From ABC August 9, 2006
The migration agent for a mentally ill detainee says her client's case should send a message to MPs who are considering the Federal Government's asylum seeker Bill.
The African man, known as 'Jack', is recovering in Adelaide's Glenside Hospital after trying to hang himself at the Baxter Detention Centre at the weekend.
His migration agent, Libby Hogarth, says the detention system is putting detainees at risk.
"I think there's a lot of concerns about why he could've got to that stage, and whether any others will get to that stage, and it just again reflects on the unsuitability of long term detention," she said.
"If people get to the stage of wanting to commit suicide in a detention facility in Australia, it begs us to ask lots of questions about what's going to happen if they're all left on Nauru where they don't have access to their migration agents or lawyers, they don't have access to really quick and good psychiatric care."