Next Market Stall - Bellingen Sat
18th November
Next Roadside Demo - Bellingen Thursday
October 26th 2:30pm
Australia slammed by the UN Human Rights Committee
What next for the refugees and asylum seekers on Nauru?
Market report
There were lots of
market- goers at the Harbourside market in Coffs Harbour on Sunday, and we
had a busy time handing out leaflets, collecting signatures on our petition and
selling our asylum seeker merchandise. All in all, a very successful morning,
with lots of positive and encouraging comments from the many people who visited
our stall. A big thank you to our faithful team of regular helpers and to Kim,
the market manager, for her ongoing support. As a result of our sales at recent
markets, we will be sending $150 to the Asylum Seekers Centre in Newtown this
week to help them in their vital work.
Our next market stall
will be at the Bellingen Community market on Saturday 18th
November from 9.00 am until 1.30 pm. If you can help out for an
hour or two, then please email Mike at:mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com. to let him
know.
Next roadside demonstration : Bellingen, Thursday 26th October, 2.30 to 4.00 pm
Our next roadside
demonstration is this Thursday on Waterfall Way, Bellingen. You
will find us by the roadside opposite the golf club, just before you get to the
Yellow Shed. It would be great to see some new faces in addition to our usual
band of regular supporters, especially at a time when both the Coalition and
the Labor opposition seem to think that there is not a high level of opposition
to the current punitive policy on asylum seekers and refugees. We know from the
responses that we get to our demonstrations and market stalls that there most
certainly is widespread unhappiness in the community with the current cruel and
unlawful government policy, which is largely supported by the Labor opposition
in Parliament. We have lots of banners and placards to share, so please come
and join us if you can.
Australia’s asylum policy slammed by the UN Human
Rights Committee
Last week the UN
Human Rights Committee met in Geneva to consider Australia’s responses to a
range of issues, including the government’s record on detention practices for
refugees and asylum seekers. To put it mildly, the UN’s response was less than
positive. The Committee complained about Australia’s “chronic non-compliance”
with, and disengagement from, the Committee’s work. Indeed, the Vice Chair of
the Committee, Professor Yuval Shany, stated that Australia “has very
little to be proud of” and said that its compliance rate was so low that it was
“completely off the charts”. Amy Frew, a lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre,
reported that: “Today, the UN gave Australia a grade of E –and that’s not an E
for effort. The condemnation shows how far we have strayed from the
promises we made to uphold the civil and political rights of Australians and
people in our care.”
This grilling in
Geneva came just a day after the United Nations Human Rights Committee issued a
statement saying that the conditions on Manus Island amount to an “imminent
humanitarian crisis” and a “looming humanitarian emergency”. UNHCR visited the
Manus detention centre in September and is calling on Australia to immediately
evacuate the men from PNG to Australia.
What more will it take for our government to recognise the cruelty and
utter futility of its detention policy, and to bring all the people on Nauru
and Manus to Australia?
What next for the refugees and asylum seekers on
Nauru?
We reported last week
that asylum seekers and refugees on Manus are being offered the “opportunity”
to relocate to Nauru, in spite of the fact that the detention centre on Nauru
was slated for closure given that the current contractor does not intend to bid
for a further contract due to reputation damage caused by its association with
the regime of mistreatment of the detainees. This week, however, Minister
Dutton announced the appointment of a new contractor to take over the running
of the detention centre. The new contractor is Canstruct, a civil engineering
and construction company based in Queensland. The company was involved in the
construction of “temporary” accommodation units on Nauru in 2013. We have to
ask the questions : What kinds of services will a construction company be able
to provide for the detainees? Who will manage their health and medical needs?
How will the many needs of the detainees be catered for?
It is deeply
disturbing to learn that an Australian company is prepared to risk its
reputation by taking on the running of a detention centre in which so much harm
has been inflicted on the inmates.
Please contact
Canstruct and urge them not to take up this contract. Remind them about the
reputational damage that they will suffer if they collude with the government
in its ongoing mistreatment of asylum seekers and refugees. You can contact the
company at: www.canstruct.com.au/contact-us/
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