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

Dozens of refugees flown from Australia and PNG to US despite coronavirus travel bans: SBS

Refugees celebrate their imminent resettlement in the US.

Siurce: Father Giorgio Licini

"Australians in the US have been fundraising to support the refugees' resettlement which has been complicated by the coronavirus pandemic. 

Dozens of refugees who have spent years in Australia’s offshore processing regime have been flown to the United States for resettlement, despite COVID-19 travel restrictions. 

Transfers from Papua New Guinea and Australian immigration detention centres under the US resettlement program are continuing as the US struggles to contain the pandemic that has killed more than 93,000 people there. 

Thirty-five refugees departed Port Moresby on Thursday morning bound for the US via Singapore, and one refugee is due to fly to Finland, according to sources and documents obtained by SBS News.

A handful also departed Australia for the US this week, including several from the Kangaroo Point hotel being used as an “alternative place of detention” (APOD) in Brisbane and from community detention in Melbourne."

"Many of the refugees have underlying health conditions after years of detention and medical neglect on Manus Island and Nauru.
"Their condition puts them at higher risk from COVID-19," Mr Winsor said.

"We are in daily contact with two refugees in Texas who have contracted COVID-19."

On Tuesday, a number of refugees in Port Moresby celebrated their imminent resettlement under the Australian-US scheme with priest Giorgio Licini, the general secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands.

“They were relaxed but had mixed feelings, especially that there are still some left behind, many are those who were never given refugees status and could not go home,” Father Giorgio said."


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Newsletter your local RAR (N & B), September 9, 2019

Roadside demonstration report

Open letter to the Prime Minister

Bellingen Market: Saturday 21^st September, 9.00 am to 1.30 pm

A plea for help

Manus detainees transferred to Port Moresby

The Biloela family

Roadside demonstration report

Last Thursday’s demonstration in Bellingen was hugely successful. We had a record turn-out of supporters, which enabled us to create an impressive presence on both sides of Waterfall Way. It was very heartening to receive such overwhelming and enthusiastic support from passing motorists. As at Coffs Harbour market the week before, it seems clear that the recent publicity about the Biloela family has opened a lot of people’s eyes to the reality and the cruelty of our government’s treatment of asylum seekers.

Our next demonstration will take place on Thursday 19^th September from 2.30 to 4.00 pm on Hogbin Drive in Coffs Harbour. You will find us at a new location on Hogbin Drive, aimed at avoiding disturbance to the local children’s centre at our usual location. To find us, drive past our usual location, and past the airport. You will find us about 80 metres before the next roundabout on the left-hand side, near the Bunker gallery and opposite the racecourse. There is plenty of off-road parking nearby. We hope that some of you will join us to help to maintain the recent momentum.

 

Open letter to the Prime Minister

The open letter to the Prime Minister, signed by 1500 RAR supporters, is now on its way to Canberra. Over half the signatures were collected by our RAR group at the markets in Valla Beach, Bellingen and Coffs Harbour, with the remainder collected by a number of RAR groups around the country. The letter, you will recall, urges our government to accept the offer of the New Zealand government to resettle 150 refugees annually from Australia’s offshore detention centres. If the offer had been taken up when it was first made, there would by now be no refugees in offshore detention! The covering letter to the Prime Minister, together with explanatory letters to Kristina Keneally (Labor) and Nick McKim (Greens) can be found on our blog.

We will launch a new open letter at our next market.

Bellingen Market: Saturday 21^st September, 9.00 am to 1.30 pm

A reminder that our next market stall will be at Bellingen Market on Saturday 21^st September. We have been allocated site E27, which you will find not far from the Ford Street entrance. 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. The markets present a great opportunity for us to interact with the public, in addition to meeting up for a good chat with fellow RAR supporters.

 

A plea for help

Many of you attended the recent fundraiser in Mylestom to support a local asylum seeker family. As a result, the support group is now preparing for the next stage, which is to resettle the family in suitable accommodation in Coffs Harbour. Please see their message below.

RENTAL ACCOMMODATION WANTED

IN COFFS HARBOUR

 

We have almost raised enough money to assist the asylum seeker family of mother and three children from their one-bedroom cabin in Repton to find a place to live in Coffs Harbour.

If you know of anyone who would be willing to rent a flat to this family at a reasonable price, please get in touch with us.

