letter to editors of local papers

_{Subject: Letter to the Editor} 

_{Dear Editor,}

_{In 2003 John Howard, leading the Liberal Coalition Government of the day , enacted legislation that Australia should  support the USA in the Iraq war. Australian governments since then have supported war efforts in Afghanistan and air strikes on Syria.} 

_{These conflicts are bound to lead to hundreds of thousands of people fleeing persecution, fear, and destruction of  their  homelands . Our governments need to recognise there is a cause and effect in all of this.}

_{The world’s refugee problem has its basis in wars of foreign intervention. Our government  therefore has  a responsibility to assist those displaced and to treat them with dignity and compassion.} 

_{Instead we lock  up families and children in hellish conditions on offshore islands like Nauru and Manus. The cost of this is astronomical to the Australian tax payer but this  is nothing compared to the human cost borne by those detained. We have seen suicides in the detention centres , deaths from lack of medical attention, young children suffering extreme mental health issues , rape and violence.} 

_{Only last week one of the main medical aid agencies Medecins  Sans Frontieres ( MSF)  was banished from Nauru. Why did this happen ? It was because MSF , who were treating people with mental health and other urgent problems, were regularly demanding that seriously ill children should be brought to Australia for qualified  medical treatment . Our Australian government fought every case through the courts at an astronomical cost  in 2017 to prevent this from happening.}

_{We should demand that our representatives in parliament respond  to what the Australian Medical Association describes as “an urgent humanitarian crisis”.  Families and children should be removed from the hellholes of detention and brought to Australia .} 

_{The Bellingen and Nambucca Refugee Support Group (RAR) is actively pressing for a change in present government  policy on these issues and there is much support for this from the voting public. It’s time for change .}

_{We played a part in the cause of the displacement of these refugees so we should do the honourable thing and stop washing our hands of the situation.} 

_{Marlene Griffin} 

_{Valla Beach .}