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While Serbian tennis prima Novak Djokovic awaits a tribunal ruling connected whether helium tin enactment successful Australia to vie successful the Australian Open, helium is being held successful the Park Hotel, adjacent to the University of Melbourne, according to media reports — a installation utilized to big refugees, asylum seekers and for coronavirus quarantine that has been astatine the halfway of protests implicit the attraction of migrants.
Djokovic was detained Thursday successful Melbourne aft Australia denied him introduction to the country, rejecting his lawsuit for a aesculapian exemption from a coronavirus vaccine requirement. The visa play has enactment a spotlight connected Australia’s strict covid-19 policies and its long-standing usage of detention hotels, immoderate of which person been repurposed for quarantine purposes.
The Park Hotel is astir associated with immigrants seeking visas to stay successful Australia, immoderate of whom person stayed successful the gathering for years. About 50 refugees are being held now, according to Australia’s 9 News.
Human rights advocates who denounced the surviving conditions successful which refugees person been detained person made the edifice the focal constituent of protests. Dozens of demonstrators gathered determination successful October, demanding the merchandise of refugees aft a coronavirus outbreak successful the hotel. Sixteen refugees had tested affirmative astatine the time, the Refugee Action Coalition told SBS News.
“This is reckless indifference to the lives [of refugees]. ... Our interest is that the remainder of the refugees are not harmless wrong the hotel. It’s a sealed incubator and they can’t unfastened the windows,” Refugee Action Collective spokesperson Chris Breen told SBS News.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic accused Australia of “mistreatment” and “harassment” toward Djokovic and said the “whole of Serbia” is lasting down him. Prime Minister Ana Brnabic told Sky News Thursday the jock should beryllium allowed to permission the edifice wherever he’s been detained and determination to a location that his squad rented successful Melbourne, which is equipped with a tennis court.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison denied that Djokovic has been targeted and said helium “won’t beryllium treated immoderate antithetic to anyone else.”
Australia has implemented 1 of the strictest policies to incorporate the coronavirus, imposing borderline closures that person near galore Australian nationals stranded abroad.
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