term detainees,” said Ian Rintoul,
spokesperson for the Refugee Action
Coalition. “Chris Evans knows that many are asylum seekers are deported to
danger, yet he is signing off on
these deportations.

“He also recognizes the damage that is caused by long term detention.
Humanitarian consideration alone
should be enough for the Minister to intervene. He should, be setting an
example to the Department. But his
actions make a mockery of his claim that there is cultural change in the
Immigration department.“

Over the last few weeks, two long term Indian asylum seekers, Harinder and
Avtar, have been deported from Villawood. Both were detained when they arrived in India.

One Indian man, Avtar, deported from Australia in late August was detained,
beaten and threatened in three
different cities and was only released when his parents paid a 14,000 rupee
bribe.

Now, another long-term detainee, Zakir Hussain Baghban, an Indian asylum
seeker, is facing deportation after
being held at Villawood for over three years.

Zakir is threatened with deportation to the Western Indian region of
Gujarat, where his family home was burned
down in anti-Muslim riots in 2002. There have been bombings there as
recently as 16 September 2008.

“The failings of the refugee determination process under the Howard
government means that many of those
facing deportation have not been legally represented or had the chance to
properly put their case to the
Minister. There is no room for mistakes when you are dealing with asylum
seekers – mistakes can cost lives.
One mistake is one too many,” said Ian Rintoul.

“When Harinder was deported the Minister’s office indicated that the
question of long term would be reviewed.
We are still waiting. The Minister has wide discretionary powers to
intervene. He needs to act urgently to stop
the deportations and review all the cases of the long-term detainees.”

For more information:
contact Refugee Action Coalition, Ian Rintoul: 0417 275 713.