Yahoo! Australia & NZ News: Detainee accuses Chinese officials of posing as DIMIA staff

Saturday June 11, 2005

A Falun Gong [practitioner] says she is one of dozens of Chinese people seeking asylum in Australia that were questioned by Chinese Government officials in May.

Wang Shu Ling, whose request for a temporary protection visa has been denied, has told ABC TV's Lateline program that the Chinese officials claimed they were from Australia's Immigration Department.

"When I saw the way they dressed, I feel they were from China, however they say that they work for the Department of Immigration but I don't know what exactly they do for the Department of Immigration and at that moment I was very frightened," she said through a translator.

Ms Wang, who was a doctor in China, says she was presented what she describes as an amateurish-looking form written in Chinese.

She says she was told it was an Australian Department of Indigenous Affairs document.

Ms Wang says she was taken back to her living quarters. The officials then returned, accompanied by a Villawood guard.

She says she was then locked in a darkened room for six hours.

"Then a detention centre officer looking very seriously, asking me to go back, and told me that 'you have to be kept in this small room'," she said.

"Then I ask him, 'why did I have to be kept in this small room?' He says, 'I don't know,' and then he left the woman officer to translate, and she says, 'This is a decision of the Department of Immigration'."

'Disturbing' claims

Opposition immigration spokesman Laurie Ferguson says the woman's claims are disturbing.

He says the Immigration Department should monitor the activities of officials from other countries more closely when they question detainees.

"One would like to know what authority this official had," said.

"My understanding is this woman is extremely articulate, she knows what she's saying, she's clearly aware of the events.

"To have somebody from another country giving the reason for why you are detained inside one of our facilities is incredible."

[...]

Falun Gong [practitioners] are making the most of the spotlight the defection of Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin has shone on their cause.

The group's supporters have filed legal action in the ACT Supreme Court against the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer.

They claim he is responsible for a ban on their protests near the Chinese Embassy.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/050610/21/uo2t.html