10th October 2016
Dear Mr Turnbull,
Please find enclosed a petition organised by Rural Australians for Refugees, which has been
signed by 1396 people. The petition reads:
"We,
the undersigned, call on the leaders of all political parties to work together
to bring to an end the cruel, inhumane and unsustainable offshore detention
arrangements for asylum seekers and refugees. We specifically ask the
Parliament to:
· process all asylum seekers currently held in
offshore detention, without further delay.
· resettle in Australia all asylum seekers
currently in offshore detention centres who are found to be eligible for our
protection under international law.
· permanently close all offshore detention
facilities in the months ahead."
Our strong view, now supported by the majority of the Australian people,
is that the offshore detention regime needs to be urgently brought to an end.
The current policy is deeply shameful, immoral, cruel and hugely expensive.
Despite the Government's attempts to hide the appalling physical and mental
abuse inflicted on the detainees, the evidence of abuse reported by reputable
organisations and individual professionals with first-hand experience of the
situation is clear, unambiguous and shocking.
We should not be treating our
fellow human beings, who have committed no crime, in this way. It is utterly
reprehensible to use a group of people as human shields to protect us from other
would-be asylum seekers. We can do better than this. We therefore call on the
Government to take urgent steps to close all offshore facilities without
further delay and to bring the asylum seekers and refugees to Australia for
processing and resettlement.
On behalf of Rural Australians for Refugees, I look forward to your
constructive and positive response.
Yours
sincerely,
Mike
Griffin
Copied to:
Bill Shorten MP
Senator Richard Di Natale
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