Hunger strike a desperate attempt to avoid deportation to danger
A group of 17 asylum seekers are on their 13th day of a hunger strike, taking nothing except for a little water, as the City Hub goes to print.
Most of them are stateless Kurds coming from Iran. They already spent several months in detention on Christmas Island before being moved to Villawood.
They are protesting at the lack of transparency of the asylum seeker process. A spokesperson for the hunger strikers told the City Hub that they don’t understand why some of their friends were given visas while they were rejected. Their last chance for appeal now lies with the Minister for Immigration.
“We are scared that if we go back that we suffer or be killed. If you leave you can’t go back to the same place,” the hunger striker said.
Some of their friends have been given visas and are now living in the community in Sydney, trying to start new lives and petitioning for those who face deportation.
“They are very tired,” one of the supporters told the Hub. “They have written a letter to immigration.”
Iraj Moghadan, was involved in the anti-Ahmadinejad protests in Iran last year and says he will never go back. He says four of his comrades were killed by government while he escaped. He shows me scars on his arms he says are from injuries inflicted by security agents at protests.
He spent five months on Christmas Island and several months in Villawood and now suffers from ill health form the stress he suffered during that time. He is trying to help the group who is on hunger strike by gathering signatures for a petition to the minister.
