Refugee claims he was denied Covid jab

OSTN Staff

After battling “critical” virus symptoms in hospital for almost three weeks, Kurdish-Iranian asylum seeker Mohammed Sohrabi is expected to be discharged back to the Park Hotel in Carlton, where more than a dozen detainees caught the virus in October.Mr Sohrabi said Premier Daniel Andrews and Lord Mayor Sally Capp had “blood on their hands” after he was refused a Covid vaccine by health authorities inside the facility on multiple occasions in the lead-up to his admission to St Vincent’s Hospital.The refugee says the ordeal left him fearing for his life.“Please help me … they (authorities) have said that they’re sending me back to detention lock-up again. I can’t bear it,” Mr Sohrabi said.“Daniel Andrews has blood on his hands. Sally Capp has blood on her hands,” he said.“Over half of my friends have Covid now, after it was brought in by a Serco guard.”The Department of Health confirmed in October at least 13 detainees at the Park Hotel location, run by the Australian Border Force, had tested positive for Covid after asylum seekers and refugees being held at the detention facility raised the alarm over fears of the outbreak.A spokeswoman for Melbourne based refugee advocacy group Fight Together for Justice said discharging asylum seekers to facilities that were at the centre of major outbreaks breached vulnerable refugees’ health and safety.“This is a matter of urgency,” she said.“FTFJ demands that asylum seekers and detainees not be excluded from our statewide road maps out of Covid, and all refugees detained in Victoria be given permanentprotection.“This move actively violates the health and safety of a vulnerable refugee who has been indefinitely detained illegally at the hands of the Australian government.”More than 11,000 people have signed a petition to keep Mr Sohrabi out of detention.The Herald Sun has contacted the Premier’s office and the Australian Border Force for comment.

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