Fighting deportation with suicide

By Lance Guma
12 September 2005

A growing number of failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers worldwide are attempting suicides in an effort to avoid deportations back to Zimbabwe. On Saturday Peter Jackson Mode who is locked up in an Australian detention centre tried to kill himself by slashing his wrists and throat with broken glass. He used broken glass from a smashed door window in his cell.

He is the fourth refugee at Baxter Detention centre in the country to try to commit suicide inside a fortnight. Mode was found unconscious in his cell by a fellow detainee. He was rushed to hospital and treated. On Monday he was sent straight back into the same detention centre pending deportation. Its also the second suicide attempt by the same individual.

Authorities have confirmed he is under medical care inside the centre. Chrispen Kulinji who also spent several months in detention in the UK says the detention system needs to be reviewed. People are being held inside for long periods when they are supposed to be removed within 7 days. He gave examples of some inmates he met who had been in detention for 6 months and over.

This he says is what is driving others to consider suicide. If no deportation flights are imminent they should not detain people. Kulinji says its better to be detained and deported within a short time than to be mentally tortured with a long incarceration. He urged authorities to reconsider their position on Zimbabwean asylum seekers given the worsening situation back home.