Amin Farrar and Parviz Vaghei are two of about 20 asylum-seekers charged with escaping during rioting in March on Christmas Island, far out in the Indian Ocean. They could not get off the remote island and were soon captured.
Both men initially refused legal representation at their first court appearance last Wednesday.
The Australian daily reported that Vaghei appeared highly medicated and tried to sleep on the shoulder of a fellow detainee while waiting for his hearing to start. Once his case was called, he became agitated, questioned the authority of the court and refused to comply with Magistrate Paul Heaney’s orders to sit down.
Vaghei originally refused a lawyer. His one charge of escaping immigration detention was adjourned to Perth Magistrates Court next month.
Farrar’s case was adjourned to December.
Meanwhile, asylum-seekers at the troubled Darwin detention center on the northern mainland buried themselves under sand in a giant construction trench in a new twist to ongoing protests over lengthy processing delays.
Up to 20 men—mainly Iranians and Afghans—jumped into the deep excavation pit last Tuesday morning and refused to leave for more than 24 hours in a bid to force authorities to tell them when their claims would be heard.
Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition told The Australian some of the men had been stranded at the Northern Immigration Detention Center for up to two years and were desperate for answers.
He said it was inexcusable to refuse to give timeframes and it was “sapping all hope…. I don’t think there’s any doubt they’re sitting on a powder keg there.”
A Department of Immigration spokeswoman said the protesters left the trench after they were assured their actions would not affect their asylum claims.
