Last week, riots erupted at the immigrant detention facility on Manus Island. After prisoners were told that they had no hope of ever getting to Australia, they protested. What happened next is uncertain -- but it ended with one asylum-seeker killed and dozens others brutally injured.
According to eyewitness accounts, the security firm guarding the compound let in local police, who cut off the electricity and attacked the detainees. One guard reported staff arming themselves with machetes, rocks and poles before stomping on the heads of asylum-seekers. Some of the detainees wet themselves with fear; others had their faces kicked in.
These detainees aren't criminals. They're not violent. Their only "crime" before the protests was trying to find a better life -- and in return, they were exposed to brutal violence. Some were unaccompanied minors: children left to face the brutality all alone.
These riots demonstrate just how inhumane it is to detain asylum-seekers indefinitely. Sign the petition to ask Tony Abbott to stop indiscriminately trapping immigrants on Manus Island and find a better solution for the hundreds of people trying to find a new life in Australia.
