Big Brother evictee stages prime-time protest

Prime time entertainment turned into political protest in Australia when a contestant evicted from hit reality television show Big Brother staged a silent sit-in against the detention of asylum seekers.

After being voted off the show last night, 24-year-old Merlin Luck, was whisked to a nearby television studio for a live post-eviction interview with host Gretel Killeen.

But instead of the usual gushing question and answer session, Luck sat silently, his mouth taped shut, holding a poster made from black tape stuck to paper that read Free th Refugees – the letter "e" from the word "the" apparently fell off somewhere between the Big Brother house and the studio.

There have for years been protests in Australia against the conservative government’s policy of locking up all asylum seekers caught trying to sneak into the country, but rarely has one been so high profile. Sunday night’s show had an estimated 1.5 million viewers.

“I wasn’t trying to destroy the show,” Luck said. ”If people want reality television, then this is reality.”

He said he had wanted to provoke debate about the incarceration of refugees and asylum seekers ahead of the federal election, expected later this year.

Luck – who lived for seven years in Australia as an illegal immigrant after his family moved from Germany when he was four – said he planned his protest even before the series started.

He managed to smuggle the sign into the Big Brother house by sewing it underneath a patch on a T-shirt.