Broken wall hand sanitizer containers, hand soap shared by a large number of people, and six people sharing a bedroom would not be allowed at hotels where returning travellers are in 14-day lockdowns. They would be viewed as breaking government restrictions on safeguarding against the spread of COVID-19. But these are the conditions at Kangaroo Point hotel, the Brisbane hotel where around 114 refugees and asylums seekers are under the coronavirus lockdown.
Recently the public was provided with a glimpse of conditions inside the hotel through video footage obtained from detainees and screened live in a zoom face book session. The Refugee Action Coalition in New South Wales hosted the session. Viewers could see the broken or empty sanitizer containers, the shared bathrooms, the small cramped balcony where detainees get their only experience of the outdoors, and the small carpark where they line up for meals and where with so many of them, it is impossible to practice social distancing.
The detainees were brought to Australia from offshore detention on Manus Island and Nauru under the now defunct Medevac legislation. It allowed them to be transferred to Australia if a medical specialist deemed them in need of urgent medical attention that over a year later, many have still not received.
As the camera moved around the restricted area of the hotel where the detainees are held, one of the refugees pointed out that housekeeping is only carried out weekdays from 8am to 3pm. On weekends, the detainees are left to clean the bathrooms. Refugee Farhad Rahman said Serco guards come into bedrooms three times a day, touching doorknobs and other parts of the room. One guard who worked previously at the hotel was later found to have contracted the virus. If someone came into the hotel with the virus, ‘everyone here would be affected in the blink of an eye,’ Rahman said.
Under the lockdown, visitors have been banned even though some of the detainees have relatives in Australia.
Some of those held at the hotel including Rahman, have been detained seven years despite having been accorded refugee status. Often all that keeps them going through their long wait for release is having access to a mobile phone. It allows them to stay in contact with family and with refugee supporters who help lift their morale. Mobile phones are their lifeline but that is precisely what the Federal Government now wants to take away.
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