Next roadside demo - Bellingen Thurs 23rd Feb
Next Market Stall - Coffs Harbour Sun 27th Feb
Waiting for Citizenship
Roadside demonstration: Thursday 23rd February at 3.00 pm in Bellingen
Our next roadside demonstration is this Thursday, 23rd February, from 3.00 pm to 4.30 pm in Bellingen. We will be in our usual spot adjacent to the library on Waterfall Way. Please come and join us if you can, even for part of the time. We have lots of banners and placards to share, and we urgently need more pairs of hands to hold them! It’s now more important than ever that the voices of compassion and humanity are heard. Tragically, racism and bigotry are rapidly becoming normalised in the rush to the bottom for electoral advantage. We need to constantly remind people that there are a better, more principled ways to deal with the complex issues of managing the treatment of asylum seekers and refugees.
Our next market stall: Sunday 27th February in Coffs Harbour
Our next market stall will be at the Coffs Harbourside market, which will be held on Sunday 27th February. The market is located by the jetty and we are looking for helpers from 9.00 am until 1.30 pm. If you can spare an hour or two, then please consider coming to join us at the stall. You don’t need any previous experience –just a sense of compassion and empathy for the needs of asylum seekers and a commitment to the rule of law. We will be giving out leaflets, asking people to sign the national RAR petition, seeking donations for the Asylum Seekers Centre and, of course, selling our merchandise. All profits from sales are donated to the ASC, to whom we sent a cheque for $100 following the recent Valla Beach market. We have now donated $750 to the ASC since last August, so we are well on track to meet our target of $1000 in year one.
If you are able to lend a hand, please let Mike know by emailing him at: mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com.
Waiting for citizenship
For those of you who have been through the process, you will be aware that, as an immigrant with a permanent residency visa, you can apply for Australian citizenship after four years. At that point, you will receive a letter informing you that your application has been successful and that all that remains is for you to attend a citizenship ceremony to make the Pledge of Allegiance.....unless, of course, you happen to be an asylum seeker who arrived in Australia irregularly, which usually means by boat. There are now 10,231 such people living in Australia who have qualified for citizenship but who have been denied it because they came to Australia as “undocumented arrivals.” Often they have learned at the very last minute, without proper explanation, that their citizenship ceremonies have been cancelled. This is a purely punitive measure, initiated by our government to perpetuate the life of uncertainty for refugees, who so desperately need some certainty about their lives and their futures. The federal court has ruled that the immigration department’s policy of putting citizenship applications from boat-borne arrivals “in a drawer” where they were deliberately ignored, was not lawful, and has ordered that the applications be properly assessed. Minister Dutton’s department has until 28th February to respond to the federal court’s ruling. The Refugee Convention, to which Australia is a party and legally bound, prohibits discrimination against a person based on their method of arrival in a country.
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