29th November 2022
Dear Minister Giles,
Please find enclosed an open letter, addressed to you, and signed by 755 people who have visited Rural Australians for Refugees market stalls in recent times. The letter reads:
We, the undersigned, are dismayed to learn that, instead of evacuating the approximately 100 refugees remaining on Nauru, you plan to award a contract to Management and Training Corporation, a US prisons operator with a chequered track record. This is a terrible decision, and a missed opportunity for the Labor government to demonstrate that it is genuinely committed to human rights and to a more compassionate treatment of refugees.
Independent MP, Andrew Wilkie, recently introduced the Ending Indefinite and Arbitrary Immigration Detention Bill 2022 to the federal parliament. His bill presents an opportunity to reform a regime that leading legal and human rights organisations have called “inhumane, unnecessary and unlawful.” We urge you to support Andrew Wilkie’s bill, and to bring all refugees currently held on Nauru and in PNG to Australia, whilst arrangements for their resettlement are finalised.
Following the federal election, expectations were high that the Labor government would take steps to dismantle the terrible asylum regime inherited from the Coalition. Certainly, the rhetoric has changed, and you have frequently signalled your positive intentions regarding the humane and fair treatment of asylum seekers and refugees. That much, we recognise and acknowledge. However, the decision to appoint a new contractor to oversee the ongoing torment of the remaining refugees on Nauru is deeply disappointing, and is seriously at odds with your frequent comments about the need to treat refugees with humanity and compassion. Keeping these people on Nauru, in addition to being eye-wateringly expensive, serves no good purpose and is morally indefensible.
We urge you to bring them all to Australia without delay, so that they can receive the support and medical treatment that they need, until their resettlement in third countries can be finalised.
Yours sincerely,
Mike Griffin
Bellingen and Nambucca District Rural Australians for Refugees
