Arrests end asylum-seeker protest
Nine religious representatives will appear before the Mount Barker Magistrates court in August after being arrested last night while holding a sit-in protest at the office of federal Liberal MP Jamie Briggs.
The religious leaders, part of the multi-faith activist movement Love Makes A Way, sat and prayed in the Mt Barker office from around 10am to protest against the indefinite detention of asylum seekers, including children, by the Australian Government.
A spokeswoman for the group said yesterday that would stay at the office until they received an answer to the question: ‘When will the 983 children being held in detention by Australia be released?’ – or were arrested.
When the office was due to close around 5pm, the latter occurred.
SA Police said up to 16 people attended the protest – nine refused to leave after office closing time.
According to protester Rev. Jennifer Hughes, “the office staff asked us to leave and we politely replied that we weren’t able to leave without a response to that question”.
“They felt it necessary to call the police, the police came; we had calm negotiations until such a time that they felt it necessary to arrest us,” she said.
Each member of the group was charged with trespasser failing to leave and bailed.
According to Hughes, bail conditions imposed on her and her husband Rev. John Hughes ban them from returning to Briggs’ office and require that they stay at least 200 metres away from the the Inverbrackie Detention Centre – in Briggs’ electorate of Mayo.
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Love Makes A Way has previously staged similar protests at the offices of Immigration Minister Scott Morrison and Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, among others.
Protester Rabbi Shoshana Kaminsky said she hoped the group would hold similar protests in the future, but said she wasn’t aware of specific plans.
“If I did know, I probably wouldn’t tell you,” she said, with a chuckle.
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