Dear Minister Burke

 

                                                                                                            

                                                                                                            13^th September 2024

 

Dear Minister Burke,

 

Please find enclosed an open letter to one of your predecessors, signed by 403           visitors to our local Rural Australians for Refugees market stall. The letter reads:

 

 Dear Minister Giles,
We note with dismay the ever-increasing number of asylum seekers detained on Nauru. We note also that the government plans to spend $604 million in 2024-25 to keep these people out of sight and out of mind. Has the government learned nothing from more than a decade of the appalling mistreatment of asylum seekers?
We call on you to:
 

• Ensure that the detainees’ asylum claims are assessed via a timely and thorough process.
• Ensure that they have access to comprehensive health care.
• Find third countries to resettle them within a strict timeframe.
• Bring to Australia those refugees who have not been resettled within the timeframe, to live in the community with appropriate support, pending their resettlement in third countries.

 

As the new Minister for immigration, we ask you to take urgent action to resolve this unfolding humanitarian disaster. We know from bitter experience that offshore detention does great harm to those indefinitely detained. We surely cannot go on repeating the tragic mistakes of the past.

 

Minister Burke

I look forward to receiving your response in the near future.

Yours sincerely,

 

Mike G, Valla Beach NSW 2448