Letter to Acting Minister Tudge: These people have suffered enough.

 Dear Acting Minister Tudge,

Sunday 19^th July marked the seventh anniversary of the Rudd government’s announcement that people arriving in Australian waters seeking asylum would be detained in offshore detention centres and would never be allowed to settle in Australia. Seven years on, twelve men have died in offshore detention, many hundreds have suffered both physical and mental torment, families have been separated and lives have been ruined. To date, the cost of this cruel policy is approaching a staggering $8 billion. There are still some 400 refugees and asylum seekers trapped on Nauru and in PNG. Many hundreds more are held in detention in Australia. Some 120 people are stuck in hotels in Brisbane and Melbourne, having been transferred to Australia for urgent medical treatment, which many of them are yet to receive.

It is clear that your government has completely abrogated its responsibilities to fulfil its obligations under the United Nations Refugee Convention. These asylum seekers have committed no crime, and yet, unlike convicted criminals, they have no release date. 

Why does your government continue to inflict such terrible punishment on these people? You cannot possibly argue that the policy serves as a deterrent to other would-be asylum seekers, given that our maritime borders are carefully patrolled by the Australian navy, effectively preventing people arriving by boat.

Why does the government continue to spend enormous amounts of taxpayers’ money on a policy that is irrelevant, cruel, immoral and unlawful? Our reputation as a good global actor has been steadily eroded sine the “Stop the Boats” sloganeering of the Abbott era. It is surely time for the government to adopt a more mature and humane approach to the issue.

This shameful chapter in our history could be brought to an end within months, if the government had a moral compass and the political will. It is surely time to accept the offer of the New Zealand government to resettle up to 150 refugees annually, to resettle those that remain offshore in Australia and to release into the community the many hundreds of asylum seekers and refugees currently languishing in APODs and detention centres in Australia.

These people have suffered enough. It’s time for you to act!

Yours sincerely,

M. Griffin

Australians want to open their homes to locked-down refugees. The government should let them : The Guardian

"by Craig Foster

I’ll take them.

At a time when real decisions are being made about social worth, of who will be left out or left behind, it is refugees and asylum seekers along with international students and migrant workers who capture the ugliness of “us and them”.
Working every day in essential services to feed the vulnerable exposes the true nature of our response. Students who prop up our universities, kids whose parents entrusted us with their academic futures and immediate wellbeing, left destitute and hungry. A million migrant workers, who toil to keep the country operating, going without. You’re only good for what you provide to us, after all, we’re not real friends.

But it is not only they who suffer, it’s our own concept of self. A virus that reduces humanity to one, that penetrates all artificial barriers, brutally exposes the differences that we refuse to overcome.

Similarly, the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers is not an abstraction that relates to a group of humans here and offshore, it’s central to the very concept of Australia. It’s the true test.

Everything we have done to the thousands of people on Manus and Nauru, in Villawood and Mantra, speaks directly to me, you, us. Do we protect their rights, see ourselves in them, recognise the commonalities between all races, minorities and human beings?
Treating each other well, our families and children, friends and colleagues, doesn’t validate our humanity, that’s easy. Child’s play. There’s social pressure to conform, workplace legislation and anti-discrimination laws to force compliance, our own social and economic interests directly impacted.

The real test is when there’s no social capital, no personal gains to make. When speaking up for marginalised people will cost friends, business, social influence, will we stand by and let people die? Will we pen them for seven years and continue to turn a blind eye?
Now as we, like they, are detained, will we acknowledge the hypocrisy of what we’ve done? While they fled for their lives and we said “that’s not right, they should get in line”. When threatened, we punched on for a bog roll. How exactly did we go with “lines” and “queues” when our loved ones were at risk?

While they sit in small rooms for 23 hours a day, locked up for seven years for no crime, in fact for asserting their human rights, we talk about our mental health and how suffocating it is to be caged. Will we still look away as they rot, day after day, from the inside out?

We talk about using our time to learn, reconnect with family, educate ourselves and prepare for our next assault on the economic dream, when they scream just to walk free, without guards at their door.

And when we assess worth in a stimulus package and talk about keeping others safe by staying home, we’re not talking about everyone, are we? We’ve let prisoners out into the community because they’re us gone wrong, but refugees, who are at the most severe risk with chronic health conditions and compromised immune systems, well, they’re different. Like the students. And migrant workers.

