March in August Sunday 31 August at Jetty Foreshore Coffs Harbour

March in August

March in August

Please join us at the March in August next Sunday, 31st August at 11.00 am at the Coffs Harbour Jetty Market area

A map is below.

Go to the end of Harbour Drive, and then Marina Drive to the first roundabout. Parking very close to the site of the March could be a problem.

Look out for our two yellow  banners and join us about 10 minutes before the start of the march.

Mike Griffin will be speaking on behalf of our group and we believe this is an important opportunity to send a strong message to our politicians that we are dismayed by the ongoing cruel and inhumane treatment of asylum seekers, especially children.

Children are being held in indefinite detention on Christmas Island and Nauru. Their physical and mental health deteriorates by the day. It is indefensible, and in breach of our international obligations, to use 148 children on Christmas Island and 183 on Nauru and a deterrent.

It is clear, however, from Scott Morrison’s appearance before the Human Rights Commission of Enquiry this week that the government intends to continue to use children in this way, “because the policy is working”.

The Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce describes  this treatment of children as amounting to “state sanctioned child abuse, which the Taskforce believes will warrant a Royal Commission”.

Please join us and make your voices heard. We cannot continue to look the other way.

Anyone requiring a lift from Nambucca Heads or Valla Beach should phone Mike Griffin on 6569 5419.

We hope to see you there, with your placards – though we do have a few spares!

Reply to "queue jumper" letter in Nambucca Guardian 22 August 2014

A letter was published in the Nambucca Guardian, which included the following comments.

Mike's reply is below

"What do you call 'illegal' people who try to come to Australia, who do not fill in the required forms, ask, wait etc

They try to get accepted into our country before others, so they are queue jumpers.

And they expect others to pay for them

They have arrived on our shores uninvited, 'illegally' "

From: Mike

Sent: Friday, August 22, 2014 9:18 AM

To: christian.knight@fairfaxmedia.com.au

Subject: Letter in response to Edwina du Casse

I can sympathise with Edwina du Casse’s frustration (letters 20th August) about the process of applying for a permanent residency visa. It is indeed, as I know from experience, a tiresome process which can drag on for what seems an endless time.  But whilst we were waiting on the outcome of our applications, we were not locked in detention, deprived of our liberty or watched over by guards who were not always sympathetic to our plight.

We simply cannot compare the immigration process  for economic migrants with that for refugees fleeing their countries of origin. We were free citizens, living in democratic countries and choosing to seek to live in Australia. We hadn’t witnessed our brothers, sisters, or our parents being tortured or killed simply because of who or where they were, or what they believed in.  We were not fleeing the horrors of war – often brought to their doorstep by Western governments. We were not living in daily fear for our lives.

The international community, following the unspeakable atrocities inflicted on the Jewish people in Nazi Germany during the Second World War, was determined that, in future, people fleeing torture and persecution  would be protected. That is why the Australian government is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention. That is why, as a nation, we should respond with humanity and understanding to people seeking protection on our shores. Other nations, many of them much poorer that Australia, are doing just that.

Mike

"..children are actually identifying themselves by their numbers, not by their names, which is shocking” letter - Nambucca Guardian

Peter Sobey (letters 7th August) is absolutely right in his comments about asylum seekers.

Our government is a signatory to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and to other conventions, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The conventions make it clear that the indefinite detention of children amounts to cruel and inhumane treatment, which is unlawful.

The conditions in offshore detention centres, where asylum seekers are held behind wires in indefinite detention, with no hope of resettlement in Australia, and living in a dangerous and insanitary conditions, environment, also place the government in breach of its obligations.

The Human Rights Commissioner, following visits to Christmas Island, reports that all the children are traumatised and in poor health.  She reported in April: “These children are actually identifying themselves by their numbers, not by their names, which is shocking”. Does that ring any bells?

In relation to unaccompanied children, a recently published report by the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce puts it bluntly: “This is state sanctioned child abuse which the Taskforce believes will warrant a Royal Commission”.

How can this government, in our name, use some of the most vulnerable and traumatised people on earth as human shields to protect us from would-be asylum seekers? Have we learned nothing from our past failings as a nation  - the institutionalised sex abuse of children, the stolen generation, the forgotten generation?

Will we continue to look the other way?

It is surely time for us to tell this government that they do not act in our name.

