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3 Indian refugees escape Aussie detention centre

Paritosh Parasher in Sydney

Three Indian asylum seekers are among a group of 23 that has escaped from a detention centre in southwest Sydney on Thursday morning.

The Villawood centre inmates are believed to have escaped overnight through a drainage system located underneath a de-mountable building that was being used as a temporary mosque.

According to an immigration department spokesman, the group included three Indians, one Pakistani, eight Afghans, one Iranian, four Algerians, five Somalis and one Iraqi.

A spokesman for Australian Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock confirmed the news of the escape from the detention centre, derogatorily called 'concentration camp' by refugee bodies.

After the incident came to light, the remaining detainees were moved into the visitors' area for a headcount.

The New South Wales state police and other authorities were alerted by the immigration department about the detention centre breakout and are stated to be assisting in locating the escapees.

The immigration minister has, meanwhile, come under scathing attack from refugee rights bodies for saying the escapees abused their religious privileges (praying at the centre mosque) to escape from the detention centre.

Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Collective said Ruddock's comment reflected his lack of respect for other people's religions.

"I think Philip Ruddock pointing to their religion is just another example of how the federal government has no respect for the religion of the vast majority of refugees," he told reporters on Thursday afternoon.

Cyrus Sarang, another Refugee Action Collective spokesman, has also supported the centre breakout.

"Good luck to them," he told an Australian news agency AAP. "That's a concentration camp. I've been to that hell. Good on them for getting out."

Escaping from the centre was the only way they could get the government's attention, he added.

The detention centre has, meanwhile, refused entry to visitors and efforts to find out the names of the refugees have failed to elicit a positive response from the authorities so far.

In the past, human and refugee rights groups have often denounced the detention centre. Poor facilities, isolation and brutality by the centre staff have often been quoted as reasons for which it attracts these organisations' wrath.

The Thursday breakout is the third of this year as 14 asylum seekers had escaped from the same centre in March while seven had fled the Woomera detention centre in south Australia last month. All seven were later caught by the police. But it is first time that Indians and Pakistanis have participated in a breakout.

Indo-Asian News Service

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