Protesting asylum seekers at a controversial Australian outback detention centre today held a noisy rally and one man was seriously injured when he climbed over a razor wire fence.
Activists warn there could be deaths after 11 days of hunger strikes, lip-sewing and attempted hangings at Woomera - 475 km north of Adelaide - where mainly Afghan and Middle Eastern asylum seekers are protesting the months if not years it takes to process their refugee claims.
Around 200 detainees at the Woomera refugee camp in the red heat of the desert climbed on roofs with protest banners reading Freedom or death while others tried to escape.
One asylum seeker was hurt and was taken to hospital, an Immigration Department official said. A camp guard was also injured, he said, without giving any details.
Australian Broadcasting Corp radio said the detainee suffered serious lacerations after climbing over a perimeter fence made of razor wire. It said the guard was struck by rocks thrown by the demonstrating illegal immigrants.
"The department is aware of the ongoing protests", the Immigration Department spokesman said.
The protests spread to a third camp overnight after four detainees at Curtin in the far northwest swallowed disinfectant.
Five people at Curtin, 1,300 km north of Perth, were refusing to eat or drink in sympathy with the protest at Woomera and Maribyrnong camps.
Conservative Prime Minister John Howard, who swept back for a third term in a November election partly on a tough stand against boatpeople, has refused to bow to the moral intimidation.
But the government did make one concession when on Thursday it lifted a freeze imposed on the processing of asylum claims by Afghans after US air strikes led to the fall of the Taliban.
An official who visited Woomera yesterday to tell detainees about the end of the freeze was unable to convince the hunger strikers to end their protest.