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Refugees & migrants
Chris Slee

Issue 
1261

Australia

COVID-19
Mantra Hotel
Refugee Action Coalition Victoria

Melbourne

April 13, 2020

On April 10, refugee rights supporters who organised a physically-distanced car cavalcade through the streets of Preston to demand freedom and medical care for detained refugees being held in the Mantra Hotel were stopped and fined large sums by the Victorian Police.

The detainees are being held in crowded conditions, many sleeping three to a room.They are fearful that the COVID-19 virus could spread rapidly if brought in by guards or hotel staff. Medical experts agree, and have called for detainees to be freed for their own health and that of the community.

The solidarity cavalcade was organised by the Refugee Action Collective (RAC). Participants remained in our cars throughout the event, respecting the the physical distancing requirements, and each car contained a maximum of two people, both of whom were from the same household. We attached signs to their cars, or wrote slogans on the vehicles with liquid chalk.

Despite all these precautions, the Victorian police tried to prevent the cavalcade from going ahead. That included arresting Chris Breen, a prominent member of RAC two hours before the event kicked off. Breen was detained in a police cell for nine hours. His phone and computer were confiscated.

But the cavalcade went ahead. As it passed the Mantra Hotel, police held it up and began taking the names of drivers and passengers. They later announced that 26 people would each be fined $1652 for supposedly violating the lock-down law by being away from their homes.

Breen was charged with “incitement” under an anti-protest law which dates back to 1958.

The protesters will challenge the fines, and several lawyers have already offered to help.

A petition has been set up directed to the Victorian Labor government to drop the charges and to use its power to free the refugees.

Breen said in a Facebook post that he was “proud to be inciting support for refugees”.

“Our protest was safe, detention is not,” he said, adding that the authorities’ “hypocrisy is staggering” when it is legal to drive to Bunnings, JB-Hi Fi and in Victoria, it is still legal to drive to a holiday home. “But we can’t drive around the block to highlight the lack of safety for vulnerable refugees with underlying health conditions.

“The refugee movement will not stay silent; we will not cease our protests until the camps are closed and every refugee is free.”

[Chris Slee is an activist in RAC and was also issued with a fine for taking part in the car cavalcade. You can donate to help RAC here.]

Detainees in the Mantra Hotel protest for their release on April 12. Photo: Refugee Action Collective Victoria/Facebook

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