The Immigration Department says a hunger strike at a detention centre in southern Tasmania is much smaller than refugee advocates are claiming.
Refugee advocates say 150 Afghan detainees are refusing food and three people have been taken to hospital.
A member of an asylum seeker support group who visits the centre regularly says she thought the total number was closer to 50.
But the Immigration Department disputes both figures, saying only a handful are refusing food and no-one has been hospitalised.
A spokesman for the Department says fewer than 10 people are on a hunger strike and they are being monitored by medical staff and food and water are available.
He says the Department is encouraging the detainees to give up the protest action.
Earlier, Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said the detainees were angry and frustrated because they believed they were going to be given bridging visas and allowed to live in the community.
“That simply hasn’t happened; they haven’t been told when they’ll be released; they’re not being told anything and being given no expectations that they’ll be given bridging visas,” he said.
“So they feel very badly that the Government has told them one thing and is doing completely the contrary.
“Some of them are starting to do it very hard, perhaps three or four have been hospitalised and there are another five in the detention centre I’m told are in a very bad way.”
• Keep Pontville open, says Foster
A mayor in Tasmania’s south is lobbying the Federal Government to make the Pontville Detention Centre a permanent fixture to secure local jobs.
About 400 asylum seekers, many from Afghanistan, are being held at the centre near Hobart which was only ever intended to operate for six months until permanent facilities became available.
Brighton mayor Tony Foster wants the Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen, to reconsider.
“The community have had no complaints whatsoever.”
“The people there have been doing a very, very good job; SERCO do a good job; the volunteers are doing a good job and the detainees themselves are enjoying their stay here.
“So I think if the opportunity arises, I would be very supportive of the centre staying open for longer.”
He says the centre has also provided much-needed employment.
“The employment that it’s brought has been great for the area, I think right now we have the highest unemployment in the country and if we can keep people employed even just for another three months or six months I think it’s a great opportunity to do that.”
A spokeswoman for Mr Bowen says the centre is scheduled to close in March.
Tasmanian Liberal Senator Eric Abetz says it should never have been opened in the first place.
“The mayor of Brighton is asking Federal Labor to break yet another promise to the people.”
“The Labor Government promised most sincerely that the detention centre in Pontville would be closed by October last year.
“That has now been extended until the first of March.”
• Mark Colvin, PM: Asylum seeker talks hit a brick wall
MARK COLVIN: Any chance of the major parties working together on asylum seeker policy now appears dead.
After the deaths of more than 200 asylum seekers off the coast of Indonesia last year, both sides of politics agreed to talk.
But now a return to verbal slanging matches has taken the place of the political truce.
It’s been revealed that the Federal Government was offering to make concessions to the Coalition but only if it allowed asylum seekers to be sent to Malaysia.
With talks now in deadlock the only option for the Government appears to be processing the asylum seekers in Australia.
George Roberts reports from Parliament House.
GEORGE ROBERTS: The stories of asylum seekers clinging to the wreckage of overloaded boats as their family members were drowning around them shocked Australian politicians into agreeing something needed to be done but the vow of cooperation hasn’t lasted long.
The Immigration Minister Chris Bowen.
CHRIS BOWEN: I thought it was worth a go. I thought it was worth the attempt to talk to Mr Abbott and Mr Morrison in the national interest. I still believe it was worth a go. I’m still happy to talk to Mr Morrison but they’ll need to provide a more constructive approach then they have up until now.
GEORGE ROBERTS: After the High Court deemed the Government’s deal to send asylum seekers to Malaysia was illegal it needed the Opposition to help change the law.
But cooperation has been contingent on the Government adopting three policies the Coalition holds dear.
The Opposition’s Immigration spokesman is Scott Morrison.
SCOTT MORRISON: There’s no one answer here. You need a combination of measures. We’ve always been clear about what those measures are; the reopening of an offshore processing centre in Nauru, the immediate reintroduction of temporary protection visas for all offshore entry persons and thirdly, to turn back boats where it is safe to do so.
GEORGE ROBERTS: The correspondence between the two parties that’s now been released shows the Government beginning by offering to make concessions, including a review of temporary protection visas. That was dismissed by the Opposition as a delaying tactic.
CHRIS BOWEN: I think the Australian people are entitled to conclude that the only reason the Opposition would reject an inquiry into the effectiveness of temporary protection visas is because they fear that that inquiry would find that temporary protection visas were not and would not be a deterrent to coming to Australia by boat to claim asylum.
GEORGE ROBERTS: The Government also entertained the idea of reopening Nauru but reassessed the cost at $1.7 billion.
Scott Morrison says that’s absurd.
SCOTT MORRISON: I mean he’s suggesting it’s going to cost $500,000 per person per year. I mean we said that he should rebuild it, he should reopen it on Nauru, not the moon.
And I think what the Government has to do here is be honest as they’ve just simply sought to trash the Nauru option in this disgraceful exercise. He should release the full line-by-line costings of this. I mean he’s basically saying that it cost four times as much to run a processing centre on Nauru than it does on Christmas Island.
GEORGE ROBERTS: That leaves the other Opposition policy of getting the navy to turn boats around and send them to Indonesia, and Mr Bowen’s dismissing that out of hand.
CHRIS BOWEN: Now this has been condemned by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
Indonesia has made it very clear consistently that they would not cooperate with this policy and it would endanger the cooperation that we already have with Indonesia on people smuggling issues.
There is not one person who has come out to support this policy as being a sensible one.
GEORGE ROBERTS: With nearly 4,500 asylum seekers currently in detention and another 1,400 living in community housing, the stark reality for the Government is the political impasse leaves it with nowhere else to go.
Even if the Government gave in to all the Opposition demands, it’s still refusing to support the Malaysia deal.
The Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
JULIA GILLARD: I want to be very, very clear. It’s not good enough to just say no when people are drowning at sea. That’s not a good enough response from the Opposition. The Opposition should reconsider its reckless negativity in this area.
MARK COLVIN: The Prime Minister Julia Gillard ending George Roberts’ report.
First published: 2012-01-24 06:36 PM
