Sydney, Australia — Prime time entertainment turned into political protest in Australia when a contestant evicted from hit reality television show Big Brother staged a silent sit-in against the detention of asylum seekers.
After being voted off the show — or “evicted” as the program's makers call it — Sunday night, 24-year-old Merlin Luck was whisked to a nearby television studio for a live post-eviction interview with host Gretel Killeen.
But instead of the usual gushing question and answer session, Luck sat silently, his mouth taped shut, holding a poster made from black tape stuck to paper that read “Free th refugees” — the letter e from the word “the” apparently fell off somewhere between the Big Brother house and the studio.
There have for years been protests in Australia against the conservative government's policy of locking up all asylum seekers caught trying to sneak into the country, but rarely has one been so high profile. Sunday night's show had an estimated 1.5 million viewers.
“I wasn't trying to destroy the show,” Luck said Monday. “If people want reality television, then this is reality.”
Luck said he had wanted to provoke debate about the incarceration of refugees and asylum seekers ahead of the federal election, expected later this year.
“The vast majority have risked their lives to fight for the basic human rights we take for granted,” he said. “This issue needs to be put back on the political agenda.”
On Monday, Luck's silent protest was praised by one refugee advocate.
“A Just Australia congratulates the young man on his courage and on bringing to the Australian public's attention the fact that there are still a number of refugees in detention centres both on Nauru and in Australia, particularly children,” said Greg Barns, spokesman for pro-refugee group A Just Australia.
As well as detention centres in Australia, the government is also holding dozens of asylum seekers on a camp it set up on impoverished Pacific nation Nauru.
“I thought it was a pretty genuine action on this fellow's part,” Barns added. “He is to be congratulated for bringing the plight of refugees to a new and broader audience.”
Luck had spent six weeks locked in the house with other contestants. Each week, one is voted off by viewers until only one is left. The winner picks up 1 million Australian dollars (about $950,000 Canadian).
Luck — who lived for seven years in Australia as an illegal immigrant after his family moved from Germany when he was four — said he planned his protest even before the series started. He managed to smuggle the sign into the Big Brother house by sewing it underneath a patch on a T-shirt.
