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Australians should be alarmed at suggestions chemical restraint – anti-depressants – might be used against asylum seekers, says director of Adelaide Centacare, Dale West.
In
the wake of violent disruption by detainees at the Port Hedland detention centre in January, Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock has said new legislation will be introduced allowing staff more power to search and
restrain detainees, including the possible use of chemical restraint.
And, in another worrying move for asylum seekers, it is also believed that those behind the disruption at Port Hedland have been removed
from South Australia’s Woomera detention centre and are awaiting deportation after having had their visa applications refused.
However, Mr West said it was Centacare’s understanding that this was not the
case. But, Mr West said, he was concerned about the rumour that these people were being deported.
“Capricious moves like this destroy people’s confidence and make them vulnerable to rumours and fears,” said
Mr West.
“Increasingly punitive and inhumane measures now being mooted by the Commonwealth are fuelling, rather than fixing, the problems occurring inside Woomera and other detention centres,” said Mr West.
And, he added, “the talk now of administering anti-depressants and other forms of so-called ‘chemical restraint’ to the asylum seekers – seemingly without their consent – should alarm most ordinary
Australians.”
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