PM calls asylum protest blackmail

More than 200 refugees on hunger strike in the searing heat of an Australian outback immigration prison were condemned by the prime minister, John Howard, yesterday for subjecting the country to moral blackmail.

"It is being done to morally intimidate the Australian people and the Australian government into changing a policy," Mr Howard said as 22 refugees from Woomera detention centre were treated for dehydration after temperatures rose towards 40C.

The migrants' suicide attempts and other protests have won the sympathy of prominent politicians, novelists, charities and Aborigines, who offered Australia's newest arrivals "political asylum, and earned Canberra a rebuke by the UN High Commissions for Refugees".

"We are shocked and horrified at the callous and inhumane treatment of refugees in Woomera," said Pat Eatock of the Aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra, a group which campaigns for indigenous sovereignty on land snatched in 1788 by Australia's first "boat people" - settlers from Britain.

But Aborigines have no legal standing to offer asylum, and an unrepentant Mr Howard turned down offers from charities to provide the refugees with free accommodation and food so that they could live in the community while their asylum applications are assessed.

"That is not a solution," he said. "Mandatory detention is part of the process of sending a signal to the world that you cannot come to this country illegally."

Welfare groups warned that people would die at Woomera, 370 miles north of Adelaide, as the immigration department confirmed that 44 of the refugees were continuing to keep their lips sewn together, and 15 had tried to harm themselves.

Refugees have tried to kill themselves by drinking shampoo, swallowing sleeping pills and hanging themselves with bedsheets since the hunger strike began 10 days ago in protest at the government's decision to suspend consideration of Afghan migrant's applications.

Mr Howard suggested that parents had forced the 34 children involved to join the hunger strike. "Children in the proper, positive care of their parents don't sew their lips together, do they?" he said.

The government has resumed considering the Afghan applications. But talks between the detainees and immigration officials broke down yesterday when the authorities refused to put a deadline on the process.

Mr Howard claimed that his policy of detaining all refugees was reaping rewards, since fewer unauthorised people had landed on Australia's shores since the navy was instructed to turn them away.

The leader of the Australian Democrats, Natasha Stott Despoja, described Woomera as a "hell-hole" after visiting the camp on Thursday, and condemned Mr Howard's comments.

"How dare our prime minister talk about moral intimidation?" she said. "It's not intimidation. It's a brutal policy, mandatory detention, and it must end."

But mandatory detention is supported by the vast majority of Australians. Just as the controversy over sending asylum seekers to Nauru helped Mr Howard's Liberal government to a third election victory in November, the hunger strikes at Woomera are helping the government of South Australia, the only Liberal party state administration, which faces an election on February 9.

Since the hunger strike began its popularity has soared. About 90% of callers to talk radio shows in Adelaide supported Mr Howard's stance.