If you said to me a week ago that “Novak Djokovic being denied entry into Australia would lead to his fans empathising with wrongfully detained refugees” would be an actual thing that would happen in 2022, I would have laughed in your face.
But here we are! ICYMI, Djokovic reportedly tried to get around Australia’s requirement that travellers need to be vaccinated against COVID to get into the country by claiming he had “natural immunity” from a previous infection and was told this wasn’t accepted and had his visa revoked this morning.
Considering he’s notedly antivax, this caused a great deal of mirth online.
Djok was first held in Tullamarine airport, but was then moved to quarantine in the Park Street Hotel in Carlton, where 45 refugees who were brought to Australia for medical treatment during the brief Medevac period are being held indefinitely. They’ve been in detention for nine years, with no date set on when their ordeal could end.
On most days you can find some legends protesting the asylum seekers’ treatment at the hotel, setting the scene for a marvellous two-worlds-collided moment today.
Guardian reporter Cait Kelly was at the hotel and reported some Djokovic fans only became aware of the refugees’ plight after going there to support their man and chatting to the pro-refugee protestors.
“I feel so ignorant. I came here for him, and find out they’ve been locked up nine years. It’s so wrong,” one supporter reportedly said to Kelly.
We’ve got Djokovic supporters on the left and refugee advocates on the right.
One Djokovic supporter just said to me “I feel so ignorant. I came here for him, and find out they’ve been locked up nine years. It’s so wrong.” pic.twitter.com/elBDkJAZEl— Cait Kelly (@cait__kelly) January 6, 2022
Wew lad. Better late than never, I guess?
Former Park Street Hotel detainee Moz Azimi drew attention to their plight on Thursday.
The whole world is watching as Novak Djokovic is detained at Park hotel prison. As a refugee I was imprisoned there, & refugees are still imprisoned there in tiny rooms without fresh air. No one deserves this. Let’s not forget the people that will remain long after Novak leaves.
— Moz (Mostafa Azimitabar) (@AzimiMoz) January 6, 2022
While it is fine to make fun of Djokovic’s entitlement, let’s not forget all the refugees Australia has effectively tortured by way of indefinitely detaining them as an example to other desperate people around the world.