I would encourage readers to join with the Rural Australians for Refugees, Nambucca and Bellingen Districts at the March in August on Sunday 31st August in Coffs Harbour.

For further information about our group, go to: http:/bellorar.blogspot.com.au/. Make your voices heard!

Mike

letter to Coffs Advocate - Human Rights of Children in Detention

From: Mike

Sent: Friday, August 15, 2014 2:09 PM

To: editorial@coffscoastadvocate.com.au

Subject: Letter to the editor

Amanda Jennings (Your Say, 13th August) is right to draw our attention to the terrible loss of life in Gaza and to link this utter failure of humanity to the plight of refugees. 

Readers might like to know that, following her visit to Christmas Island in April, the Human Rights commissioner also reported that “these children are actually identifying themselves by their numbers, not by their names, which is shocking.” 

Does that ring any bells? 

A more recent report by the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce had this to say about the Abbott government’s treatment of unaccompanied children in detention: “This is state sanctioned child abuse which the Taskforce believes will warrant a Royal Commission”. 

It would appear that, as a nation, we have learned nothing from our past failures in relation to children’s wellbeing. We seem to be happy to continue to look the other way.

It is surely time for us to stand up and tell this government that they do not act in our name. I hope that many readers will turn out for the March in August in Coffs Harbour on 31st August and support those of us advocating on behalf of refugees. 

We need together to send a clear message to this morally bankrupt government that we expect them to act with integrity and humanity towards those in need of our assistance.

Mike

Children out of detention with their families - analysis 19 August 2014

Freeing asylum seeker children from detention part of Scott Morrison's strategy to reintroduce temporary protection visas

Date

August 19, 2014 - 2:06PM

Category

Opinion

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Michael Gordon

Political editor, The Age

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ANALYSIS

Releasing children a stop-the-boats 'dividend'

Children under age 10 who arrived before 19 July 2013 will be released along with their families from held detention on bridging visas, says Scott Morrison.

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• Different rules to apply for asylum children on mainland and offshore

On the eve of a meeting with Clive Palmer, Scott Morrison has belatedly pledged to get young children out of mainland detention centres and into the community on bridging visas by year's end. To what end?
The answer can be found between the lines of Tuesday's announcement: the minister wants to make a deal with the PUP leader to re-introduce temporary protection visas for refugees who come to this country the “wrong way”.
Whether he succeeds may hinge on whether the new Senate crossbench is happy to abide a situation where the damage done to one group of children in detention eventually prompts action, while nothing changes for hundreds of others on Christmas Island and Nauru.
Implicit in the announcement of this latest, money-saving, “dividend” of stopping the boats is a stark admission of policy incoherence.
Those who happened to arrive before July 19 last year with children under 10 will be released into the community because the impact on their physical and mental health of remaining in detention is recognised.
But those who arrived after that date will be subjected to a policy a calculated cruelty offshore (because the adverse consequences are now extremely well-documented), in order to send a message of deterrent to others.
Morrison says it has been the intention for months to release more children, but acknowledges that “plenty of people have been putting the word on the government to get children out of detention and release them on bridging visas”.
He also volunteers that the issue of children in detention has come up in his “positive” discussions with the crossbenchers on what to do with that pre-July 19 caseload.
The minister has previously been frustrated by the Senate and slapped down by the High Court in his efforts to restore temporary protection visas, prompting him to introduce his own "national interest" test for individually assessing applications by refugees for permanent visas.
Now, it would appear, he is attempting to show some good faith in discussions with Palmer and Co that could result in him getting his way.
The problem is that the government is acting belatedly and that the unpredictable populist Palmer has, thus far, been a consistent opponent of consigning asylum seekers to indefinite detention here or overseas.
While brutal treatment of arrivals is proven policy when it comes to stopping the boats, Morrison has demonstrated that his policy of turn-backs can also be effective in this regard (except when countries such as India refuse to play ball).
But giving only temporary protection to those who have demonstrated a genuine fear of persecution if returned to their homelands remains highly contentious, even on the narrow test of whether it acts as a deterrent.
With TPV-holders not offered any prospect of family reunion, it served as an inducement for people to risk their lives on boats under John Howard's Pacific Solution because this seemed the only way for people to join immediate family members already here.
To Palmer, the deal-maker, Morrison has made his play, with no guarantee it will prove persuasive. This raises another question: what more does the minister have to offer?

