Asylum seekers await fate in Australia

In Australia, a group of refugees from Afghanistan ended a hunger strike today which was protesting the amount of time it is taking to process asylum applications. The asylum seekers called off the strike because they were promised that a representative from Canberra would be sent to talk to them, and they may have their claims processed faster.
“These are desperate people who left their own countries, where the felt endangered,” says the Bishop of Broome, Christopher Saunders, who also serves as the Chairman of the Australian Social Justice Council.
The Curtin Detention Centre is located in his diocese.
Bishop Saunders told Vatican Radio he is concerned for the refugees.
“They came across seas in open boats, putting their own lives in danger again, and have ended behind barbed wire in a camp on the edge of the desert in Western Australia,” he said.
The refugees are also concerned over the news the Australian government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Afghanistan which might lead to them being returned home to face possible persecution.
Listen to the full interview by Charles Collins with Bishop Christopher Saunders: