On Air Highlights
Fijian in Australian detention on hunger strike
31 October 2011
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A Fijian man in an Australian immigration detention centre has reportedly gone on hunger strike.
Inoke Qarau believes if he is deported back to Fiji he will face persecution by the coup installed military government because he talked to the Australian media about treatment he says he and others received at the hands of the authorities after the 2006 coup.
Inoke Qarau spoke to Pacific Beat in August last year, but at that time he used an assumed name, Villiame, because he feared what might happen as a result of speaking out.
He was already hiding from Australian immigration authorities because his application for a protection visa had been turned down and his tourist visa had run out.
Now Mr Qarau has been caught and is in Sydney’s Villawood detention centre while his case in processed.
Presenter: Bruce Hill
Speakers: Livai Leone, Fijian pastor; Salome Kurisese, wife of Inoke Qarau
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