Index

Click on subject of interest shown on the right under the heading "labels" to see all relevant posts

To look at letters (and some replies) sent to politicians and newspapers, scroll down the index on the right hand side and select the appropriate heading.

Note the blog allows multiple labelling and all letters to politicians are under "letters to pollies".

If you scroll down and cannot go further, look out for icon "Older Posts". Click on that to continue




18.5.21

Our local RAR Newsletter May, 2021

ROADSIDE DEMONSTRATION REPORT


Our recent roadside demonstration in Coffs Harbour was a great success. For the first time in more than a year, our ranks reached double figures, and we were delighted to welcome back a number of supporters who we hadn’t seen for a while. The response from passing motorists, who couldn’t fail to be impressed by the number of placards and banners on display, was very positive.

 

Our next demonstration will take place on Saturday 22nd May from 10.00 until 11.30 am on Waterfall Way in Bellingen. You will find us at our usual location near the Yellow Shed, opposite the entrance to the golf club. Please join us if you can, to show your support for refugees and asylum seekers.

 

BELLINGEN MARKET REPORT

We had a beautiful warm and sunny day for our market stall on Saturday, and we were kept busy by a steady stream of visitors to our stall, many of whom expressed their deep dismay about our government’s ongoing punitive treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. We collected more than 150 signatures on our new open letter to the Leader of the Opposition, and more than $160 in donations and sales, all of which will be donated to the Asylum Seekers Centre in Newtown.

 

A big thank you to the supporters who helped make the morning such a success.

 

Our next market stall will be at the Valla Beach market on Saturday 5th June from 9.00 am until 1.00 pm. If you can help out on our stall for an hour or two, then please let Mike know by emailing him at: mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com, so that he can draw up a roster. New supporters are always welcome. Helping out at our markets is not an onerous task, and newcomers are always well briefed and supported.

 

OUR NEW OPEN LETTER

 

As you will be aware, we recently posted an open letter to the Prime Minister which had been signed by more than 800 people. We now have a new letter, this time addressed to the Leader of the Opposition, Anthony Albanese. It reads:

 

Dear Mr. Albanese,

As the Labor Party reviews its policy platform in preparation for the federal election, we, the undersigned, urge the Party to adopt a principled and compassionate asylum policy which is consistent with our international obligations. At a minimum, we urge the Party to commit to:

·      Bringing all remaining refugees from Nauru and PNG to Australia for resettlement here or in other safe countries, including New Zealand.

·      Urgently reviewing and processing all outstanding asylum claims.

·      Releasing all remaining refugees and asylum seekers from APODs and other mainland detention centres, except where in individual cases there are overriding security issues.

·      Issuing all genuine refugees in Australia with Permanent Protection Visas.

A clear and principled asylum policy, articulated boldly, would attract significant community support.

 

If you would like to collect signatures from family, friends or colleagues, then please email Mike at: mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com, and he will email a copy to you. It would be good if we could collect 1,000 signatures.

 

THE FEDERAL BUDGET AND REFUGEES

The government has decided to maintain the “temporary” pandemic-related reduction in our annual humanitarian refugee intake from 18,750 to 13,750 for at least the next three years. This comes at a time when there are more than 26 million refugees worldwide, most of them fleeing conflict, political upheaval or persecution in their homelands. The great majority of them are hosted in poor and developing countries which are already struggling to care for their own people, particularly in the midst of a global pandemic. It is deeply disappointing that our government, the tenth most rich country in the world, has decided to do less for refugees when it could, and should, be doing more.

 

 The government has allocated $811 million in the budget for the continued detention of refugees and asylum seekers on Nauru and in PNG. There are currently 109 people detained on Nauru, and 130 in PNG, meaning that our government plans to spend $3.4 million next year keeping each of these 239 refugees and asylum seekers out of sight and out of mind, and demonstrating to the world that we are irresolutely tough on protecting our borders from those seeking asylum on our shores. The trauma and suffering that we have inflicted on these people over a period of almost eight years is unconscionable.

 

We must continue our campaigning until this shameful chapter in our country’s history is brought to an end.

