Sydney - A prominent Australian activist politician claimed on Thursday that asylum seekers held in a Darwin detention centre are harming themselves to protest plans to send to another off-shore compound in Nauru.
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young who sits in the federal parliament said the Australian immigration authorities were planning to send pregnant women and others with babies to the steamy South Pacific island nation where Australia operates the controversial off-shore centre.
“A pregnant woman, five months pregnant, has attempted to take her own life in the last 24 hours,” she told reporters.
“Another woman, who has recently had a baby, was very, very fearful for what life will be like inside the detention centre.”
Local media in Australia reported more than 20 inmates claiming to be refugees, most of whom have had bridging visas rejected, staged the self-harm protest at Darwin’s Wickham Point this week.
They protested against the apparent plan to transport the pregnant woman and others to Nauru.
A Senate inquiry is being held into the Nauru centre where it has been alleged children have been regularly sexually abused.
Meanwhile on Monday, 10 asylum seekers at the Nauru centre, mostly from the Middle East, will be flown to Cambodia to build a new life as residents there under a 40 million Australian dollar (31 million US dollars) deal between Australia and Cambodia.
The United Nations and refugee advocates have strongly criticised the plan.
Xinhua