Yesterday four protesters started a three-day hunger strike in front of the Australian High Commission. They have set up shelter in the middle of Aldwych, demanding that the appalling condition of asylum seekers in the Australian Woomera Detention Centre ends now.

The four people, not your regular activists but much more 'concerned citizens', are supporting the refugees' own actions in Woomera. For fifteen days now children, women and men have sewn closed their lips and refused to eat. They do this in protest of the incredible violence they are facing while waiting for their asylum application to be processed.

Woomera has been compared by UN officials to Auschwitz. Constant institutional violence, violations of human rights and repeated suicide attempts are the everyday reality of these people, mostly from Afghanistan and Iran, who actually have the legal right to apply for asylum in Australia.

At 11:30 this morning the protesters moved their camp right to the frontstep of Australian House. The police has warned them that this constitutes a 'violation of the dignity of the building' and that they will be removed if they do so. Their reaction: "What government puts the dignity of a building over the dignity of a person?"

Come support and report, they need it. More on Woomera at Melbourne IMC