Call to close detention centre in Australia

The Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and Advocacy Network say there have been four attempted suicides at Australia's Northern Immigration Detention Centre in three weeks. The asylum seeker support group is calling on the Federal Government to immediately close the detention centre.

The network's spokeswoman, Fernanda Dahlstrom, says two Iranian men attempted suicide at the Darwin centre on Sunday morning.

Both men attempted to hang themselves in the same room at the same time before Serco staff removed them. After the men were taken to hospital, other asylum seekers in the centre commenced protests by chanting for their release from detention.

Fernanda Dahlstrom says both Iranian men were long-term detainees and she says they should have their asylum claims processed while living in the community.

"Waiting with uncertainty about their future, not able to have anything to occupy themselves to make themselves useful, just basically sitting around with nothing to do, separated from their families, and not knowing whether they have a future in this country," she said.

Ms Dahlstrom says the centre should be closed down.

In the past three weeks in Northern Immigration Detention Centre one man attempted to kill himself by swallowing a light bulb, one man attempted to hang himself with a shower curtain and there have been a number of hunger strikes. The centre saw dozens of suicide attempts throughout 2011.

Dahlstrom said: “Mandatory detention does not work. It does not stop desperate people coming to Australia seeking safety, it is expensive and inhumane. Asylum seekers should be taken out of these factories for mental illness and placed in the community."

The Immigration Department says the two detainees "threatened" self harm. It says the men were treated at Royal Darwin Hospital and have been returned to the centre. A spokesman says extra support staff have been assigned to take care of the detainees' mental health.