letter to editor - close these barbarous centres 24 November 2018

_{24 November 2018}

_{With so many issues clamouring for media attention lately, it’s no wonder the plight of the poor, traumatised people still locked away in remote Nauru and Manus Island have faded from media attention. We need to remind ourselves that their plight is our responsibility, because the barbarous treatment they still receive (out of sight) after five years is done in our name. Both Labour and Coalition parties have acted in contravention of Human Rights agreements. We cannot turn our backs.}

_{Nor can we accept the blatantly distorted argument that they’re locked in the prisons as a deterrent to other would-be boat arrivals. The boats are stopped now, thanks to militant Australian border protection strategies. So the cruel treatment inflicted on vulnerable children and adults is also pointless.}

_{Elections are happening: Victoria last Saturday, NSW next March, and a Federal election due any time before May 2019, so the current Morrison government, rather than change policies, is quietly having desperately ill and mentally disturbed children flown from Nauru to Australia for treatment. The unstated aim seems to be to dispose of these people from the two ‘concentration camps’ (they are this, in effect) so that by election time it will no longer be an embarrassment for them.}

_{New Zealand has offered to take 150 asylum seekers each year, but the only way this government will consent is on the proviso that they never be permitted to enter Australia, as is normal with New Zealand citizens. This is not good enough.}

_{We must keep this issue alive in the public domain. We cannot rest until we force our political leaders to close these barbarous centres and allow the suffering people holed up there to become citizens here or in New Zealand. Thirteen have died there already in our name. They are not terrorists. They are humans like us, but not so lucky.}   

_{Suzanne Ferris}

_Bellingen