Mohammed Asif Atay and Meqdad Hussein are the latest asylum seekers to die in Australian migration detention centres. Both were young men. Mohammed was aged 19. Meqdad was aged 20. Both were Hazara asylum seekers from Afghanistan. Both committed suicide. Mohammed had been detained for 10 months in the Curtin detention centre in South Australia. He had developed depression in the lead up to taking his own life. His death was reported on 29 March 2011. Meqdad was detained at the Scherger detention centre in North Queensland. Meqdad had recognised as a genuine refugee two or three months before his death. He lost hope when the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation issued an adverse security assessment. He died on 17 March 2011.
As usual with these cases, little information is available beyond bare details of their detention and death. Their lives were lost needlessly. Since the year 2000 there are 1055 documented deaths connected with asylum seekers and migrants seeking entry to Australia.
Sources:
Asylum Seeker Dies at Curtin Detention Centre
Troubles at other detention centres
Image Source:
Reznicek111 on Flickr
RELATED POSTS
Villawood ProtestsWhat is a "protest"? In the context of democracy we think of them as citizen action - citizens speaking to their government - expressing their dissatisfaction with a policy or state of affairs. What then are we to make of the actions of a few non-citizens protesting on the roof of the Villawood detention centre in Sydney Australia? The protest…
More than one thousand deaths since 2000On 15 December 2010, 50 people are believed to have drowned when their asylum seeker boat was smashed, only metres from safety, on the shores of Christmas Island. Some of the bodies of those who died will never be recovered. In protests by asylum seekers that followed, children held in detention are seen holding up placards asking: "The children died. Why?" [1] Yet the children and…
-
Three reasons for Abandoning Mandatory DetentionA paper delivered at a roundtable on alternatives to detention held in Canberra, June 9 – 10, 2011 By Penelope Mathew Freilich Foundation Professor The Australian National University Why does mandatory detention of asylum seekers continue in Australia when there are alternatives? In this short presentation, I invite people to think about three important issues that shape the debate about…
Ahmad Al Akabi: Another asylum seeker death in VillawoodAhmad Al-Akabi, aged 41, had a wife and was a father of three girls aged two, four and seven. He had come to Australia and had hoped to eventually bring his family with him. He arrived by boat. He was from Iraq. He is reported to have been in detention for over a year: first in Christmas Island and then in Villawood…
Mohammed Asif Atay and Meqdad Hussein are the latest asylum seekers to die in Australian migration detention centres. Both were young men. Mohammed was aged 19. Meqdad was aged 20. Both were Hazara asylum seekers from Afghanistan. Both committed suicide. Mohammed had been detained for 10 months in the Curtin detention centre in South Australia. He had developed depression in the lead up to taking his own life. His death was reported on 29 March 2011. Meqdad was detained at the Scherger detention centre in North Queensland. Meqdad had recognised as a genuine refugee two or three months before his death. He lost hope when the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation issued an adverse security assessment. He died on 17 March 2011.