Advocates have announced up to 20 asylum seekers were released from immigration detention centres across Australia last night. One of these centres was the infamous Park Hotel which detained Novak Djokovic before the Australian Open. The Australian Border Force is yet to comment on the situation.
Guardian Australia reporter Eden Gillespie took to Twitter late last night to relay a message from asylum seeker Hossein Latifi. Latifi had previously been held in detention at the Park Hotel in Melbourne’s CBD for nine years.
#BREAKING: An asylum seeker at Park Hotel has just told me he and nine others are expected to be released tonight. That would leave eight men remaining at the detention centre.
ABF yet to confirm.
— Eden Gillespie (@edengillespie) April 1, 2022
“An asylum seeker at Park Hotel has just told me he and nine others are expected to be released tonight. That would leave eight men remaining at the detention centre. ABF yet to confirm,” Eden wrote in the Tweet.
Hossein Latifi, an asylum seeker in Park Hotel, just sent me this photo of himself.
After nine years in detention, he’s been granted a bridging visa.
“Please say that I’m not really happy because refugees are still in detention,” he told me. pic.twitter.com/06FZUMiNDq
— Eden Gillespie (@edengillespie) April 1, 2022
Gillespie also noted they’d heard of other asylum seekers being released on Friday evening from several other detention centres.
These included the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation (MITA) in Broadmeadows, the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in New South Wales and Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation (BITA) in Queensland.
UPDATE: Estimate of current releases;
– 10 from Park Hotel
– 6 from MITA
– 2 from BITA
– 2 from Villawood
= 20 releases
*not confirmed by ABF— Eden Gillespie (@edengillespie) April 1, 2022
The news was confirmed by the founder of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) and absolute hero Kon Karapanagiotidis.
#BREAKING More refugees to be released from Park Hotel. How many to be confirmed.
In a wk we’ve had the NZ deal, 16,500 places for Afghanistan & Strengthening Character Test bill beaten. The power of refugee voices & U. Finally being cruel to refugees will cost you an election.
— Kon Karapanagiotidis (@Kon__K) April 1, 2022
“More refugees to be released from Park Hotel. How many to be confirmed,” Karapanagiotidis wrote.
“In a wk we’ve had the NZ deal, 16,500 places for Afghanistan & Strengthening Character Test bill beaten.
“The power of refugee voices & U. Finally being cruel to refugees will cost you an election.”
Thanush Selvarasa, a refugee activist who has also spent time in Australian immigration detention centres added some of his friends had been released after nearly a decade in detention.
#BrackingNews
Some my friends were released from detention after 9 years from MITA and park hotel nearly 10 more people it’s so exciting thanks for every one for continually supporting us— Thanush selvarasa (@thanush_selva) April 1, 2022
Another 20 #AsylumSeekers were released from immigration detention around Australia last night — 10 from Park Hotel. This is in addition to 9 released last month. Great news but it has taken up to 10 years and there’s still more locked away #protectasylumseekers #RefugeesWelcome
— Tracey Shelton (@tracey_shelton) April 1, 2022
The timing is particularly noteworthy. The Federal Government knows they must call an election sometime soon. It appears they would rather give their critics less to talk about going into what looks to be a hotly contested campaign.
Due to the timing, we can likely conclude the Federal Government didn’t release these people from detention out of the goodness of their hearts. No one’s surprised.
As mentioned by ASRC founder Kon Karapanagiotidis in his tweet “finally, being cruel to refugees will cost you an election”.
The news comes after New Zealand offered to resettle 450 people seeking asylum who were being held in Australian detention centres.