But no, they are us. The truest version. Australia is not Sydney 2000, America’s Cup, our bushfire response, or our togetherness against Covid. We are asylum seekers and refugees, we are the damned because we’ve damned them, we are the medicated because we’ve ruined them. We cannot take pride in the way we help those who reflect us, if at the same time we ruin those who are condemned by the concept of who we purport to be.

Refugees in Port Moresby told me that they imperilled their loved ones’ lives because they believed Australia to be a place of democracy, human rights and of people who care. An El Dorado of egalitarianism. Where people struck out in pursuit of humanitarian gold, and died in the attempt.

I still believe passionately in who we are, and what we sell. I’ll never give up on that dream. But we’ve proved them wrong for seven years. It’s time we proved them right.

Like the 9,900 members of I Have a Room who have offered to house all those detained in immigration centres around the country at severe risk of infection, I will give my house to people that have become our national conscience.

I will fly Mostafa Azimitabar and Farhad Bandesh, two Kurds who’ve endured hell for seven years that we have turned into husks of people and who are my friends, to Sydney at my own expense, house, feed, clothe and take responsibility for them during Covid-19 and recently made this offer to the Australian government.

I’ll pay a bond if necessary, and they’ll live exactly as they should. As my brothers. Family members. As equals.

And I call on the Australian government to release the 1,440 immigration detainees into the care of fellow Australians who feel the same way.

Because that was the vision that you and I inherited for Australia, and for which they risked their lives.

• Craig Foster is a former Australian footballer and now television analyst for SBS and Amnesty human rights and refugee ambassador
  
  Read the original The Guardian article by Craig Foster

Day of shame as Medevac repealed

The repeal of the Medevac legislation yesterday means that the refugees in PNG and Nauru will once again be left without medical treatment.

For over six years, the Coalition government has deliberately deprived refugees of medical treatment. Even during the operation of the Medevac Bill, they colluded with the Nauru government’s efforts to block people who had been approved for medical transfer. 

There has never been a connection between people seeking asylum and national security. The government simply wants total control over the lives of those they have imprisoned offshore.

But it cannot escape its responsibility for those they are holding offshore. 

Their willingness to use psychological and physical torture as part of their refugee policies is revealed by the mistreatment of over 40 asylum seekers being held on starvation rations and without phone or legal access in the Bomana detention facility in Port Moresby.

The government has no resettlement process. The US deal is almost exhausted. Around 70 refugees are still waiting in Port Moresby to be transferred to the US. Join us to protest this Saturday and as we continue fighting to demand all the asylum seekers and refugees in PNG and Nauru be brought to Australia and given the protection they asked for in 2013.

Refugee Action Coalition

Newsletter

Letters to Sen Keneally, PM Morrison, Sen McKim

                                                                                        9^th September 2019

Dear Senator Keneally,

Please find attached a letter sent today to the Prime Minister on behalf of Rural Australians for Refugees, relating to the offer of the New Zealand government to resettle 150 refugees from PNG and Nauru in New Zealand. As you are aware, the situation in PNG and Nauru for the remaining asylum seekers and refugees is utterly hopeless. They have languished far from our shores, without any hope for the future, for more than six years, which is a deeply shameful state of affairs.

We are pleased to note that the Labor opposition supports the New Zealand offer, and we are encouraged by the fact that you personally have taken the fight to the Minister for Home Affairs on a number of asylum seeker issues, in stark contrast to the near-monastic silence of your predecessor. What we would ask is that you, and the Labor party, redouble your efforts to force the Coalition government to seriously consider the New Zealand government’s offer to resettle these refugees. We need to bring this shameful chapter in our history to a speedy end. The suffering has gone on for far too long.

                                                                                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Yours sincerely,

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Mike Griffin

Bellingen and Nambucca District Rural Australians for Refugees

                                                                                               

                                                                            9^th September 2019

Dear Prime Minister,

Please find enclosed an open letter, addressed to yourself, and signed by 1520 Australian citizens. Their signatures were collected in recent times at local markets and other venues around Australia by members of Rural Australians for Refugees. The letter reads:

“Almost every day we read about the ongoing suffering of the asylum seekers and refugees who continue to languish indefinitely on Manus and Nauru. We are dismayed and deeply saddened by reports of self-harm and attempted suicides by people whose spirits have been crushed by years of detention, and who can see no hope for the future. This cannot continue.

