Australia backs down as refugees threaten suicide

Television footage of an Afghan asylum-seeker hurling himself on to the razor wire at Woomera detention centre in south Australia may have succeeded where domestic and international outrage failed.

As a group of children threatened yesterday to follow the example, the government indicated it might back down and close the reviled centre.

Eleven Afghan teenagers who have made a suicide pact extended their deadline by 24 hours, pledging to kill themselves by 5pm (6am GMT) today unless they were released from the camp on a sweltering, treeless plain in the south Australian desert.

The threat follows desperate measures taken by Afghan and Middle Eastern detainees to draw attention to their plight. Guards stopped a 16-year-old Iraqi boy hanging himself overnight. The man who leapt on to the razor wire at the weekend was seriously injured.

As a hunger strike by more than 200 mainly Afghan asylum-seekers entered its 14th day, the Immigration minister, Philip Ruddock, said the Woomera complex might be scaled down or "mothballed" if the number of people arriving illegally by boat continued to fall.

He also bowed to the demands of nine unaccompanied youngsters – five Afghans and four Iraqis, aged 16 and 17 – who had said they would commit suicide unless they were freed. They were placed in the care of South Australian social services, and were expected to be taken to foster homes in the state capital, Adelaide.

Dozens of the hunger strikers have sewn their lips together, while other inmates have swallowed detergent and shampoo. Lawyers say the 11 teenagers plan to slash their wrists, poison themselves or jump on to the razor wire.

The footage of the man throwing himself off the high fence sparked revulsion in Australia, which is unique among Western nations in incarcerating asylum-seekers.

The Catholic Church added its voice to the protests, calling for women and children to be released and the policy of mandatory detention overhauled. The Australian Red Cross took out a newspaper advertisement to express grave concern for detainees' welfare.

But the Prime Minister, John Howard, who is visiting the United States, defended his government's stance. "We have a completely principled and soundly based policy, and I don't make any apology for it," he said. The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, in London for a Commonwealth meeting, also talked tough. "Nothing is making Australians angrier than these people who, by making threats in detention centres, are trying to circumvent our immigration laws," he said. "Never, never deal with Australians by threatening them."

Back home, though, Mr Ruddock made plain that the government was on the verge of buckling, at least on the question of Woomera, the most remote and inhospitable of the country's six detention centres. "If we don't have additional arrivals, we might move to a situation where we might be able to close or mothball the facility," he said. But Mr Ruddock said no decision would be made until a complex under construction at Port Augusta, about 100 miles south of Woomera, was completed – and until asylum-seekers ended their protests. "I do not think it is appropriate that the decision should be taken in the context of duress," he said.

A government advisory committee recommended yesterday that Woomera, near the site of a former British rocket testing range, be used only in emergencies. "Woomera is an extremely harsh environment in which to detain anybody," said Paris Aristotle, a member of the committee.

As well as freedom, the protesters want their refugee claims processed more swiftly: some have been waiting for three years. The unrest has spread to other centres where hunger strikes have begun.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference said refugee policy was being implemented at "too high a moral cost". The United Nations refugee agency said that while it was against mandatory detention, the teenagers who had threatened suicide were being manipulated by their "irresponsible" parents.