Five activists climb Sydney’s Opera House to protest against treatment of refugees at Manus Island
They urged the government to bring refugees at its detention centre in Papua New Guinea to Australia.
The Australian Police on Thursday charged five people with trespassing after they climbed to the top of the Sydney Opera House to protest against the treatment of refugees at the Manus Island, The Guardian reported.
Australia holds asylum seekers who come to their shores by boat in camps on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island and the small Pacific nation of Nauru. Around 600 refugees and asylum seekers are refusing to move out of the detention centre on Manus Island, which was scheduled to close on October 31.
The five protestors unfurled banners on top of the Sydney Opera House on Thursday, calling on the government to bring refugees at Manus Island to Australia. They will be produced in court in December.
Activist group Whistleblowers, Activists and Citizens Alliance claimed credit for the protest. In a post on Facebook, the group said “Australia has become a world leader in cruelty” in its handling of refugees.
“Our Sydney Opera House climbers have reached ground and are safe, unlike the men on Manus who are continuing to starve, dehydrate and fall sick under our government’s watch,” the group said. “We are demanding that the Labor Party end the cruelty they started, by breaking bipartisan endorsement of offshore detention.”