Detainee badly beaten at Maribyrnong Detention Centre
by Takver Sunday October 12, 2003 at 07:06 PM

45-year-old detainee was beaten at Maribyrnong Detention Centre by Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) guards on Friday, 80 people protest his treatment Sunday afternoon.

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On Friday night (10 October) a 45-year-old detainee was beaten at Maribyrnong Detention Centre
by Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) guards.

Rachel Judd, a close friend of the detainee, spoke to him on Saturday morning.

"He told me that he had been taken into isolation and then beaten by ACM guards. They stripped him, and threw him onto the bed a number of times. He said he felt as if his arm and wrist had been broken. He¹s already vulnerable because he has a back injury and relies on crutches to walk."

Refugee advocates say that after he was taken into isolation he was denied any telephone contact with his lawyers. This is in spite of repeated attempts to contact him.

"I was continually reassured by ACM management that he was all right, and it was only this morning that I found out what had happened", said Miss Judd.

"This man has a history of being targeted by ACM and DIMIA and these tactics are an attempt to intimidate him and his supporters," said Fleur Taylor, from the Refugee Action Collective.

To protest against the ongoing physical abuse, humiliation and isolation of detainees an urgent action was organised for Sunday at 2pm outside the Maribyrnong Detention Centre 53 Hampstead Road Maidstone.

About 80 people attended the protest. The detainees were all locked down inside buildings, however they could hear that there was a protest occurring outside the razor wire. The protestors could faintly hear the calls from people in the buildings behind the fences and wire.

The protest marched around to the back of the facility to a position closer to the isolation section. A section of the first wire mesh fence was cut away. A short debate ensued about strategy and consequences for those who were prepared to enter the breach in the first fence. About half the crowd opted to enter, walking around the perimeter between the two fences making much noise.

www.rac-vic.org/

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Maribyrnong Detention Centre
by Takver Sunday October 12, 2003 at 07:06 PM

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Banner painted on the spot on the fence.

www.rac-vic.org/

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Maribyrnong Detention Centre
by Takver Sunday October 12, 2003 at 07:06 PM

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About 40 people entered a hole in the first mesh fence to walk the perimeter of the main fence and get closer to detainees and attempt to communicate with them.

www.rac-vic.org/

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