Inside horrors of Park Hotel after Federal Court finds refugee program ‘lawful’ but inhumane
A Melbourne hotel used to house refugees and known for a viral photo where food with maggots was served has been found to be ‘lawful’ by a federal court judge.
The hotel where a man was “lawfully” detained for 14 months was the same hotel that served food laden with maggots.
In a landmark ruling on Thursday, the Federal Court found that the detention of a Kurdish-Iranian refugee was “lawful” despite it lacking “ordinary human decency”.
Mostafa ‘Moz’ Azimitabar spent 14 months in the Park Hotel in Melbourne, the same hotel where Novak Djokovic was detained in January last year prior to the Australian Open.
Djokovic had reportedly complained at the time to a friend there were “bugs” in his room.
Mr Azimitabar had sought damages from the Commonwealth on the grounds that his detention was unlawful - an argument that was ultimately rejected by the court, which found the immigration minister held the power to detain people in hotels.
The Park Hotel, in the inner-city suburb of Carlton, gained notoriety for housing refugees whose status is disputed - including ‘Medivac’ refugees.
In December 2021, detainee Mohammad Joy Miah shared a photo of his food that consequently went viral.
Pls pay attention.
— JOY (@mohammedJoy73) December 27, 2021
Urgent-see this food with Maggots
It was delivered at 5.30pm tonight as evening meal at Park prison for 34 men.
Even guards agreed not edible-took it away.
Now men have no dinner.
Detained for 2yrs,now in rooms on level2, now maggots in food!#GameOverpic.twitter.com/ar5jFv7zlI
Many of the other detainees have previously said they are often unable to leave their rooms, and have little to no access to sunlight.
“Detained for two years... now maggots in food!” Mr Miah wrote.
Other photos shared also showed mouldy bread served with their food.
The hotel was also the scene of multiple fires, which in December 2021 saw the building evacuated and one person hospitalised for smoke inhalation.
The court heard Mr Azimitabar had suffered from PTSD and asthma during his stint in the hotel, and was unable to leave his room for sunlight or fresh air.
When he arrived at the Park Hotel, he shared a room with another detainee in a room where the window could not be opened, which Mr Azimitabar said added to his breathing difficulties.
The glass provided only a view of a cement wall, and most of the windows on the fourth floor, where Mr Azimitabar had been held, were mirror tinted by design “so as to ensure that their supporters and protestors could not see the detainees”, Justice Bernard Murphy said in his decision.
“I can only wonder at the lack of thought, indeed lack of care and humanity, in detaining a person with psychiatric and psychological problems in the hotels for 14 months,” he said.
“Primarily in a hotel room with a window that would only open 10cm, and for most of the time without access to an outdoor area to breath fresh air or feel the sun on his face.”
Outside court on Thursday, Mr Azimitabar said what he had endured was “not OK.”
“The judge said some words … that is not OK, that with … (the) sickness(es) that I have to be locked up in a room,” Mr Azimitabar said.
“It is not OK for someone who is suffering from asthma or from PTSD to be locked up in a room, but it’s legal.
Before it reopened as the Park Hotel in 2020, the building was the Rydges on Swanston, the source of a brutal second wave of Covid-19 in Victoria.
More than 90 per cent of infections during the wave, which was responsible for hundreds of deaths, were traced back to the hotel.
The hotel was emptied of detainees in April 2022.
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