Asylum seekers in Nauru have risked a crackdown under the Pacific nation’s chilling public speech laws with the first of a series of rolling protests about conditions there.
The protest on Sunday saw the group, apparently provoked by restrictions on their ability to celebrate the Iranian new year, occupy the entrance to the Australian-funded facility, waving banners and chanting “justice” and “freedom”.
They plan to continue the hour-long demonstrations daily, potentially inviting arrest under laws introduced last year that allowed some protests to be criminalised.
It came on the same day thousands of people across Australia attended rallies calling for an end to offshore detention.
One sign read: “4 baby 45 child 53 women 46 men in Nauru detention.” Another read: “We have been in detention since 995 days.”
An asylum seeker advocate, Jeanie Marie Walker, said there were suggestions the protest had been provoked by a refusal by detention centre management to allow detainees to celebrate Nowruz, or the Persian new year, at a location outside the centre.
“They’re all really distraught because this is another new year for them on Nauru,” she said.
“This is their most culturally significant day in Iran and Afghanistan and they’re being denied the opportunity to celebrate, they have no access to the special food they use to celebrate.
“They’re taking a lot of risk but that’s why they’re emotional and upset. They’re planning on continuing to [protest] every day at the same time.”
