Newsletter for 5 March 2019 Rural Australians for Refugees Bellingen and Nambucca Districts

_{Roadside demonstration: Thursday 7}^th _{March, Bellingen}

_{Next market stall: Bellingen market, Saturday 16}^th _March

_{Dutton takes us to new depths}

_{Fundraiser for Asylum Seekers Centre, Sydney}

_{Facts and figures update}

_{Manus detainees head to court}

_{Roadside demonstration: Thursday 7}^th _{March, Bellingen}

_{A reminder that our next roadside demonstration is this Thursday on Waterfall Way in Bellingen,from 2.30 to 4.00 pm. You will find us in our usual spot adjacent to the Yellow Shed, opposite the entrance to the golf club. Please come and join us if you can, and help us to keep the cruel policy of indefinite detention of refugees in the public eye.}

_{Next market stall: Bellingen market, Saturday 16}^th _March

_{Our next market stall will be at the very popular Bellingen Market on Saturday 16}^th _{March from 9.00 am until 1.30 pm. As usual, we’ll be interacting with market-goers, handing out leaflets, encouraging people to sign our open letter and selling our merchandise to raise funds for the ASC.} 

_{We have been allocated pitch E25, which is accessed via Ford Street. If you are able to help out for an hour or two, then please let Mike know by emailing him at: mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com.}

_{Dutton takes us to new depths}

_{In recent days, Minister Dutton has taken the politics of fear to a new low, asserting that if sick refugees on Manus and Nauru are brought to Australia for treatment, they will but a terrible strain on the capacity of hospitals to manage the influx, and that this will lead to Australians being “kicked off” the waiting lists. He goes on to suggest that Australians will be “kicked out” of their houses to make way for refugees, who, he asserts “are conning us.” The reality, as always, is somewhat different.}

_{Hundreds of refugees have already been brought to Australia for treatment in recent years, without any hint of their arrival causing problems for our health services. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, there were 701 public hospitals in Australia in 2015-16 with 61,000 hospital beds.} 

_{A further 630 private hospitals provided another 33,100 beds. MP Dr Kerryn Phelps, a primary architect of the medical transfer legislation, reminds us that: “we know that the system has the capacity to look after these people. The major teaching hospitals with specialist services see thousands and thousands of patients every week.” St Vincent’s Health Australia responded to Dutton’s assertions as follows: “Public hospitals can accommodate the health needs of asylum seekers without disadvantaging anyone. St Vincent’s is happy to make its hospitals available to provide care for asylum seekers without affecting waiting lists.”}

_{Minister Dutton, in the same statement, wants us to believe that the government provided “the best medical assistance possible” on Manus and Nauru, and that anybody who argued otherwise was “lying”. The evidence to the contrary is both overwhelming and well documented.}

_{It probably only a matter of time before Minister Dutton warns us to lock up our women and daughters!}

_{Fundraiser for Asylum Seekers Centre, Sydney}

_{Margie and Georgie are hosting a lunch at their home at 12 River St, Mylestom on Saturday 30th March, 12.30. COST $35.00 pp} 

_{To make this lunch a success we need you to come and bring your friends. Places are limited so if you and your friends can come please let us know ASAP by emailing Margie on gsmh@fastmail.fm to secure your spot. REMEMBER SPACE IS LIMITED.}

_{To raise extra money, and be entertained, we will have an auction. For this to be successful, we need interesting items to auction. Please tell us what you and your friends can offer for this. And then come along and bid for some item that someone else has donated!}

_{We will collect what you can offer or just bring on the day. If you can’t make it to the Lunch, you may still want to donate an item or cash. It helps us if we know what items there are to auction so please let us know what you can offer.}

_{Facts and figures update}

_{Last week, the final four children on Nauru left the island for resettlement in the US. They were part of a group of 19 people to leave the island. At the same time, a group of 22 men left Manus to be resettled in the US, bringing the number of refugees resettled to approximately 500. This leaves some 970 detainees on the two islands, including 154 whose requests for asylum have been rejected. The refugees who go to the US are obliged to pay back the cost of their transfer within four years. For families earning a low income in the US, this presents an enormous, probably impossible challenge.}

_{Since 2014, up to 1,000 people, comprising sick individuals and their families, have been transferred to Australia. Of these, 282 have been returned to Nauru or Manus, with the majority remaining in Australia following the intervention of lawyers. During this financial year, the government has spent $1.373 million fighting the legal intervention of human rights lawyers.} 

_{Since the introduction of Operation Sovereign Borders, 64,362 people have sought asylum in Australia after arriving by plane. Over time, almost all of them have their claims rejected.}

_{Manus detainees head to court}

_{It is almost three years since the PNG Supreme Court ruled that the “forceful bringing into and detention of the asylum seekers” on Manus was unconstitutional and illegal. That judgement led to the closure of the detention centre at Lombrum, and the opening of three “open” facilities on the outskirts of Lorengau. The reality is that the men are forced to return to the centres at dusk, and are locked in every night from 6.00 pm until 6.00 am. They are not able to leave Manus Island. Manus is, therefore, effectively an open prison for the 550 men who remain there. In the coming days, lawyers will return to the court in PNG, and will argue that little has changed. Greg Barns, an Australian lawyer acting for the men, states that: “The only way to end this unlawful situation is by recourse to PNG courts, given the failure of the Australian and PNG governments to comply with the 2016 decision, and ensure these men are not unlawfully detained on Manus Island in or outside the detention centre.”}

_{The real solution is surely for both our government and the opposition to finally accept that this cruel policy of indefinite detention has to end, and that the men should be brought to Australia for resettlement here, in New Zealand or in other safe countries willing to accept them.}

_{Check out the index of subjects on our blog http://bellorar.blogspot.com.au}

_{It includes articles from many sources and letters to politicians and newspapers.}

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_{The National RAR web site is at  www.ruralaustraliansforrefugees.org.au} 

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