http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,3701978%255E1702,00.html
Protestors to shadow Ruddock
From AAP - 02feb02
PROTESTERS in Sydney have vowed to follow Immigration Minister
Philip Ruddock wherever he goes until detention centres are closed.
Up to 1,000 people marched from inner-city Town Hall to the
Sydney offices of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural
Affairs to denounce the government's treatment of asylum seekers
and its policy of mandatory detention.
The procession of protesters stretched through Pitt and George
streets for about a kilometre but police reported they were
relatively pleased with the crowd's behaviour.
Free the Refugees Campaign (FRC) member Paul Benedek told the
gathering the pressure on the government to change its immigration
policies would continue.
"Everywhere that Ruddock goes, we will be there," Benedek said.
"Every single time he shows his face, we'll be there with more and
more people."
Mr Benedek said a national protest was being organised to coincide
with the opening of Federal Parliament in Canberra on February 12.
Other protests would be staged before and after that date, while
every public appearance Mr Ruddock and Prime Minister John Howard
made would be marked by the presence of protesters, he said.
The federal government's policy of mandatory detention of asylum
seekers also came under fire in Sydney last weekend, when
protesters gathered outside Villawood Detention Centre.
As today's protest began the crowd was told a 29-year-old Iraqi
detainee at Woomera had been charged after an incident involving
a centre employee last weekend.
It was the latest incident at the troubled South Australian facility
which has been plagued by hunger strikes and threats of self harm
by detainees for several weeks.
Protest organiser Roberto Jorquera from FRC said the level of
public outrage over the government's current immigration policy
was a sign that it had to change, and change quickly.
"It's a message to Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock to say their
policy is no longer sustainable and the situation has reached crisis
point," he said.
The protest was organised in consultation with City Central Police.
.
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