We therefore ask that you urgently enter into discussions with the New Zealand government, with a view to accepting their generous offer to resettle 150 refugees annually from Manus and Nauru. It is important to us that you demonstrate by your actions that you are prepared to treat these people with compassion and humanity.”

We lost count a long time ago of the number of visitors to our local market stalls who tell us that they feel deeply ashamed to be Australian, as they observe the gratuitous and ongoing suffering inflicted on the detainees on Nauru and in PNG. It is surely time to put this shameful chapter in our history behind us. The New Zealand government’s generous and compassionate gesture offers a positive way forward. We therefore urge you to accept this offer to resettle the refugees and to expedite the closure of all offshore detention facilities without delay.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Yours sincerely,

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Mike Griffin

                                                                                                                                                                                Bellingen and Nambucca District RAR                           

                                                            

The Reply

Dear Mr Griffin 

Thank you for your correspondence of 9 September 2019 to the
Prime Minister, the Hon Scott Morrison MP, enclosing a signed open letter concerning the Australian Government’s regional processing and resettlement arrangements. Your correspondence has been referred to the Minister for Home Affairs, the
Hon Peter Dutton MP, as the matter raised falls within his portfolio responsibilities.

The Minister appreciates the time you have taken to bring these matters to his attention and has asked that I reply on his behalf.
As a party to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol (the Refugee Convention), Australia takes its international obligations seriously. Australia is committed to providing protection to refugees consistent with the obligations set out in the Refugee Convention and other relevant international treaties to which Australia is a party. 

The Government works closely with the Governments of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Nauru to ensure transferees continue to be provided with a range of health, welfare and support services, including extensive physical and mental healthcare provisions, free accommodation and utilities, allowances and employment services. Where specialist medical treatment is not available in PNG or Nauru, mechanisms are in place for temporary transfers to a third country for treatment, including Australia. 

People under regional processing arrangements are treated with respect and dignity and in accordance with international human rights standards. Their protection claims are assessed by the Governments of PNG and Nauru and are undertaken in accordance with each countries respective laws and processes. 

Under regional processing arrangements, refugees have permanent resettlement options and are being resettled. People found to be refugees by the Government of PNG can settle in PNG, express an interest in US resettlement, seek assisted voluntary return or move to a country they have the right to reside in. 

People found to be refugees by the Government of Nauru can stay in Nauru for 20 years, express an interest in US resettlement, apply for an assisted voluntary return package or move to a country they have the right to reside in.

Australia appreciates the offer from the New Zealand Government to resettle refugees, however we are focused on completing the larger arrangement with the United States (US). Australia’s border protection policies have removed the incentive for people to join dangerous and illegal people smuggling ventures to Australia. The Government remains mindful of not undoing efforts to combat people smuggling. 

A total of 4,183 illegal maritime arrivals were transferred to offshore processing under the previous government. Today, there are no refugees in detention under offshore processing and as at 30 September 2019, 632 refugees have been resettled under the Government’s resettlement arrangement with the US. 

Regional processing is a key pillar of Operation Sovereign Borders and supports the Government’s strong border protection policies. These policies have successfully stemmed the flow of illegal maritime ventures to Australia, disrupted people smuggling activities in the region and prevented loss of life at sea. 

The success of Australia’s border protection policies has also enabled the Government to make a generous contribution to addressing the global humanitarian crisis and increase our Humanitarian Programme annual quota to 18,750 places, this represents the largest ongoing program in over 30 years. 

Thank you for bringing your concerns to the Government’s attention. Yours sincerely 

Director
Regional Processing and Resettlement 4 October 2019

4 National Circuit Barton ACT 2600
PO Box 25 Belconnen ACT 2616 • Telephone: 02 6264 1111 • www.homeaffairs.gov.au

                                 

                                                                           9^th September 2019

Dear Senator McKim,

Please find attached a letter sent today to the Prime Minister on behalf of Rural Australians for Refugees, relating to the offer of the New Zealand government to resettle 150 refugees from PNG and Nauru in New Zealand. As you are aware, the situation in PNG and Nauru for the remaining asylum seekers and refugees is utterly hopeless. They have languished far from our shores, without any hope for the future, for more than six years, which is a deeply shameful state of affairs.

