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| Australia to probe asylum seeker suicides Posted: 28 Jul 2011 11:10 PM PDT SYDNEY: Australia said Friday it would probe the high number of suicides and self-harm incidents among asylum seekers in immigration detention centres, including at the strife-hit Christmas Island site.
"I was myself on Christmas Island at the end of June and there were 30 incidents in that week, and then across Australia in the first week of July, 50 incidents," Asher told ABC television late Thursday. "We think there is something seriously wrong that needs to be looked at." Australia has a policy of mandatory detention for asylum seekers arriving by boat, but has softened its stance in recent years to allow more women and children into the community as their refugee claims are assessed.
Newman said there have been five suicides in detention since September 2010, adding that almost every night one young man somewhere in the system attempts to hang himself. "We all know that things are probably much worse in there then they have been for some time," Newman told AFP. "We've seen virtually every night at the moment somewhere in the system is a near-miss suicide.
"We've had outbreaks of group self-harming behaviour, people joining together to harm themselves." According to data obtained by the ABC, the situation has become so serious at Christmas Island that staff have been told to carry knives at all times so they can cut down detainees who have tried to hang themselves. Inmates are also denied their own razors, the state broadcaster reported, saying that men who need to shave have to request a razor and then hand it back once they have finished. The investigation into suicide and self-harm will look at the extent of the problem, gather demographic data about those involved as well as the length of time they spent in detention, and the potential roots of the behaviour. The inquiry will also examine whether attempted or successful suicides and incidents of self-harm could trigger other incidents among inmates. Newman said self-harming behaviour could be "very contagious". "When you get a group of distressed people in a confined environment, things spread and escalate very rapidly," she said. -- AFP Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. |
| 16 workers die, 10 missing in Ukraine mine blast Posted: 28 Jul 2011 11:07 PM PDT KIEV: Sixteen miners died and another 10 were missing after a nighttime explosion in a coal mine in the Lugansk region in eastern Ukraine, the emergencies ministry said on Friday.
"The fate of 10 miners remains unknown," said the Kiev-based emergencies ministry, adding that a total of 28 people worked at the mine when the explosion occurred at 1:57 am local time Friday. A spokesman for the emergencies ministry's local branch in Luganks, speaking to AFP, cofirmed the number of dead.
Ukraine's energy minister Yury Boiko went to the scene of the accident at the Sukhodolskaya-Vostochnaya Coal Mine, part of the Krasnodonugol mining company, to personally take charge of the rescue operation. Officials did not provide details on the cause of the blast. Most of the country's mine disasters have been caused by build-ups of methane gas. Deadly accidents are frequent in the Ukrainian mines, most of which are located in the country's industrial eastern region. Many of the mines are underfunded and poorly equipped, while safety violations are rife. -- AFP |
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