More clashes in Baxter protest

NEWS.com.au | More clashes in Baxter protest

People have been angry about the situation at the Baxter detention centre.The turning point was when we found out Cornelia Rau had been imprisoned there for 10 months and the detainees had tried everything to get that woman's plight to our notice. The "softening" by the government of allowing some detainees to be freed , especially if they have converted to Christianity, has not helped the longest kept detainee Peter Qasim. Dick Smith has even made a personal visit to the centre and a personal call to the Prime Minister and the situation with Qasim remains the same: he continues to be detained. Now that Easter is here and people have had a chance to air their views the frustration and anguish felt by us about those who are just detained and appear to have no way out has reached a desperate situation. People will be arrested and punished because we have not allowed the detainees a reasonable way of resolving their detention. We are not like that here. We accept border protection. We accept ascertaining whether people have the right to be here and not queue jump because many people have relatives on waiting lists ,but we don't accept people being detained in a prison like situation indefinitely with no way out. Many people have migrated here. Many people have come here through refugee camps...original settlers came from prisons. There has been no reasonable form of protest or approach which has allowed the Government to listen and change its approach. It has currently erupted and will continue to do so until there is reason put into he situation.