Watch the haka by New Zealand immigration detainees in Brisbane backing calls for an Iranian refugee’s freedom. Video / Supplied
A protest at an immigration detention centre in Brisbane on Sunday has ended with a haka by several New Zealand immigration detainees.
About 50 people held a protest outside the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation in the weekend calling for the release of Hamid, an Iranian refugee brought from Nauru to Australia in February, a Refugee Action Coalition release said.
The haka by about eight of the detainees, who stood behind the detention centre fence, was intended to show backing for the calls for Hamid’s freedom, the protest group said.
It was greeted with cheers and clapping from onlookers, with the detainees waving to the protestors at the haka’s conclusion.
The NZ immigration detainees wave to protestors after finishing a haka in support of the protest outside a Brisbane immigration detention centre on Sunday. Source / Supplied
The protest group said Hamid had been held on Nauru for more than nine years but unlike other refugees and asylum seekers transferred to Australia had not been released within a week or two of transfer. He remains in detention four months later, it said.
About 50 people gathered to protest the continued detention of Iranian refugee, Hamid. Refugee Action Coalition / Facebook
Despite representation to the Australian government on Hamid’s behalf, the group said there has been no explanation for Hamid’s continued detention or separation from his family.