Several fires today were allegedly lit in Melbourne’s Park Hotel prison, in which dozens of refugees are indefinitely detained. 

“Breaking news park hotel detention in Melbourne is on fire and the keeping us in the building instead of taking us to a safe place!”, tweeted one of the men, Mehdi Ali, just before 2pm.

According to the fire incident controller, speaking outside the building, a refugee lit several fires across the top few floors of the five-storey building. 

All the men were safely evacuated. However, one refugee and one security guard were sent to hospital for minor injuries. 

One of the detained men said that he was having a shower when guards rushed into his room and told him there was an emergency. He was not given any information about the nature of the emergency. “It was hard to know what was going on”, he said over the phone.

He and 32 others were taken to the restaurant on the ground floor, while seven others who are awaiting COVID test results were taken to a separate dining room on the same floor. 

This is the same Carlton hotel at which the government’s criminal negligence allowed COVID to spread like wildfire only a few months ago, resulting in almost half of the imprisoned refugees and asylum seekers becoming infected. 

If the fires were in fact started by a refugee, it should be regarded as an act of resistance to their ongoing and unjust incarceration. 

The men inside have been locked up by the Australian government for years—without charge and in breach of their rights. Fleeing war and persecution, the men have been made to suffer first in offshore detention camps and now, under constant guard, in the stifling isolation of the hotel rooms.

Conditions in the hotel are so dire that some of the men reportedly asked to be moved back to Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, where they could at least breathe fresh air.

Refugees in the past have had to take drastic measures to fight back against their horrific imprisonment and to draw attention to their plight. 

In 2011, 100 refugees protested and burned down buildings in Sydney’s Villawood detention centre. Two years later, hundreds rioted and burned buildings at the Nauru prison camp. In 2014, four asylum seekers on Manus Island sewed their lips together as a part of a mass hunger strike. Half of the compound refused to eat or drink anything in protest against being detained for more than a year. 

Some people now have been imprisoned for up to nine years.

These displays of resistance in the face of the most brutal treatment are a testament to their courage and perseverance. 

One could only imagine the desperation these men must feel. If they choose to take action—peaceful or otherwise—we should support their bravery in fighting back.

UPDATE: Mehdi Ali notes on social media at 8pm:

“We are still stuck in the level one lobby. We have no access to fresh air and some of us are having health problems. There was a bathroom problem and some guys had to relieve themselves in bottles. Some need to smoke and some need blankets. They came and said that levels three and four were damaged really badly but level two is okay. What's next for us? No one is letting us know, just as no one is letting us know about when we will be free.”