Angry Villawood Clashes Follow Suicide: Three Arrested

Refugee Action Coalition

MEDIA RELEASE

Angry Villawood Clashes Follow Suicide: Three Arrested

Villawood detention centre remain locked down this morning, Saturday 26 January, following yesterday’s suicide by “Musa”, a 33 year-old refugee from Sierra Leone.

There were angry clashes overnight between guards and detainees inside the detention centre. Three detainees were arrested by Serco security in the early hours of Saturday morning, and are being kept in punishment isolation cells inside the centre.

Detainees are angry at what they see as Border Force and Serco negligence that has led to Musa’s death. Musa’s mental health problems were well established over the many years he was wrongfully kept in detention. But he never got the help that he needed.

‘There must be an immediate independent inquiry into all the circumstances surrounding Musa’s death,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.

"The stark reality of long-term detention and Ministerial power has been kept hidden too long. Musa was a humanitarian refugee and could not be sent back to Sierra Leone, but the threats of indefinite detention or removal take a terrible toll.

"Hundreds of others are in detention in similar circumstances; they should be released."

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