Dear Mr
Turnbull,
Please find
enclosed the details of the 830 people
who have recently signed the petition organised by the Bellingen and Nambucca
District Rural Australians for Refugees. The petition reads:
"We,
the undersigned, call on the Australian government to urgently review its
asylum seeker policy.
Specifically, we urge the government:
· to take the necessary steps to close
the offshore detention centres on Manus and Nauru as a matter of urgency.
· to resettle in Australia all asylum
seekers who are found to be entitled to protection under international law.
In the
meantime, we urge the government to end the secrecy surrounding the operation of the centres and to allow
reasonable access by UN agencies, relevant NGOs and journalists."
We are two
relatively small communities, but the
support for our campaign to seek an end to the cruel and inhumane treatment of
asylum seekers and refugees on Manus and Nauru grows stronger by the day. We
have long since lost count of the number
of people who tell us that they
feel ashamed to be Australian.
They are angry and ashamed that our government
continues to punish these vulnerable and traumatised people, who have committed
no crime and who have a right to our protection under international law. We
utterly reject the government's recent assertion that, as the gates of the Nauru
detention centre are now open, these asylum seekers are now "free"
and that life has somehow changed for them. Life has not changed for them in
any significant way, and it is disingenuous of the government to assert
otherwise. These people live in an open prison, in unacceptable conditions,
from which there is no escape, and they have been offered no hope for the future.
We urge you
to do the right thing and to make a serious commitment to bringing this
shameful situation to an end in the months ahead. We would, of course, be happy
to meet with you or one of your senior colleagues if you are planning to visit
the Mid North Coast in the near future.
Yours
sincerely,
Mike Griffin
Bellingen
and Nambucca District RAR
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