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Asylum seekers who escaped from detention centre moved

A group of asylum seekers who escaped the Woomera Detention Centre in South Australia during a protest late last month have been moved out of the Adelaide City Watchouse.

Marie Scoutas reports, the Immigration minister has confirmed the detainees charged with escaping lawful custody have been taken to a detention centre in Western Australia.

BEGINS: In the South Australian Supreme Court yesterday, lawyers respresenting the 30 detainees failed in an attempt to have them moved out of the Watchouse. The court heard that the Immigration minister Philip Ruddock would make the decision today on where they would be sent. A spokesman for the Immigration Department says the detainees were moved late this afternoon for operational and security reasons. A lawyer with the Woomera Lawyers Group Jeremy Moore says while two men have been returned to Woomera, the other 28 detainees have been flown out of Adelaide to Port Hedland. Mr Moore says the group had feared they would be punished by being seperated from family and friends. "They were induced to escape and the punishment doesn't fit the crime." A spokesman for Mr Ruddock says those detainees with family at Woomera have been returned to the facility but the majority have been moved to Port Hedland.

06/04/2002 22:16:04 | ABC Radio Australia News

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