Hunger strike at refugee centre ends

A hunger strike at an illegal immigrant detention centre in the Australian Outback ended today, Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock announced.

Mr Ruddock’s announcement signalled the end of a two-week-old crisis at the Woomera detention centre where more than 250 illegal immigrants were refusing food in protest at conditions at the camp and the length of time their asylum applications take to be processed.

‘‘The hunger strike at Woomera has been abandoned,’’ Mr Ruddock told reporters.

One of the hunger strikers, Hassan Varasi, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the strike was over.

‘‘From right now, we are breaking our hunger strike,’’ he said.

Members of a team of government negotiators who returned today to the Outback detention centre for illegal immigrants, had said they were confident of brokering a deal to end the hunger strike.

The Immigration Detention Advisory Group said it had made progress in discussions last week and late yesterday with representatives of the protesters at the Woomera camp, and expected to reach a compromise with the group.

‘‘There’s an excellent rapport we’ve developed with the detainees’ representatives, and I think because of that we’re looking for some truly productive discussions tomorrow,’’ Ray Funnell, IDAG acting chairman, said late last night.

‘‘Our mission is to help resolve this terrible crisis and to avert tragedy and I think we’re well on the way to doing that,’’ he added. He did not say when he expected to reach a deal with the refugees.

About 246 asylum seekers were on hunger strike at Woomera, a former missile testing base on a hot, dusty plain 1,120 miles west of Sydney. Nine protesters still had their lips sewn together early today. Last week, dozens had sewn their mouths shut.

Lawyers representing the group have said they feared some of the protesters were nearing death having not eaten for so long and drinking very little in temperatures that reached 40C (104F) in the past two weeks.

Another nine refugees, all aged 18, had said they would harm themselves at 5pm (0600 Irish time) today if they were not moved out of Woomera. It was not immediately clear if they also had called off their planned action.

On Monday night, about 36 detainees asked to have stitches in their mouths removed in a gesture to negotiators.

On Tuesday, IDAG recommended closing the Woomera internment camp.

‘‘Woomera is an extremely harsh environment in which to detain anybody,’’ said Paris Aristotle, an IDAG member.

Also yesterday, Ruddock responded to IDAG’s recommendation by saying that the camp could be scaled down as other holding facilities were built. Closing Woomera might also be possible in the future, he added.

However, he said it was not appropriate to take any such decision under duress.

There are about 3,000 illegal immigrants mainly from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and southern Asia currently in detention in five camps across Australia.

About 20 detainees at other detention centres across Australia have also joined the hunger strike in a show of solidarity. It was not immediately clear if they also had called off their protests.

Prime Minister John Howard had refused to back down, despite the issue threatening to overshadow his week-long visit to the United States, which started yesterday. He is scheduled to address the World Economic Forum and meet with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.