 

REFUGEES TO BE DETAINED INDEFINITELY

Last week the government passed into law, with the support of Labor, amendments to the Migration Act which give the government the power to indefinitely detain refugees, potentially for the rest of their lives. The new law allows for the government, where it has cancelled the visa of a refugee but could not send them back to their country of origin because they would face persecution there, to detain them indefinitely. The new law also gives the minister a broad unchallengeable power to withdraw a person’s refugee status recognition – declaring they can be returned to the country from which they had fled.

 

Even the government-controlled joint parliamentary committee on human rights raised serious concerns about the law, arguing it presented a “real risk that detention may become indefinite” and “may also have implications for Australia’s obligation not to subject any person to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. These concerns do not appear to have troubled either the government or the opposition.

David Burke, the legal director at the Human Rights Law Centre, said the legislation exposed the government’s willingness to leave growing numbers of refugees in detention without any plan.  He states:

 

 The government should not have the power to lock people up for potentially the rest of their lives without any safeguards. This forces refugees into an unthinkable choice between spending potentially decades in immigration detention, or agreeing to go back to a country where they will be persecuted. These new laws allow the Morrison government to warehouse people who have nowhere else to go.”

 

It should surely never be acceptable for a minister, at the stroke of a pen, to overturn the fundamental protection that the government has given, after due process, to someone whose life is at risk.

How did we get to this?

13.5.21

The Biloela family: Letter to Minister Karen Andrews


Dear Minister Andrews,

We have read innumerable accounts about the plight of the Sri Lankan family from Biloela in recent years, and we have written to Government and Opposition leaders about their detention on several occasions.

Today, we read the article in BBC News Sydney by Frances Mao, which reduced us to tears. Tears of anger, frustration and utter dismay.

It seems incomprehensible to us that any government in an advanced democracy could continue to punish this family with such complete disregard for their welfare, in pursuit of a political objective. The idea that, by releasing this family from detention would “open the floodgates” simply beggars belief. We have an armada of ships, and numerous aircraft, patrolling the seas to our north, which have prevented any  asylum seekers reaching our shores by boat  for the past seven years. Allowing the family to return to Biloela changes none of that.

You have the power, as the relevant minister, to set this family free at the stroke of a pen. Doing so would demonstrate that you are capable of listening to the voices of the community, that you understand that granting the family their freedom poses no threat to the government’s asylum policy, and, finally, that you are prepared to put principle and compassion ahead of ideology and intransigence.

We urge you to do the right thing, and to allow the family to return to Biloela, where the community will welcome them with open arms.

It is time to put an end to this chapter of shame.

Yours sincerely,

Mike and Marlene G

Valla Beach, NSW 2448.

7.5.21

An open letter to the Leader of the Opposition, Anthony Albanese

 


An open letter to the Leader of the Opposition, Anthony Albanese

Dear Mr. Albanese,

As the Labor Party reviews its policy platform in preparation for the federal election, we, the undersigned, urge the Party to adopt a principled and compassionate asylum policy which is consistent with our international obligations. At a minimum, we urge the Party to commit to:

·      Bringing all remaining refugees from Nauru and PNG to Australia for resettlement here or in other safe countries, including New Zealand.

·      Urgently reviewing and processing all outstanding asylum claims.

·      Releasing all remaining refugees and asylum seekers from APODs and other mainland detention centres, except where in individual cases there are overriding security issues.

·      Issuing all genuine refugees in Australia with Permanent Protection Visas.

A clear and principled asylum policy, articulated boldly, would attract significant community support.

 

NAME

 

SIGNATURE

 

POSTCODE

1

 

 

 

2

 

 

 

 

3

 

 

4

 

 

 

 

5

 

 

 

6

 

 

 

7

 

 

 

8

 

 

9

 

 

 

10

 

 

11

 

 

12

 

 

13

 

 

             

  Published by Bellingen and Nambucca District RAR. Email: bellingen.rar@gmail.com.

Please return completed sheet to: Mike G. by 30th August 2021

 


 

Leaflet: Eight Long Years of Torment

 

EIGHT LONG YEARS OF TORMENT

July 19th 2021 will mark the shameful eighth anniversary of the Rudd 

government’s declaration that any asylum seekers arriving in 

Australia by boat after that date would be detained offshore  

indefinitely and  would never be permitted to settle in this country.

