Dear Editor,
It has been four long years since the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that no asylum seeker arriving by boat would set foot on Australian soil. For four years, several thousand innocent people have been condemned to an indefinite detention on the far-off islands of Manus and Nauru, despite having committed no crime.
This cruel and inhumane policy has been very costly, in terms of our money, in terms of the mental and physical health of these vulnerable people, and in terms of our moral standing in the world community.
The Australian Government is violating the Refugee Convention by not allowing asylum seekers to claim asylum in Australia. The Refugee Convention was established after the atrocities of WWII in direct response to the way people fleeing Nazi Germany were refused asylum around the world and sent back to face gas chambers.
My father fought in that war and was shot out of the sky and spent a very cold winter in a German PoW camp for his trouble. I know he did not fight to then sit back and watch fear-mongering politicians unpick all the human rights that were established in response to that calamity.
The struggle for universal human rights continues today. Seeking asylum from persecution is one of those rights that our government is actively subverting, at great financial and moral cost to ourselves and at great personal cost to the vulnerable people detained on Manus Island and Nauru.
There will be a candle light vigil at Lavenders Bridge Park in Bellingen at 5:30pm on Wednesday July 19th. It is organised by Rural Australians for Refugees (Nambucca and Bellingen), and the Greens.
Human rights are important. You would certainly miss them if you lost them. Just watch the Handmaids Tale on SBS if you doubt this. It is up to us to protect them. I hope to see you at the vigil.
Peter Sobey
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