The Sydney lawyer for an Eastern European asylum seeker in Villawood Immigration Detention Centre says every day she speaks to her client she fears it will be the last.
“Every time I hang up, I wonder if this may be the last time we speak,” Alison Battisson told SBS News.
“The weight loss of my client is just one of the symptoms of his illness, but the government seem determined to categorise it as a protest. This is manifestly dangerous and the UN has now asked the Australian government to give my client the urgent medical care he needs to save his life," she said. The man had been in detention in Melbourne until March this year and was due to be deported last year.
The letter also requests the government to “assess the conditions of his detention and the need for continuing detention until a final decision about the author's status is taken, and provide the author with clarifications about current plans concerning his removal”. A spokesperson for Human Rights Watch said in a statement: “This case is devastating and highlights the horrendous impact of long term immigration detention. When people are detained for such extended period of times, it’s no wonder we see cases where people have lost their will to live”.
“All detainees in immigration detention have access to health care comparable to that available to the Australian community, including access to qualified health care providers for the treatment and management of identified health concerns or issue,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
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