Outside a hotel at Kangaroo Point in Brisbane, hundreds of activists are flouting coronavirus restrictions to spend another day protesting against the incarceration and indefinite detention of asylum seekers and refugees.
More than 50 police are on standby. One man has been arrested and taken away in a police car.
On June 12 Farhad Rahmati was transferred against his will from the hotel to Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation (BITA) at Pinkenba, sparking round-the-clock protests outside Kangaroo Point Central Hotel and Apartments.
There are 120 people detained inside — men who were transferred from Manus Island and Nauru for medical treatment in Brisbane.
One of them is Rohingya refugee Abdul Sattar.
At 23 years old, he has spent nearly a third of his life in immigration detention facilities.
Mr Sattar said he has never been given the chance to learn English since being locked up on Christmas Island as a teenager, although the Department of Home Affairs refutes this.
Mr Sattar spoke exclusively to ABC News via a translator.
'I felt like a stray dog'
Mr Sattar was 14 years old when he left his hometown of Maungdaw in Myanmar.
"I left Burma because it wasn't safe for me," he said.
"In 2012 there was a big violent outbreak.
"All the men were being arrested and taken away by the Burmese military … most of the boys who get taken away by the military never come back."
Mr Sattar began a long and perilous journey in search of safety.
"My mum had some money and she helped me to get on a boat to Bangladesh," he said.
"The boat, however, ended up in Thailand. Then I walked from Thailand to Malaysia."
He said the walk was gruelling.
"I was hopeless, didn't know where I was going.
"[I] felt like a stray dog.
"I wouldn't have come here if I had known Australia would treat me similar to that."
After he reached Malaysia, the then-teenager was able to track down an aunt of his, who lives illegally in Malaysia.
"I reached her home and then she informed me that there were people going to Australia by boat," he said.
He didn't want to risk another arduous journey, but his family arranged it for him.
"To come to Australia, I had to go through Indonesia," he said.
But more misfortune was waiting for Mr Sattar when he reached Indonesian shores.
"When I got to Indonesia, I was detained by the Indonesian authorities for nine months," he said.
"This was when I just turned 15."
After nine months in an Indonesian detention centre, Mr Sattar ran away.
Another asylum seeker helped him get on a boat bound for Australia.
On Christmas Island, he was detained once again.
Sattar felt like 'football' kicked from place to place
"I was kept for five months in detention on Christmas Island, with the other minors," he said.
"On Christmas Island the Australian immigration [officials] told us that we came to Australia by boat illegally and that they are going to send us to Nauru."
Four months into his time on Nauru, he became severely ill and was sent to Brisbane for treatment.
"When my treatment was over, the immigration [officials] told me that I had to go back to Nauru," he said.
Having spent a month in a Brisbane hospital bed, Mr Sattar attempted to refuse to go back.
"I told immigration [officials] that I don't want to go back to Nauru because it is unsafe, and because there were no schools there … I'm still young, I should be going to school," he said.
"They told me that I came to Australia illegally, I cannot stay in Australia."
Mr Sattar was then taken to the Wickham Point Detention Centre in Darwin.
"As soon as I arrived there, 10 minutes later, one of the immigration officers came back to me and said they're taking me back to Nauru," Mr Sattar said, adding he felt like a "football" being kicked from place to place.
When he returned to Nauru, he stayed in detention for a day before he was released into the Nauru community despite still being a minor. He was later granted refugee status.
"When I was given the refugee status letter, I was still under age … [but] I was released into the Nauru community," he said.
'Seven years of my life … ruined on Nauru'
"I was given a house with another underaged mate," Mr Sattar said.
"This was a house which was worse than the detention centre.
"We were not given any schools or access to education. Nothing … not even the opportunity to learn English."
It was in this community that Mr Sattar described as "uninhabitable" that he spent the next seven years of his life.
"It's not a habitable place, it's not a place where you can live," he said.
He added he felt unsafe.
"I was scared the whole time," he said.
"I was passing a day, and it felt like a whole year.
"The safety? There was nothing. I never felt safe at all. I missed my parents every single minute."
He said as a teenager on his own, he feared the people in the community.
"I was scared of the people of Nauru," he said.
"They were robbing the refugee people that were released into the community.
"I didn't have anyone to look after me as I was a young boy.
"Many people were beaten up and I was very lucky that I wasn't … I didn't go out at night.
"I don't think even any sort of animal would be able to bear the kind of pain I've been in the last seven years.
"Seven years of my life have been ruined on Nauru … my heart became such a rock that I can't feel that I'm human anymore."
Although currently in detention in Brisbane, Mr Sattar feels hopeless at the possibility of having to go to Nauru for a third time.
"There's no other way to fix it. I should die if I have to go back."
The ABC contacted the Department of Home Affairs about Mr Sattar's story.
In a statement, a spokesperson said: "The Department strongly refutes claims that unaccompanied minors were placed into the Nauru community without the chance to undertake schooling or learn English. Such claims are simply not true.
"The Government of Nauru, in conjunction with contracted service providers, operated a school within the Nauru Regional Processing Centre.
"It also worked to integrate minors into the local schooling system until early 2019 when the last minor departed Nauru."
Change is 'inevitable' say protesters
Zoe Hulme-Peake is one of the organisers for the demonstrations outside the Kangaroo Point hotel.
Several rallies have been held there over the past two weeks, with protesters demanding the men inside not be transferred to higher-security facilities, that they be allowed to leave the compound for exercise and that they be permanently released from detention by Christmas.
"I think that the response we have seen from the Brisbane community has been incredible and as the movement progresses it's inevitable that there will be institutional change," she said.
The organisation was preparing for another rally today.
"The goals of the protest … is to continue to show our support and solidarity for the hardships and human rights violation of the men inside by building our community response and gaining traction for both the 24/7 blockade, and the broader Refugee Solidarity Brisbane/Meanjin movement," she said.
She said she believed the Federal Government was attempting to hide what was happening to refugees in Brisbane.
"It really feels like the Government is doing everything they can to cover up the human rights violations that are occurring at Kangaroo Point," Ms Hulme-Peake said.
Islamic Council of Queensland spokesman Ali Kadri said the men had been "mentally tortured" and deserved better.
"That goes against everything that humanity stands for, that goes against everything Australia stands for," he said.
"This isn't about where they come from, this is about being human."
A spokesperson for the Department of Home affairs said in line with Australian Government policy, "No-one under regional processing arrangements will be resettled in Australia permanently".
"Transitory persons are encouraged to engage in third country migration options, including resettlement in the United States, or return to a regional processing country or their home country," the spokesperson said.
But Mr Sattar has not given up hope of gaining freedom in Australia.
"I leave my hopes to Allah. Only He knows," he said.
"If one day I get released into the community here, I want to study."
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA2LTIxL3JlZnVnZWUtZGV0YWluZWQtaW4tYnJpc2JhbmUtaG90ZWwtZGVzY3JpYmVzLXBhaW4tYW5kLXNhZG5lc3MvMTIzNzc1MzLSASdodHRwczovL2FtcC5hYmMubmV0LmF1L2FydGljbGUvMTIzNzc1MzI?oc=5
2020-06-21 04:38:32Z
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