We are very aware of the Greens’ principled and well-articulated policy position on the government’s asylum policy, and your personal commitment to ending offshore detention is greatly appreciated. What we would ask is that you seek to engage constructively with the Labor opposition to force the Coalition government to seriously consider the New Zealand government’s offer to resettle these refugees. We need to bring this shameful chapter in our history to a speedy end. The suffering has gone on for far too long.

We are grateful for your ongoing support.

                                                                                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Yours sincerely,

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Mike Griffin

Bellingen and Nambucca District Rural Australians for Refugees

                                                                                                           

                       

                                                                                                           

                       

Updates on Medevac and Manus and Nauru

 

Manus refugees held in Bomana prison with no access to phones or lawyers
The 52 so called "negative" asylum seekers are being kept isolated in a return to the most barbaric detention conditions, read Guardian report here or our press release.
Move of Manus refugees to Port Moresby no solution
 
Refugees on Manus have been offered a move to Port Moresby in PNG. Some have reported that this may be part of a plan to “end Manus detention arrangements” by transferring all remaining refugees and asylum seekers there. But previous transfers to Port Moresby have left refugees jobless, homeless and destitute with even less access to medical care than they have on Manus Island. Read more here.


Three quarters of refugees on Manus and Nauru seriously ill
Doctors involved in the Medevac process reveal in their submission to parliamentary inquiry the scale of the medical crisis offshore, read report in Sydney Morning Herald here
 
Pakistani refugee on Nauru hospitalised after burning himself
The man was moved to Brisbane for intensive care, in a sign of the ongoing desperation on Nauru, read report here

Newsletter for 23rd July 2019 RAR, Bellingen and Nambucca

In this Newsletter:

Bellingen market report

 Roadside demonstration: Thursday 25^th July, 2.30 to 4.00 pm, Toormina

Final curtain call: fundraiser on Sunday 28^th July at 2.00 pm

Manus island. What is going on?

The New Zealand off remains on the table

 

Bellingen market report

 Saturday’s market in Bellingen was a special affair, in that, in addition to our usual activities, we were also marking the sixth anniversary of the Rudd Labor government’s decision to condemn any further asylum seekers arriving by boat to indefinite offshore detention on Nauru or Manus island. None of the asylum seekers arriving by boat after 19^th July 2013 would be allowed to resettle in Australia, in contravention of our international obligations. To mark the occasion on Saturday, we had special posters and placards on display, we invited visitors to our stall to write a postcard either to the Prime Minister or to our local Member of parliament, and we asked people to write a message of hope to the refugees and asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus. Yesterday, we posted sixty postcards to the Prime Minister or to our local MP, and we sent more than forty messages of hope to the Australian Refugee Advocacy Network, who will ensure that they are sent to detainees on Nauru and Manus. In addition, we collected more than 200 signatures on our open letter to the PM, which calls on the government to accept the offer of the New Zealand government to resettle 150 refugees annually from our offshore detention centres.

So, a very busy day, and a huge thank you to the many supporters who worked so hard to make our event such a success. You will find photos of our market activities on our blog and our Facebook page.

Our next stall will be at the Valla Beach market on Saturday 3^rd August from 9.00 am until 1.00 pm. If you can help out for an hour or two, then please let Mike know by emailing him at: mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com. 

Roadside demonstration: Thursday 25^th July, 2.30 to 4.00 pm, Toormina

Our next roadside demonstration is scheduled for this Thursday afternoon in Toormina. You will find us in our usual spot on Hogbin Drive, about 200 metres down from the fire station, in the direction of the airport. We have lots of banners and placards to share, so why not consider coming to join us? It would be really encouraging to welcome some new people to our demos, which are a great way of reminding people about the reality of what continues to be done in our name.

Final curtain call: fundraiser on Sunday 28^th July at 2.00 pm  

A final reminder that our important fundraising concert will take place on Sunday in the Nambucca Community and Arts Centre, located on Ridge Street. Everything is in place for you to enjoy an afternoon of joyful music. 

Tickets are available at Helloworld Travel on Bowra Street, Nambucca Heads, or on the door on the day of the concert. If you wish to secure your tickets in advance, for collection on arrival, then please phone Mike on 6569 5419, or email him at: mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com. 

Proceeds from the sales of tickets, the raffle and works of art will be donated to the Asylum Seekers Centre in Newtown, who do vitally important work supporting asylum seekers in Sydney. 

Please make a big effort to support this major fundraising event if you can.

