Novak Djokovic’s wrangling with authorities over entering Australia has inadvertently highlighted a different plight: those of the refugees and asylum seekers stuck for months, and years, at the Park Hotel. The infamous detention hotel in Carlton, Melbourne, where the tennis star is likely to spend the weekend as he awaits a court hearing over his visa cancellation has been described by detainees as a “torture cell”. I hope Novak Djokovic learns about our situation here, and I hope he speaks about it.”The Australian Border Force has been using Carlton’s Park Hotel in Melbourne as an ad-hoc detention centre for refugees since December 2020. But even before it was a detention centre, under its former name, Rydges, the hotel was used for hotel quarantine and was the centre of Victoria’s second Covid wave. Joy, another refugee detained at the hotel, called it a “torture centre,” saying he has been there for two years for “no reason.”“Freedom is beautiful for human beings.

Source: The Guardian January 07, 2022 04:46 UTC