A group of asylum seekers in the Indonesian detention centre at Tanjung Pinang are on hunger strike, protesting about conditions in the facility.
Detainees have told ABC1's Lateline that local immigration officials are using stun guns on asylum seekers and have threatened to kill them.
The immigration detention centre at Tanjung Pinang, on Bintan Island just south-east of Singapore, was refurbished as part of the $8 million project funded by the Australian Government.
Refugee advocates say this funding should come with conditions about human rights.
But the Federal Government will not make public any agreement it may have with Indonesia.
Despite the injection of money by Australia, detainees say conditions are now getting worse.
Refugee advocates claim some cells house 40 to 50 people, and there are allegations of human rights abuses.
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre's Pamela Curr says she believes stun guns and Tasers are being used.
"I am hearing from people who have recently departed Tanjung Pinang that they are using electric weapons," she said.
"These are described to me as an electric stick and an electric torch. I believe that they are Tasers and stun guns"
A current detainee, who has requested anonymity, has told Lateline that stun guns have been used at Tanjung Pinang.
"If I ask to see doctor or UNHCR they say they will use this," the detainee said.
"They threaten us they come to the door and show us the weapons and say 'we will kill you, we will kill you'."
Atiqullah Mairi, an Afghan asylum seeker who was recently in Tanjung Pinang, says he experienced the device first-hand.
"More than 15 times they gave me an electronic shock," he said.
"It was like a gun, a small gun with an electronic shock."
Atiquallah Mairi has now been repatriated to Afghanistan.
Ms Curr says he agreed to go back because of the way he was treated.
"He had a refugee card, he was recognised as a refugee but he said he couldn't stay in a place where he would die slowly," she said.
"So he agreed to go back. It seems that the conditions that are being imposed on people are in order to force them to sign to go back voluntarily because under an agreement IOM will not remove people by force."
Ms Curr says things have got a lot tougher in Indonesian detention centres because of pressure from the Australian Government.
She says people classified as refugees by the UNHCR are no longer being automatically released from detention.
"Once UNHCR had assessed the person as being a refugee and issued them with a card notifying the Indonesian imigrasi they were released," she said.
"That has changed. What is happening now is people who are assessed as being refugees under international law remain in the detention prisons."
Immigration Minister Chris Evans was travelling and unavailable to speak to Lateline.
A spokesman for the Minister said the Indonesian government is responsible for the operation of detention centres in Indonesia.
Fathers separated
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has been pushing the Government to release information about the agreement Australia has with Indonesia over its detention centres.
"The Government has failed to even confirm if those sort of human rights standards are part of any agreements," she said.
"They refuse to put the agreement on the public record I've asked for it numerous times it makes you wonder if a) and agreement exists and b) what the content of that agreement really is."
Senator Hanson-Young also has concerns about how children and families are being treated at Tanjung Pinang.
"Out of the 15 children detained currently they are with their mothers but not with their fathers unlike other detention facilities around Indonesia run by the Indonesian government paid for by the Indonesian Government," she said.
"Often families are housed together, but in Tanjung Pinang the fathers are separated."
Lateline has been told by a detainee inside Tanjung Pinang that there are nearly 70 people on a hunger strike at the moment.
They want UNHCR officials to visit the centre as soon as possible.
Source:http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/14/2926772.htm
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