Police were called to a Borderforce Office in Newcastle, NSW, on Tuesday, October 31, when a group of students staged a protest against the treatment of refugees at Manus Island Refugee Processing Centre, which was due to close later that day.

The Students Against Detention UoN group said they were holding the “peaceful occupation” to “stand in the way of inter-generational trauma” and the “abuse committed in our names” in the use of off-shore processing for asylum seekers and refugees.

“We will not stop until there is justice for refugees,” the group said during the protest. “We stand with the men on Manus.”

According to one of the protesters, the office was shut down due to their action and the police arrived to let “us know that they’re going to speak to the guys inside the office and that we are on private property and at some point they might give us move-on orders.”

The Australian government had decided to withdraw financial support and housing for those refugees living the Manus Island Refugee Processing Centre, a move the United Nations said would leave them homeless and destitute, The Guardian reported. Credit: Facebook/Students Against Detention UoN via Storyful