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/freeing-asylum-seeker-children-from-detention-part-of-scott-morrisons-strategy-to-reintroduce-temporary-protection-visas-20140819-3dxzz.html#ixzz3ApYp3yvl

Catholic Students protest over detention policies SMH 16 Aug 2014

Catholic school kids protest against asylum seeker policies


Date
August 15, 2014
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Amy McNeilage
Reporter
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Students protest against refugee detention
Sydney's Bethlehem College in Ashfield is just one Catholic School showing its support for asylum seekers.

Catholic schools are taking a stand against children in detention, a policy they say violates basic human rights and is inconsistent with their Christian values.

And, in a public commitment to refugee children, the schools have also pledged to provide free schooling to all refugees in Sydney Archdiocese schools.

Dan White, the executive director of Catholic schools for the Archdiocese of Sydney, has condemned Australia’s treatment of refugees and asylum seekers and encourages his students to speak up if they are uncomfortable with the government's policies.


Christian values: Schoolgirl activists at Bethlehem College in Ashfield have demonstrated against refugee policy. Photo: Steven Siewert
“Sydney’s Catholic schools have had a long tradition of encouraging our students to actively engage with social justice issues,” he said. “I just hope that in 20 years time when there is some government inquiry into how we treated children in detention that our young people can stand up and say that at least their voice was heard.”

At Bethlehem College in Ashfield last month, about 50 schoolgirls emerged at lunch time with their student numbers scrawled across tape that covered their mouths. Provocative images of refugees hung from their necks, covering the school crests on their blazers. For the duration of their lunch break, they sat in a square staring blankly at nothing much. They did it every day for a week.

“We got a lot of weird stares from everyone and you felt helpless while you were sitting there thinking ‘why isn’t anyone helping me? Why isn’t anyone asking about it?’ ” year 11 student Sarah Azzi said. “And it’s really symbolic of what’s happening to refugees because they sit in the detention centres, everyone knows they are there, but no one really does anything about.”


The students' silent protest in action. Photo: Supplied
The bold demonstration against the federal government’s refugee policy was part of a remarkable student activist movement that has emerged in Catholic schools.

Students  at Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview, where Tony Abbott went to school, sent the Prime Minister a letter last year condemning his asylum-seeker policies, which, they argued, did not fit with Jesuit ideals.

A number of Bethlehem's students travelled into the city earlier this year to be part of a demonstration that involved removing one thousand dolls, representing children in detention, from a cage.


Students taped their mouths to protest the fact that asylum seekers don't have a voice. Photo: Supplied
Elizabeth Moodey, Bethlehem College’s religious education coordinator, said the event was a pivotal moment for many of her young students.

“They stood in the cage in the centre of the city and they saw all of these adults walking past, not even taking any interest in what was going on,” she said.

The girls told her they “felt like nothing, no one cared, and that’s what these people feel like in detention centres”.

While the school has not experienced any great pushback from parents, it has received a number of dissenting emails from members of the public.

“They ask why a Catholic school is being a part of it,” Ms Moodey said. “And our general response is that it is because we’re a Catholic school and these are our Catholic values.”

Dr White says parents choose Catholic schools “partly because they want their children to have that sort of environment where they’re encouraged to think through these issues”.

His own social justice views were shaped as a student participating in anti-apartheid protests against the Springboks' rugby union tours.

“That was a defining issue for me at the time, the total injustice of the apartheid regime, but in Australia it was very unpopular to demonstrate outside a football ground about a rugby tour,” he said. “I’ve often drawn on that experience as a reminded of how important it is to stand for what you genuinely believe is right.”



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/catholic-school-kids-protest-against-asylum-seeker-policies-20140815-104iq1.html#ixzz3AbRn0nUe

Limbo Hell - "punitive Removal visa" for Ali al Janabi

Response from Robin de Crespigny Author of the "People Smuggler"

 Dear Judy

Thank you for your kind response to reading The People Smuggler. 

Sadly, Ali's situation is the same as it was at the end of the book. He remains on a punitive Removal visa that can send him back to Iraq any day. It is tragic that after bringing his family and so many others to safety and a new life, any day he could be returned to a place where he will most likely be killed - many of Saddam's regime are still around, and after the work Ali did in the Resistance against Saddam, want revenge. 

