Detainees make shocking threat from Villawood rooftop if they are not released to escape COVID-19
Villawood detainees protesting on the rooftop of the centre have made a new video, issuing a new threat to ‘save’ others from COVID-19.
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Exclusive: Detainees on the roof of the Villawood Detention Centre are threatening to hang themselves if they and others are not released to escape the threat of COVID-19, in an exclusive video message obtained by News Corp.
The men who have been on the roof for two days, show how they have fashioned makeshift-nooses and tied them to the edge of the roof, warning they will jump and sacrifice themselves so others can go free.
In the video message addressing the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, and Home Affairs Minister, Peter Dutton, a detainee identified as Johnny demonstrates how he will put a pillowcase over his head and jump unless detainees are released.
The video above contains graphic content and may distress some viewers.
The men who identify themselves as Hanisi, Johnny and Jordan, made the video on Easter Monday interviewing each other about how they are prepared to die rather than stay in detention and then be sent back to countries they “don’t know”.
The video was made as a man suspected of having coronavirus was isolated yesterday in the Hotham Compound of Villawood.
The man attended the medical clinic on Monday morning with suspicious symptoms and was put into isolation.
It is not known whether he has been tested or what the results are.
Detainees have already expressed their fears about COVID-19 taking hold in the detention centre, saying there is no social distancing and no masks available for detainees to wear.
Almost 1500 people are being held in detention centres around the country but Villawood, southwest of Sydney, is the most crowded with 472 detainees.
Detainee Helder Carrascalao, an East Timorese man who has been held in Villawood for four years, late last month made a video plea for help saying he and others are panicking after being told detainees were taken away for testing for the virus.
“We are asking you to help us voice our decision that we need to be released. We are just sitting here waiting to catch the virus,” he said.
In the rooftop video one of the men who identifies himself to the camera as Jordan, said “I will give my life to help the others. We have to end the torture …. It’s enough.”
He said he has been in Australia since he was two years old and the government is trying to send him to a “place I don’t know”.
The other two men Hanisi and Johnny reveal they have been in Australia for 26 and 25 years respectively and both have wives and children in Australia.
Hanisi said in the video message “we are going to hang ourselves so they can free other people.
A spokeswoman for Home Affairs said the three have had their visas cancelled on character grounds after being sentenced to 12 months or more imprisonment.
The spokeswoman said 80 per cent of Australia’s immigration detention population are not refugees / asylum seekers, but are hard-core criminals – and that is why they will not be released into the community.
The Nigerian man identifying as Johnny Okeke has between 2003 and 2019, received multiple convictions relating to drugs, assault, domestic violence, and traffic offences. He has served numerous custodial sentences over this period.
He was also sentenced to nine years imprisonment for attempting to possess a prohibited trafficable quantity of cocaine.
He is currently facing a charge of reckless grievous bodily harm and was remanded into criminal custody. This matter remains ongoing and he is next scheduled to appear at Bankstown Local court on 3 June 2020.