Roadside demonstration report
Valla Beach market report
The government response to our recent open letter
The “Biloela” family: the UN speaks out
Australia’s refugee policies: a view from the US
Roadside demonstration report
We
had another good turnout of supporters for last week’s roadside
demonstration next to the Big Banana in Coffs Harbour. Two members of
our group calculated that, during the one and a half hours of our vigil,
at least 4500 vehicles passed us as they travelled north. That’s a lot
of people receiving, and perhaps reflecting on, our message to end
offshore detention and to treat refugees with humanity and compassion.
Our next demonstration will take place on Thursday 17th October from 2.30 to 4.00 pm by the Pacific Highway, opposite the base hospital in Coffs Harbour. Please come and join us if you can.
Valla Beach market report
A
big thank you to all our supporters who turned out to help at our
market stall on Saturday. It was a rather cool, windy and overcast
morning, but there were nonetheless plenty of visitors milling about,
given that it was both school holidays and the hotrodders festival.
Our next stall will be at the Bellingen market on Saturday 16th November. Please put the date in your diaries and come along to sign our open letter.
The government response to our recent open letter
In
recent days we finally received a response from the Department of Home
Affairs to our open letter to the Prime MInister about the New Zealand
offer to accept refugees from Manus and Nauru. You will recall that the
letter was signed by 1520 people. As usual, the Department of Home
Affairs seeks to paint a picture of a government that is doing all the
right things in relation to the treatment of refugees and in protecting
our borders. Just as in many earlier letters, the DHA asserts that the
responsibility for the refugees and asylum seekers in PNG and Nauru lies
with the respective governments, when the reality is, of course, that
they are the responsibility of the Australian government, which funds
and overseas the whole enterprise. You can read the letter on our Facebook page and on our blog.
You
will be aware that the Tamil family from Biloela in Queensland are
currently being held in detention on Christmas island. They have now
been held in locked detention since May 2018. They have been told that
the review of the asylum claim for their youngest child Tharnicaa will
take many months and that in the meantime they will remain in the
detention centre, where they are living in complete isolation and
surrounded by guards. The United Nations Human Rights Committee has, in
recent days, written to the Australian government asking it to end the
“existing situation of detention” for the family, and requested that
they be moved “into a community setting arrangement.”
Australia is a
signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
but the UN cannot force the government to comply with the request. Any
positive action on the part of the government is therefore, sadly,
unlikely. Earlier, Minister Dutton, in spite of the evidence to the
contrary, asserted that the family was living in the community on
Christmas island. A friend of the family, Angela Fredericks, who has
advocated tirelessly for them, had this to say: “The government say they
are committed to upholding the rule of law both internationally and
domestically, so therefore we would expect them to comply with this
measure as this basically is a directive coming from the international
community.”
If
you would like to protest about the ongoing mistreatment of the family,
then please phone Minister Dutton’s office on : 02 6277 7860 or email: Peter.Dutton.MP@aph.gov.au.
Australia’s refugee policies: a view from the US
The
Harvard Political Review published a most interesting article last week
on Australia’s refugee policies. The author reminds us that Australia
is a party to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, its Protocol, and multiple
other human rights treaties. Australia also has a seat on the UN Human
Rights Council, and is one of five countries making up the UN Working
Group on Arbitrary Detention. In spite of this, Australia has turned
back boats to countries where their passengers might face harm, such as
Sri Lanka and Vietnam, where asylum seekers have been arrested,
interrogated, tortured and jailed. Unsurprisingly, our government’s
policies have been widely condemned by UN agencies and other
international groups. In addition, Australia’s policy of holding
refugees in indefinite detention breaks international human right law,
taints its international standing, and undermines its credibility when
denouncing other nations for the same crimes. As one contributor puts
it: “From a UNHCR perspective, it was always very unfortunate that
Australia was not setting the example that the organisation hoped it
would set in that region, be a leader for promoting refugee protection
and respect for refugee principles.”
It includes articles from many sources and letters to politicians and newspapers.
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