More than 100 refugee advocates have gathered outside a Brisbane immigration detention centre to protest Australia's asylum seeker policy and the indefinite detention of several detainees.
Tomorrow marks eight years since the federal government changed its asylum seeker policy to disallow anyone who arrived by boat from being settled in Australia.
It also marks nine years of detention for many men who remain inside the facility.
Protesters marched around the perimeter of the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation (BITA) Centre at Pinkenba where about 35 detainees have been housed.
The men were brought to Australia from offshore processing centres on Nauru and Manus Island under the now-repealed medical evacuation laws.
113 detainees Australia-wide were released on temporary bridging visas in March this year, all of whom were detained after being evacuated from Nauru and Manus Island for urgent medical treatment.
In Queensland, more than 20 medevaced detainees were released after being housed in apartments in the inner-city suburb of Kangaroo Point for several months.
Advocates said the men were being held indefinitely and do not know when they will be released.
'Still no answers'
Organiser Dane de Leon, from the Refugee Solidarity Meanjin group, said tomorrow marked a dark anniversary for the nation.
"Behind these walls, there are still men locked up with no release date, they have been here since they were 14 and 15 and now they are 23 and 24 and still no answers," Ms de Leon said.
"They were taken to offshore detention in Nauru in PNG under the medevac bill because they needed … medical help, they were moved onshore.
"So far, nothing has happened, no prospects of being resettled to a third country or being resettled into the community."
She said the fact that many of the Kangaroo Point detainees had been released in February and March but the remaining men had not, showed "cruelty" from the government.
"It's arbitrary. They just said, '50 of you will be released tomorrow'," she said.
"They didn't say who was going to be released and, circumstantially, there is no difference between the people that remain in there and the people that remain out."
Ms de Leon said advocates felt their only option was to be as vocal as possible.
Former detainee Kazem Kazemi was released from detention on March 2 this year.
He fled Iran as a refugee and spent five and a half years on Manus Island before being medevaced to Australia where he spent nearly two years at the Kangaroo Point Central Apartments and the BITA centre.
Mr Kazemi said he found it difficult to talk to men who were still being detained because he felt guilty for having freedom while they do not.
"We are here protesting for our friends in detention across Australia and in offshore centre," Mr Kazemi said.
"I am really sad, I am really not happy about that because I see my friends still locked up in detention for no reason. They have not committed any crime.
"I hope the government will release them very soon and let them recover after a long time."
'They are not just numbers'
Rachel Bollerman, 20, said she joined the Refugee Action Collective because she did not agree with the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers under the Migration Act.
"Being here, it is quite a stark contrast — we are just out near the airport and there is this giant big prison so it is definitely a place that sparks a lot of emotions," Ms Bollerman said.
"It is important to come out as a big group and send these strong messages to the government that ordinary people in this country say no to this.
"We are just everyday people saying this is not right and this is illegal, and it shouldn't be happening here in this country or anywhere.
"They are not just numbers."
The Department of Home Affairs has been contacted for comment.
