‘Talk’: Australian refugees urge Djokovic to stand up for them Human Rights News

Renowned tennis player Novak Djokovic is being held for the third day in a row on Saturday in the Australian Immigration Detention Center following his arrest. the visa was canceled when he arrived in the country on Wednesday.

The athlete said he got the COVID vaccine exemption before flying to Australia. But the Australian Border Force banned him from entering, saying he had “failed to provide adequate evidence to meet the entry requirements”.

As a result, Djokovic has been arrested at the Melbourne Park Hotel for refugees and asylum seekers, also known as the Alternative Place of Detention (APOD). Known as a site of COVID-19 infections among long-time residents.

Many of the hotel’s refugees have been detained there for almost three years after arriving in the country by boat after being denied an indefinite visa to Australia.

Between the exception of the COVID vaccine of the leading tennis player and the outrage over his subsequent arrest, refugees and asylum seekers have hardly been able to find a figure to highlight their situation. They ask Djokovic to leave his celebrity, clarify his situation and stand up for his freedom.

“This is [the] it’s time to see how the world treats us, ”said Jamal, who has been a refugee and prisoner at the Park Hotel for a year. He came to Australia by boat in 2013 and has been unresolved for more than eight years.

Amin Afravi, another refugee detained in a separate detention center in Brisbane, said Djokovic had the opportunity to help refugees fight for freedom.

“My message is to speak up … and to encourage other people, other countries, their country and every media outlet. [outlets] to continue to speak for us, ”said Amin, an Iranian refugee from Ahwazi in Iran.

“It’s torture for us”

It was in 2013 that the Australian Government reached a series of agreements with South Pacific residents. Nauru and Papua New Guinea, to arrest asylum seekers arriving by boat. The agreement prohibits the permanent resettlement of refugees in Australia.

Six years after that agreement, many of those asylum seekers who were eventually officially accepted as refugees have been evacuated to mainland Australia and are in detention centers across the country, including Melbourne and Brisbane, to date.

One of the refugees is Ismail Hussein, who is being held in a “room” at the Melbourne Park Hotel. In an interview with Al Jazeera, he described the situation inside the hotel over the past year.

“We are locked in a room. I can tell 24 hours a day. 24 hours a day [in] a room with no windows, ”he said.

The worst thing, he said, is “lack of freedom of movement.”

“You can see it through the window. People move on with their lives … and it’s torture for us. Torture for us, ”he said. “You know, everything we want is the same thing that normal people do. But for no reason have they been removed for nine years. ‘

According to Hussein, the food is “terrible” and “mostly uneatable.”

“Sometimes there [are] pastures, sometimes there [are] other insects, ”he said. “Sometimes it smells really bad. And, you know, he gave us diarrhea and a stomach ache many times. ”

A photo sent to Al Jazeera by a resident of the Park Hotel shows insects and artichokes in food. [Photo supplied to Al Jazeera by a refugee resident]

Jamal, a refugee who is also staying at the Park Hotel, said the only part of the building with open space is a burning area, “which is harmful to our body, so we are locked in the walls of the building.”

“The hotel itself smells, [sometimes] the smell is so much worse that you can’t breathe, ”he told Al Jazeera. “I got it [suffocated] I can’t breathe. I have nightmares about this arrest and security. ”

Because of the “unlimited” nature of the arrest, “each of us” has developed “depression, anxiety, self-harm, destruction,” Jamal said, and asked to identify Al Jazeera only by his name.

“Uncertainty kills us”

Even before arriving at the hotel, the refugees are being abused, according to Alison Battisson, Human Rights Officer for All. It represents several refugees detained at the Park Hotel.

“[They’re] In an unmarked van with blackened windows … that’s how they all get to the Park [Hotel]. They arrived without anything or medication, and often without any means of communication, ”he told Al Jazeera.

“Uncertainty is what kills us,” said a resident of the Hussein Park Hotel. “We don’t know how long we have to wait.”

“Sometimes I can’t even tell if it’s day or night. Just lying in bed. ‘

People are watching Serbian tennis champion Novak Djokovic from a government detention center where he is staying in Melbourne after Australia said it had revoked Djokovic’s entry visa. [Con Chronis/AFP]

In October last year, COVID raided the hotel, infecting more than half of the refugees inside.

When Hussein became infected, he said it was “the happiest day in years.”

“Because I was thinking, at least there’s a reason I could die without harming myself,” he said.

“Seriously, that’s how I hate this place, that’s how I hate myself. All I wanted was to end this pain and I didn’t want to hurt myself. “

‘Cruelty, slow death’

Suffering does not end at the Park Hotel. Along with Jamal and Hussein, nearly 60 other refugees were evacuated to Australia by medical treatment remained in detention centers across the country.

Amin, a refugee arrested in Brisbane, told Al Jazeera that his situation was “cruelty, torture to death and [a] slow death ”.

“You don’t know your future, you have no idea how long you will be in custody, and no one will answer your questions,” he explained. “You’re thinking every day: what did you do wrong?”

It’s “traumatic,” Djokovic said, asking for help.

Djokovic’s current outcry over the situation, however, has frustrated the refugee situation, said musician and refugee advocate Dawn Barrington.

Shameful, effective + cynical, opportunistic, cruel, nonsensical and ridiculous.
Like all immigration arrests. #auspol https://t.co/Lj3gnjlHNg

– Human Rights for All (@ HumanRights4A) January 6, 2022

From Thursday, When Djokovic was taken to the Park Hotel, a mob has been set up to protest his arrest, the Serbian Foreign Ministry has “verbally protested” and attacked his family, calling him a “prisoner” in the Australian system.

“It has headline news like this with all the stations as well as foreign news,” Barrington told Al Jazeera. “And yet, to arbitrarily detain people and deprive them of all their human rights, including children, has never been the title for a long time.”

Barrington says he has asked the Australian government what the refugee plan is.

Battisson, of Human Rights For All, said the scandal over Djokovic’s controversy was a “perfect opportunity” for the Australian government to “channel and create a much more humane immigration and detention regime”.

“It doesn’t cost billions of dollars a year to keep people under threat who do not threaten Australia, and in the case of many refugees they are trying to leave Australia for a safe third country.”

But it is almost too late for many refugees inside the Australian immigration detention center.

Hussein said he has developed post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and insomnia since his long detention. They also physically destroyed him, he said.

“I have high blood pressure now. I have diabetes, I have liver problems. There are things I need to live for the rest of my life [that] I didn’t come here before. ‘

He asked the Australian government to “please leave us before it’s over”.

“We are at the end of the line. We can’t hold on any longer. We can’t hold on any longer. We are very tired. Let’s be free. “