Detained asylum seeker charged over alleged child exploitation material
A man held in refugee and asylum seeker detention has been ordered to appear before a Brisbane court charged with possessing child exploitation material.
Around 100 men remain in detention at a hotel at Kangaroo Point in Brisbane. Photo: ABC
Queensland detectives searched the Kangaroo Point Central Hotel and Apartments yesterday and seized electronic devices in the possession of a male detainee.
He has been issued with a notice to appear for one count each of possession of child exploitation material and distribution of child exploitation material.
The hotel has also been the focal point on ongoing refugee rights protests.
About 120 men were brought to Brisbane from off-shore detention centres as medical-evacuees as part of the Medevac Bill but are unable to leave the hotel.
Protesters have condemned the conditions the men are being held in, saying the majority have been found to be genuine refugees and were medically evacuated to Australia.
They also say the isolation is detrimental to the men’s mental health, especially as some of the men have family living nearby that, since extra restrictions were put in place with coronavirus, are unable to visit.
Protesters have maintained a constant presence outside the hotel for several months, to prevent further transfers of the men out of the facility, which they said had been used as punishment against detainees who spoke out against the Federal Government.
Police say the investigation is ongoing.
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