Australia Calls Off Hunt For Escapees

July 6, 2002

ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) -- Police said Saturday they have called off the search for 10 asylum seekers on the run after they escaped from an immigrant detention center in Australia's Outback.

But lawyers for the asylum seekers called for the army to be deployed to search the desert for them, accusing the government of not caring about the group, which includes two children.

A total of 35 Afghans, Iranians and Iraqis broke out of the detention camp in Woomera on June 27. Refugee activists aided their escape by using cars to haul down fences surrounding the former missile testing base, 1,800 kilometers (1,120 miles) west of Sydney.

Twenty-five of the asylum seekers were found within days and arrested. Concerned that the rest were wandering in the desert with little or no food and water, police last week used a helicopter, an airplane and dogs to search a 200,000-square kilometer (80,000-square-mile) area for them.

On Thursday, a spokesman for protesters camped outside Woomera said he had received a note that claimed all the fugitives were safe and well.

South Australia state police said Saturday that the search had been called off and would not be restarted unless further sightings were reported.

Price of life

"They've done as much as they can do," a police spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity. "The protesters have advised police that those still outstanding are safe, and we have to take their word on that."

But a spokesman for the asylum seekers' lawyers said on Saturday the federal government showed a disregard for their lives by not using its full resources, and called for the army to be deployed to find the asylum seekers.

"We have to ask, 'What is the price of a refugee's life?"' said Jeremy Moore of the Woomera Lawyers Group.

"The federal government needs to engage the search with all the resources they've got, which might include getting the army involved. Those people might have been out in the desert for eight days now," he added.

The detention center at Woomera is one of five camps where hundreds of mostly Middle Eastern boat people are held while authorities consider their requests for asylum. The policy has been criticized by human rights activists but is popular with most Australians.

Woomera has been the most troublesome of the camps and has been plagued by riots, hunger strikes, arson and self-mutilation by inmates.

All of those who broke out of Woomera had had their asylum applications rejected and were being held pending the outcome of appeals, the immigration department has said.

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