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Six charged after Brisbane refugee protest

Andi YuAAP
Six protesters have been charged after a rally outside the Kangaroo Point Hotel in Brisbane.
Camera IconSix protesters have been charged after a rally outside the Kangaroo Point Hotel in Brisbane.

Six refugee advocates have been charged with nuisance offences following a protest outside a Brisbane hotel housing asylum seekers.

They were among about 400 demonstrators who on Saturday marched through streets surrounding the Kangaroo Point Hotel where 120 asylum seekers have been detained for at least a year.

The asylum seekers were transferred from Australian detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru for medical treatment but have not been allowed into the community.

Four men and two women have been accused of 12 offences including disobeying a direction, public nuisance and disrupting traffic.

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Two reportedly glued their hands to the roadway. The group will appear in court at a later date.

Protest organiser Matthew Sheppard of Refugee Solidarity Brisbane/Meanjin told AAP a Supreme Court decision on Thursday to ban the protest on Main Street, Kangaroo Point and the Story Bridge had no adverse impact on the demonstration.

He said the asylum seekers locked up in the hotel had been in detention for about eight years in total and should be allowed out.

Demonstrators' immediate concerns are for them to be allowed to exercise outdoors. Since the coronavirus pandemic, the detainees have had much less freedom to move.

Ultimately though, protesters want the asylum seekers released into the Brisbane community by Christmas.

"We could have them in houses in the community overnight," Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul told AAP.

A number of the detainees have family members living in Brisbane, who they can only see from afar as they stand outside the hotel.

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