Newsletter for 13 November 2018 Rural Australians for Refugees Bellingen and Nambucca Districts

_{Roadside demonstration: Thursday 15}^th _{November: 2.30 to 4.00 pm}

_{Our next market stall: Bellingen market, Saturday 17}^th _November

_{“These Hands”, by singer-songwriter Stewart Peters}

_{Nauru update}

_{Manus island update}

_{And finally…….}

_{Roadside demonstration: Thursday 15}^th _{November: 2.30 to 4.00 pm}

_{A reminder that our next roadside demonstration is this Thursday on Hogbin Drive, Toormina. You will find us in our usual spot, down the hill about 150 metres from the fire station, in the direction of the airport. Please come and join us if you can, and help us to win the fight in getting the public on side in our campaign to end offshore detention. We are getting there, but we are not there yet.}

_{Our next market stall: Bellingen market, Saturday 17}^th _November

_{A reminder that our next market stall is this Saturday at the Bellingen Community market from 9.00 am until 1.30 pm. We have been allocated site E46, which is accessed via Ford Street. As usual, we’ll be handing out leaflets, talking to market-goers, collecting signatures on our open letter, and selling merchandise to raise funds for the Asylum Seekers Centre in Newtown. If you can help out for an hour or two, then please let Mike know by emailing him at: mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com. The markets are a great opportunity to interact with the public, in additional to catching up with friends and enjoying a chat.} 

_{“These Hands”, by singer-songwriter Stewart Peters}

_{We hope that you enjoyed listening to Stewart’s haunting refugee song, which he performed for us at our recent fundraiser. If anyone wishes to share the song more widely, then it would be appreciated if you could discuss this first with Stewart, by emailing him at: stewart@soundshed.com.au.}

_{Nauru update}

_{Last week we reported that 35 children were still languishing on Nauru, most of them in poor physical and mental health. Since then, another 25 people, including eight children in six family units, have been brought to Australia, leaving 27 children on the island. They could all, of course, be brought to Australia immediately, but our government, for purely political purposes, chooses to let this terrible situation drag on. Serious concerns remain for the many adults and children still on the island, as well as numerous families and couples separated between the two countries and even within Australia. A few examples: A pregnant Somali woman was in the Villawood detention centre for four months until she was released into community detention last week, while her husband remains on Nauru. A Lebanese mother and daughter who came to Melbourne for medical treatment a month ago are in community detention but another daughter of hers, aged 14, and her son, are in the Melbourne detention centre. Nauru-based siblings Narges and Daryoush were transferred to Sydney last week after more than four years of being separated from their parents and sister, but remain in Villawood detention centre instead of being placed in community detention with their family. These examples are but three of many. All of them are avoidable, and our government should be doing everything in its power to ensure that families are reunited, in keeping with our international obligations. And the Labor opposition should be pressing it to do so.}

_{Manus island update}

_{Last week, in the run-up to the APEC summit in PNG, the PNG government returned more than 20 refugees to Manus from Port Moresby, where they were undergoing or awaiting medical treatment. A further 30 or so were told that they would be returned to Manus imminently, regardless of their medical issues. This is perhaps another example, as with the recent conference on Nauru, where the authorities are keen to keep the refugees well out of sight. It is reported that one man, on learning of his imminent return to Manus, attempted suicide. Behrouz Boochani, the well-known writer and journalist who has been held on Manus for more that five years, reports that the situation for the 650 men on Manus is steadily deteriorating, with at least two suicide attempts and three instances of self-harm in the past week. This is clearly an intolerable and unsustainable situation, and we must continue to maintain the pressure on the government and the Labor opposition to bring these men to Australia for resettlement either here, in the US, in New Zealand or in other countries where it is safe for them to begin to rebuild their shattered lives.} 

_{And finally…….}

_{“Only a sociopath could pray and weep for a child on Nauru, and then oppose their medical treatment in court”}

_{Father Rod Bower, Anglican Parish of Gosford.}

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