Refugee sent back to Park Hotel detention facility where he contracted Covid

Mohammed Sohrabi said he was refused a Covid vaccine at a Carlton hotel used as a detention centre — then an outbreak struck.

Police outside the Park Hotel in Carlton, where detained refugees caught the virus in October. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

A refugee who contracted Covid at a Melbourne detention facility that was the centre of an outbreak says he is “being returned to hell” after learning he was being discharged to the place he contracted the virus.

After battling “critical” virus symptoms in hospital for almost three weeks, Kurdish-Iranian asylum seeker Mohammed Sohrabi is expected to be discharged back to the Park Hotel in Carlton, where more than a dozen detainees caught the virus in October.

Mr Sohrabi said Premier Daniel Andrews and Lord Mayor Sally Capp had “blood on their hands” after he was refused a Covid vaccine by health authorities inside the facility on multiple occasions in the lead-up to his admission to St Vincent’s Hospital.

The refugee says the ordeal left him fearing for his life.

“Please help me … they (authorities) have said that they’re sending me back to detention lock-up again. I can’t bear it,” Mr Sohrabi said.

“Daniel Andrews has blood on his hands. Sally Capp has blood on her hands,” he said.

“Over half of my friends have Covid now, after it was brought in by a Serco guard.”

The Department of Health confirmed in October at least 13 detainees at the Park Hotel location, run by the Australian Border Force, had tested positive for Covid after asylum seekers and refugees being held at the detention facility raised the alarm over fears of the outbreak.

A spokeswoman for Melbourne based refugee advocacy group Fight Together for Justice said discharging asylum seekers to facilities that were at the centre of major outbreaks breached vulnerable refugees’ health and safety.

Supporters wave to a group of refugees at the hotel. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

“This is a matter of urgency,” she said.

“FTFJ demands that asylum seekers and detainees not be excluded from our statewide road maps out of Covid, and all refugees detained in Victoria be given permanent

protection.

“This move actively violates the health and safety of a vulnerable refugee who has been indefinitely detained illegally at the hands of the Australian government.”

While Mr Sohrabi slammed the Premier and Lord Mayor over the detention centre’s outbreak, the federal government runs the Carlton facility.

The state government in October wrote to federal authorities to seek assurance that asylum seekers and refugees housed in Victorian facilities would be protected against Covid.

Health minister Martin Foley said: “I have written to the Commonwealth outlining serious concerns relating to an outbreak at the Melbourne Alternative Place of Detention.”

“The Victorian Government urgently needs clarification from the Commonwealth on the measures in place to stop transmission at the facility and more needs to be done to protect the asylum seekers detained there,” he said.

More than 11,000 people have signed a petition to keep Mr Sohrabi out of detention.

The Herald Sun has contacted the Premier’s office and the Australian Border Force for comment.