 

This, in spite of the fact that, under Article 14 of the Universal 

Declaration of Human Rights: “everyone has the right to seek and 

enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.” 


What is the current situation?

Some 870 refugees have been resettled in the US. Others, in 

desperation, have been persuaded to return to danger in their home 

countries. A small number have been privately sponsored to move to

 Canada, and a few are attempting to resettle on Nauru or in PNG. 

Others have been brought to Australia for medical treatment, with 

many of them held in detention centres or in hotels in Brisbane and 

Melbourne. They are not free, and they are expected by our 

government to return to Nauru or PNG once they have been treated 

for their medical conditions.

 

Many have not received any adequate treatment. Some 250 people 

remain in limbo on Nauru and in PNG, where they face constant 

danger and harassment. They suffer regular assaults at the hands 

of local people, particularly in Port Moresby, PNG. They have 

committed no crime, yet, unlike convicted criminals, there is no 

end in sight for them. Their punishment is indefinite, and their 

spirits are broken.

 

Eight years too long

These refugees have been subjected to almost eight years of

deliberate abuse in appalling conditions. Our government has

abrogated its responsibility to fulfil its obligations under the Refugee

Convention.

Father Giorgio Licini, a Catholic priest and community leader in Port

Moresby, is very fearful about the fate of the refugees stuck in his 

city. 


He states: “They survive because they are provided food and shelter.

But should the government support be withdrawn, they would be

dead.

It is time to close this chapter. A developed country, a rich country

that can spend billions on border protection should not reduce people

to his level of misery, marginalisation and humiliation.”

 

The inescapable conclusion is that the refugees continue to be held in

such completely unacceptable conditions for purely political reasons.


What should the government do?

  • process all outstanding asylum claims without further delays
 
  • accept the offer of the NZ government to resettle 150 refugees 

annually
 
  • evacuate all the remaining asylum seekers and refugees from Nauru 

and PNG to Australia, with a view to resettlement in the US, in NZ, in 

other safe third countries, or in Australia
 
  • release all medevac evacuees into the community, and ensure that 

they receive the medical and other support that they need.

 

What can you do?

Write to Federal MP: Pat.Conaghan.MP@aph.gov.au  or  
 
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke: Alex.Hawke.MP@aph.gov.au.  
 
and demand that they take action to bring this shameful chapter in
 
our history to an end.
 
Sign up to receive our fortnightly news bulletin.
 
Offer to join us in our campaigning activities to seek justice for 
 
refugees.

Published by Bellingen and Nambucca District RAR.  

bellingen.rar@gmail.com.

4.5.21

 


3.5.21

Letter to Prime Minister Morrison



Valla Beach

                                                                                                NSW 2448

30th April 2021

                                                                                                                                                                                  

Dear Prime Minister,

Please find enclosed an open letter, addressed to you, and signed by 802 people who have visited our Rural Australian for Refugees market stalls in recent months. The letter reads:

“We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned about the plight of the many hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers who, years after seeking asylum in Australia, still remain in limbo on Nauru and in PNG, and in detention centres or Alternative Places of Detention in Australia. Most of them have severe mental health and other problems as a direct result of their ongoing and indefinite detention. Medical experts report that many of these people are getting increasingly sick as time goes on. The cost in human suffering is enormous and unconscionable. It’s time to show humanity and to end their torment.

We call on the government to immediately release refugees and people seeking asylum and commit to their resettlement in a safe, permanent home by World Refugee Day on 20th July 2021.”

We have long since lost count of the number of visitors to our market stalls who tell us of their despair and their shame about the government’s treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. They constantly ask: “How did we get to this? How did we sink so low as a society?” The answer would appear to be that politics and the pursuit of power have taken precedence over humanity, compassion and respect for human rights.

It is surely time for the government to seek bipartisan support to put an end to this unnecessary and cruel suffering. Innocent people, who have committed no crime, should never be used as a political weapon in the pursuit of power.

Set them free!

Yours sincerely,

M L G

Bellingen and Nambucca District RAR