ADELAIDE (Reuters) — Australian police on Sunday caught another 14 of 35 asylum seekers who escaped from a remote immigration detention center on Friday, leaving 10 still on the run, while a hunger strike at the camp entered its seventh day.
A police spokeswoman said 12 men were caught overnight after a tip-off from residents in Port Augusta, 93 miles south of the Woomera camp, one of six controversial centers in Australia housing anyone who arrives illegally in the country.
Two more were captured at a service station in Port Augusta later in the day and charged with escaping lawful detention, an offense that carries a maximum penalty of five years jail.
Woomera, the most isolated of the nation’s camps, has been plagued by hunger strikes, escapes, riots and attempted suicides in the last two years while human rights and religious groups have condemned the government’s tough immigration policies.
The police spokeswoman said 20 of the recaptured detainees would appear in a court in Port Augusta on Monday.
“So far everyone found has been in good health, just a bit cold and hungry,” the spokeswoman told Reuters.
She said a ground search was continuing around Woomera which is in the desert about 280 miles north of Adelaide where temperatures soar up to 104 degrees Fahrenheit during the day but hit freezing at night.
Police have charged three people for allegedly assisting in the escape which involved 28 Afghans, six Iranians and one Iraqi, all of whom had visa applications to stay in Australia rejected.
They will appear in a Port Augusta court on Aug. 14 with the offense of assisting an escape carrying a 10-year jail term.
The escapees were recaptured as a mass hunger strike at Woomera, currently housing 210 mostly Afghan and Iraqi asylum seekers, entered its seventh day.
An Immigration Department spokesman said the number refusing food had fallen to about 100 from 162, including five children, and one protester had sewn up his lips.
Refugee advocacy groups said the hunger strikers were protesting against the length of time it takes to process visa claims and also plans to forcibly repatriate some Afghans. Protests at Woomera have become frequent.
In March about 50 detainees escaped from Woomera, of whom 11 are yet to be recaptured, and in January more than 200 mostly Afghan migrants staged a 16-day hunger strike.
Australia has one of the world’s toughest immigration regimes, detaining all illegal arrivals while their cases are processed, which can take years if appeals are lodged.
Last year the conservative government tightened policy further by deploying the navy to divert rising numbers of mainly Afghan and Middle Eastern migrants arriving by boat to camps in the Pacific nations of Papua New Guinea and Nauru.
No asylum seekers have reached the Australian mainland in 10 months and the number held in camps has fallen to about 1,200 from 2,500 before Australia sealed its borders last August. Some 1,400 are being held in Pacific island camps.
The hard-line policies enjoy broad support within Australia.
