Australia on Thursday (April 7th) released the last refugees held at a hotel where tennis superstar Novak Djokovic was spectacularly arrested earlier this year, campaigners said.
Read alsoFrom Nauru to Brisbane, the endless detention of refugees in Australia
"
Three months after the media around the world saw Novak Djokovic coming and going from the Park Hotel, the refugees who were detained alongside him are finally free
," said Graham Thom of the Australian branch of Amnesty.
“
Unfortunately, these men were held there unnecessarily for more than two years in hotels in Australia, after the years of trauma they suffered overseas.
The Park Hotel detainees are among about 20 people released from immigration detention centers in Australia on Thursday, according to refugee advocates.
The eight men detained in the Melbourne center were initially part of a group of refugees and asylum seekers transferred to Australia from offshore centers to receive medical treatment.
They were then stuck there for several years.
A dozen people still detained
Novak Djokovic's detention in January after entering the country without being vaccinated against Covid-19 ahead of the Australian Open has drawn global attention to the plight of detained refugees and asylum seekers at his side in the rooms of the Park Hotel.
The Australian government has not yet commented.
Last week, the Interior Ministry told senators that 31 "
people in transit
" - a term used to define refugees and asylum seekers transferred for medical treatment - remained in detention because of their status.
Read alsoAustralia: reopening of the Christmas Island refugee detention camp
The Asylum Seekers Resource Center estimated that after Thursday's releases, around 10 people were still being held in Australia.
Under Australia's tough immigration policy, asylum seekers trying to reach the country by boat are sent to remote detention centers on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island and the Nauru island in the Pacific.
And has been for years.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison once had a boat-shaped trophy in his office that read "
I
Stopped These
"
, a reference to his time as immigration minister and where stopping migrant boats was his top priority.
SEE ALSO -
In Australia, protesters arrested in front of the hotel where Novak Djokovic is being held
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