Melbourne, Australia – Australian freedom fighters are urging the government to release detainees after a single COVID-19 case was officially confirmed elsewhere in Melbourne.
Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, is currently closed for the sixth time in a coronavirus-infected Delta virus.
On Saturday, the state of Victoria reported 450 new cases. On Friday, at least 299 of the 334 reported cases came from Melbourne and surrounding areas.
Several advertisers and asylum seekers have told Al Jazeera at least two guards have been diagnosed with the virus and many more are expected to remain isolated because they have not gone to work in recent days.
The Australian Border Force (ABF), however, says only one worker has been diagnosed with the disease. The man is an employee at the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation (MITA) Broadmeadows Residential Precinct (BRP), and “does not associate with detainees as part of their duties,” ABF told Al Jazeera.
The detainee at MITA, speaking to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, expressed concern about his health and safety, saying that about five people live together in some of the rooms, which are divided into separate areas.
The units in BRP, which have four bedrooms plus a small kitchen, are spacious. Unlike Avon’s rooms, the other room, houses up to six people in the bedrooms.
It is alleged that although the ABF provided prisoners with masks and herbal remedies, it did not address the spread of the virus.
“They don’t test us if we have COVID unless we show signs,” the inmate said. “This means they would not know if it was spreading until more people became ill. They could move faster. The guards were free to come.”
COVID hot spot
A business company, which provides prison staff, sent Al Jazeera’s questions to the ABF.
The Border Force said the health and safety of detainees and workers was paramount and had worked with the state health department on COVID-19’s “critical” prevention measures since the outbreak began.
“It is not true that preventive measures have been tolerated or limited in refugee camps,” the ABF said.
Prisons and prisons around the world have become known as COVID-19 and some countries are releasing some of their stockpiles to reduce the risk of infection.
The Australian Human Rights Commission describes COVID-19 as a “serious threat” to 1,492 people in Australia’s immigration prison.
In a June report, the commission said the government should place all those “who are at risk of security in some way in the interests of the public to be detained”.
He also said that the authorities should improve the length of the prison and take care of especially the many people who are known to be at risk of the disease due to health problems.
‘He committed no crime’
About 239 people are being held in the MITA, as human rights activists say they are “massive”.
The Commission also noted that many of those seeking rescue care have serious health problems,
A bystander told Al Jazeera that half of those in his room had received their first vaccine – all last week. There are about 60 people in his unit, he said.
Sadaf Ismail, Director of the Asylum Seeker Resource Center, which has clients within MITA, said those who wanted to be rescued should be released immediately because human distance was not possible within the area.
The prisoners “are so close to each other … how could they possibly isolate themselves?” he said.
Given these threats, the government should release all asylum seekers, he added.
“He has not committed any crime,” he said.
Refugee activists say that preventive measures in immigration centers do not help the epidemic.
“Now I have been told that we can see the guards wearing masks [and]… Sometimes they wear gloves but that is not the case, “said Ian Rintoul, spokesman for the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC), who communicates with people in refugee camps.
The ABF, however, said allegations of tolerance or limited means in the detention of migrants were “not true”. He further added that the ABF and the Department of Home Affairs “have developed interventions to reduce the incidence of the disease in accordance with appropriate health advice”.
“So far, no detainee has been found with COVID-19 in the Immigration Detention Network,” it added without explaining the size of the trial program or how many were tested.
Vaccination for asylum seekers began in August, when Australian nationals began vaccinating in February.
The arrested at MITA said the distribution in the Melbourne area began last week.
“Given the lack of quality, total secrecy and the abuses of the Immigration department, it is dangerous to trust them,” he said.
“We’re stuck here and we know they don’t care about our health …
“Prison accommodation is very important, like prison … if we were free, we could choose our own independent doctor and we can talk about our feelings.”
Years of insecurity have left refugees and asylum seekers worried and skeptical.
The threat of coronavirus has exacerbated the problem.