AUSTRALIA MELBOURNE A TAMIL REFUGEE TRIED TO HAND HIMSELF IN DETENTION CENTER WHO WON LAND MARK HIGH COURT RULING WHICH LED TO REVIEW OF HIS SECURITY ASSESSMENT IN THE COUNTRY 16TH OCTOBER 2013 A Tamil refugee who won a landmark high court case that led to the review of adverse Asio security assessments tried to hang himself in a Melbourne detention centre on Monday, according to refugee advocates and friends of the detainee. The 37-year-old man, held at Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation centre in Victoria, is said to have attempted suicide on Monday evening. A friend of the refugee, who visits the detention centre every week and spoke to him earlier on Tuesday, told Guardian Australia he had been found by another detainee who stopped the suicide attempt. The friend asked the refugee why he had tried to kill himself to which he responded in English: “I have no hope, no hope tomorrow, no hope next week, no hope next year.” The friend said the refugee had declined any subsequent medical help. The refugee won his case in the high court in October 2012, which found that a regulation declaring all non-citizens with adverse Asio security assessments could not be given a protection visa was invalid. The decision led to the previous Labor government establishing a review process for Asio assessments led by the retired judge Margaret Stone. The refugee, who has a wife and child in Sri Lanka and is known as M47 in the high court decision, has remained in detention since his arrival in Australia four years ago. Aran Mylvaganam, of the Tamil refugee council in Victoria, who is in regular contact with M47, said he had been making suicide threats for the past couple of weeks.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 02:00:03 +0000
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