Refugee Action Collective spokesperson Chris Breen, who chaired the rally, said the asylum seekers should not be moved but freed and given a permanent home.
Ged Kearney, Labor MP for the seat of Cooper, said that the detention of these refugees, who were brought to Australia under the now-repealed medevac law is “unlawful”.
Gaetano Greco, deputy mayor of Darebin, said that the council is willing to organise local residents to take refugees into their homes if they are released.
Samantha Ratnam, leader of the Victorian Greens, described the situation as a “national shame” and called on the Victorian government to advocate for the refugees in the national cabinet.
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After spending eight years in detention, Kurdish refugee Farhad Bandesh was freed last Friday on his 39th birthday.
Clutching a guitar in his hand, he walked out of Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation and towards his Australian friends that had been waiting outside. My caseworker called me and said ‘you got your freedom’ and I said ‘wow, I cannot believe it. Are you kidding me?’,” Mr Bandesh told
The Feed.
“That day was something really special. It’s something I will always remember,” he added.
Five asylum seekers were released from detention last week and given temporary bridging visas, according to the Refugee Advocacy Network.
Protesters outside the Mantra Hotel in Preston, Melbourne. (Image: AAP/James Ross)
Having resided at the Mantra Hotel in Preston, where around 60 refugees have been held for eight months, the temptation is to make the joke that everyone who stays there is tortured in some form or another.
The place used to have a standard business hotel section and an el cheapo option called, ironically, “Breakfree”, which had small studio rooms in the style of a Scandinavian prison. It tended to be block-booked by social services with troubled families and recently released prisoners.
The Mantra is the “upmarket” wing, home to mid-level businesspeople and prisoners of the federal state charged with no crime.
The detainees were told that the Australian Border Force would not be renewing the contract with the Mantra and that they would be forced to move to an unspecified “alternative place of detention”, also known as an APOD.
Last week, a few men were released on visas from Mantra and the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation centre in Broadmeadows last week and there were high hopes among the detainees and their supporters that justice would prevail.
Refugee activist Alex Bhathal told
The Age on December 14 that said she had been told by a guard at Mantra that the men would be leaving on December 15.
Refugees Stuck In A Melbourne Hotel Are Pleading For Protestors To Oppose New Border Force Move
Those locked inside want protestors to come to the Mantra Hotel on Bell Street in Preston on Tuesday afternoon to show their support.
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Medevac refugees in the Mantra Hotel on Bell Street in Preston have pleaded with the Melbourne community to protest, following news they may be moved to an unnamed location.
Kurdish refugee Moz Azimi told Junkee that he was only told yesterday that he would be moved to an undisclosed location, and forced to share a room with someone else.