The book has generated a ground-swell of supporters and letters to the Immigration Minister but now with the new government's brutal policies on asylum seekers there is no way of knowing where it will go. Meanwhile Ali remains in what he calls 'Limbo Hell'. Of particular torment is not being able to see his daughter for over 10 years. 

Here is hoping a positive outcome will not be too fare away for Ali, but it is not looking very hopeful at this time.

Thanks again for the support from Rural Australians for Refugees based in Bellingen/Nambucca Valley. It is nice to hear from you.

Best
Robin
Robin de Crespigny
Author ‘The People Smuggler’

Julian Burnside letter on letter writing to asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru

Julian Burnside QC reports back on letter writing to asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru

If you cannot read the letter below double click on it  to get larger image

Australia's 'cruel' asylum regime must end, say 190 experts

Array of leading figures sign statement calling for a halt to mandatory detention and ‘unacceptable’ asylum-seeker policy

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• theguardian.com, Friday 8 August 2014 11.48 AEST
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Asylum seekers leave Christmas Island for Nauru. Photograph: AAP/Department of Immigration and Citizenship

Leading psychiatrists, bioethicists, human rights lawyers, novelists, priests and refugee advocates have published a collective document accusing the Australian government of inhumane treatment of asylum seekers and demanding an end to mandatory detention and offshore processing.

In a “j’accuse” statement, signed by more than 190 individuals and organisations, the collective argues Australia is “pursuing a policy of detention for asylum seekers, both adults and children, in spite of clear evidence that it causes psychiatric disorders, self-harm and suicide”.

It says Australia’s policy of deterring asylum seekers, in which they are all moved to offshore detention centres on Papua New Guinea and Nauru, “requires damaging some to deter others and uses the lives of vulnerable people, the vast majority of whom are found to be refugees, as a means to a political end”.

Professor Louise Newman, one of Australia’s foremost developmental psychiatrists and a signatory to the statement, said the document “pulls together prominent Australians with a shared view that current responses to asylum seekers, including children, are cruel, unnecessary and unacceptable”.

“This crisis of immigration detention requires urgent action and the cessation of offshore deportation and mandatory detention,” Newman, who sat on the immigration department’s Immigration Health Advisory Board (Ihag) before it was disbanded by the current government last December.

Other signatories include human rights lawyer Julian Burnside, bioethicist Deborah Zion, and novelist Dr Rosie Scott.

The statement comes just days after Dr Peter Young, the former chief psychiatrist responsible for the mental health of all asylum seekers detained by Australia, described the immigration detention regime as akin to torture.

“If we take the definition of torture to be the deliberate harming of people in order to coerce them into a desired outcome, I think it does fulfil that definition,” Young said.

Young’s extensive observations, reported by Guardian Australia, also included that the department of immigration misused patient informationand that psychiatrists working within the system were often viewed as “soft touches” by the department if they advocated on their patients’ behalf.

Young received overwhelming praise for his comments from peak medical bodies, prominent mental health experts and human rights groups.

The “j’accuse” statement also says Australia’s immigration regime violates the rights of children by “exposing them to violence, trauma and to poor medical and psycho-social care, with no access to independent monitoring”.

It accuses the federal government of “exploiting ignorance about asylum seekers’ needs and circumstances” adding that it does this by “encouraging racist media coverage”.

The statement ends by demanding the federal government bring an end to mandatory detention, cap the length of detention to 30 days, and adopt a policy framework that is “consistent with obligations under the refugee convention”

Valla Markets Saturday 2 August 2014

Eight of our volunteers helped out on the stall between 7am set up and 2pm close. 

Not one person who spoke to us supported the governments position and most signed our petition to end Offshore processing. 

Many people told stories of their parents fleeing persecution and their gratitude for the UN Convention that ultimately gave them protection as refugees in Australia. 

We had $28 in donations for ChilOut and and sold a number of Tea towels and a bag. If we can get some T-Shirts I am sure they would sell. 

We will have a stall at the Valla Beach Community Markets on Saturday 2 August 2014 which is located at

Valla Reserve

at the end of Ocean View Road

Valla Beach  

Come and 

talk to us

take away information

buy a product to help fund the action

sign up to our email list and join the action

sign a petition