Refreshments will be served in the small hall during the interval. If you care to bring along a plate to share, that would be greatly appreciated.

Manus island. What is going on?

There are currently some 450 men detained in Papua New Guinea at the behest of the 

Australian government. It has been revealed in recent days, however, that the majority of them have been transferred to the PNG capital, Port Moresby. 

The Greens senator, Nick McKim, was briefly on Manus island last week, before being abruptly deported, and he reported that approximately 300 detainees have been moved off Manus and are being held in Port Moresby. There are scant details of why there has been this mass transfer, or the conditions in which the men are held, though it is known that a small number of the men are awaiting resettlement in the US, and others are in Port Moresby for medical treatment.

In the meantime, the new prime minister of PNG, James Marape, has been voicing his concerns on a regular basis about the continued presence of asylum seekers and refugees on PNG. Last week, he made it clear that he wants the arrangement with the Australian government to come to an end, and is seeking a timeline to put an end to this shameful chapter in our history. He stated: “These are human beings we are dealing with. We can’t leave them all hanging in space with no consideration into their future.” He is in Australia this week on a formal visit, and he is expected to press the Australian government to set a deadline for the removal of all the detainees from PNG.

PM Morrison and PM Ardern

The New Zealand offer remains on the table

The NZ prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, was in Australia last week, and reiterated her government’s offer to resettle 150 refugees annually from Manus and Nauru. The offer has been on the table since February 2013. If our government had accepted the proposal, there would by now be no refugees on Manus or Nauru. Our government, however, shows no sign of shifting from its hardline stance, and clearly will only do so if and when there is strong public pressure, and a vocal parliamentary opposition, to the present cruelty and inhumanity. But let’s not forget: it did happen with the children on Nauru, all of whom were removed before the federal election. It can happen again!

.........................................................

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.

Our Face book is at https://www.facebook.com/Rural-Australians-for-Refugees-Bellingen-and-Nambucca-Districts-269696303205083/timeline/

(579 likes)

Twitter Account @RARBellingenNam

Email address bellingen.rar@gmail.com

 

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

The National RAR facebook site is at  RAR Facebook

Six Years (of Indefinite Detention) Too Long

#notinourname

The sixth anniversary of Australia reinstating offshore detention processing should push the country to close a "dark and bloody" chapter in its history, Greens Senator Nick McKim has told SBS News.



The senator is travelling to Manus Island on Wednesday ahead of the anniversary of the policy by the Rudd government  (Friday 19 July), which stipulated that all asylum seekers who arrived by boat would not be resettled in Australia but be processed in Papua New Guinea and resettled there. Offshore processing was reinstated by the Gillard government in 2012. 

Hundreds of people are expected to take part in protests around Australia at the weekend under the tagline "six years too long".

Read the SBS News article

#I'mwithyou  #I'm with you

Rural Australians for Refugees (Bellingen - Nambucca) held a market stall in Bellingen to remind rural Australians that these detention camps detain asylum seekers indefinitely. 

Next time you see our stall at the Valla, Coffs Harbour or Bellingen markets please come a sign our petitions or a message of hope to asylum seekers.

#sixyearstoolong  #six years too long

Asylum Seekers RAR Market Stall

Related:

Crisis for Asylum Seekers

Current Detention Set to Continue, Indefinitely

What is the current policy?

The government has made it clear that indefinite offshore detention will continue, and that the approximately 800 men and women detainees will remain on Nauru and Manus island. None of them will ever be resettled in Australia. The New Zealand government’s offer to take 150 refugees a year from Manus and Nauru has been rejected. The agreement to resettle refugees in the US is moving at a glacial pace, and the Trump administration is reluctant to accept refugees from a number of countries, including Iranians, Somalis, Syrians and Iraqis.

Letter to Vowper MP Pat Conaghan

To: 'Pat.Conaghan.MP@aph.gov.au' , Pat.Conaghan.MP@aph.gov.au

Subject: Medical help for refugees

Dear Mr. Conaghan, 

In recent weeks, I have been deeply concerned to read about the treatment of refugees from Manus and Nauru who have been brought to Australia for urgent medical treatment. You will be aware, I’m sure, that the great majority of them have been brought to Australia to receive treatment for serious mental health problems, which are intrinsically related to their feelings of hopelessness and despair after up to six years in indefinite detention.

At Coffs Harbour Markets June 23 2019