You are invited to make a small regular weekly/monthly donation to our account to support this move.

The Repton/Mylestom Friends of Refugees

Margaret

Annika

 

Manus detainees transferred to Port Moresby

It appears that all the remaining asylum seekers and refugees have now been moved from Manus island to Port Moresby. Our government will no doubt want to claim that the several hundred men involved are no longer detained. That, of course, is patently not the case. Many of them are imprisoned at the Bomana facility, and the remainder are accommodated in a number of motels around the city. They are not free to leave PNG, and the situation in Port Moresby is dangerous for them. Refugee advocate Ian Rintoul had this to say about the transfers: “PNG is not a resettling country, it’s not safe. The people who have been actually living in Port Moresby, many of the people I have spoken to have been assaulted, not just once but some four or five times, have been robbed, have been threatened with guns and knives. I also expect there will be much worse medical conditions. There are no mental health services to speak of in Port Moresby at all.” One of the refugees, Shaminda Kanapathi, stated: “Our greatest fear about this relocation to Port Moresby is that people will no longer be aware of our situation and we will be forgotten. We want the people to know that moving to Port Moresby is not a durable solution. As long as we are in PNG, we are not settled and we are not safe.”

The reality for the men who are now in Port Moresby is that it is only their location that has changed. They are not free, they are detained indefinitely on PNG, and they have not been offered any hope for their future. Their suffering continues. No government spin can alter that.

 

The Biloela family

This family’s treatment over the past year and a half has opened the eyes of many people to the intransigence, the inhumanity and the utter lack of compassion of our government. On the back foot, both the Prime Minister and the Minister for Home Affairs have sought, with the help of their friends in the Murdoch press, to paint the family as undeserving of our compassion, and as a potential threat to national security, should they be allowed to stay. Much has been made of the fact that the family has been found not to be genuine refugees. This overlooks two important matters. Firstly, when the Coalition came to power, it quickly abolished the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT), which had been established to give failed asylum seekers a comprehensive opportunity to have their cases reviewed, including the ability to present new evidence and to be properly represented. The RRT overturned departmental rejections of claims in about 30% of cases. By contrast, the RRT’s replacement, the Immigration Assessment Authority (IAA), which is an inferior decision-making body, has overturned just 13% of cases. Serious questions about fairness in the process of assessing the Biloela family’s case have been raised, but not considered. The second issue is that the Australian government considers that it is safe for Tamils to be returned to Sri Lanka, a view that is not widely supported, particularly if the asylum seeker has had any past contact with the Tamil Tigers.

In addition to the above, there remains the Minister’s discretion to intervene and to allow the family to remain in Australia on compassionate grounds. The two young children were born here, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child requires the best interests of the child to be a primary consideration in any decision affecting them. The two children have evidently developed strong ties within their community in rural Queensland, and have never been to Sri Lanka. It is not, therefore, difficult to mount a strong and principled argument that it is in their best interests to remain in Australia.

The Minister, David Coleman, should grant the family visas to remain in Australia on the principled legal basis that it is in the best interests of the children to do so.

Why should it be so hard, we must ask?

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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.

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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

Model Letter to PNG Prime Minister Marape

Prime Minister James Marape.                                                                              June    23rd 2019

……………….

Congratulations on your appointment with an overwhelming majority as the eighth Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea. This will give you the opportunity to enact your major vision of introducing measures to help your people gain greater benefits from PNG’s natural resources.

Many Australians also hope your appointment will also provide an opportunity to resolve the current unsustainable situation for asylum seekers held in Regional Processing Centres (RPCs) on Manus Island.

You will be aware of the rapidly deteriorating situation at these RPCs, with daily attempts at suicide arising from the perception of no hope for the future. The PNG Catholic Bishops Conference has on many occasions expressed concern regarding conditions in which asylum seekers are held and the need for a long-term solution.

It is a matter of great shame for many Australians that our government states that PNG is legally responsible for the wellbeing of those held in RPCs, in complete disregard for widely held legal opinion from both International Human Rights organisations and the Law Council of Australia that Australia is legally responsible.

With the impending expiry of current contractual arrangements for managing the RPCs it is understandable that PNG would want local organisations to undertake provision of security, accommodation and health services. Manus citizens would then benefit from the significant outlays associated with provision of these services.

This however can only be a short-term solution.  Indefinitely detaining hundreds of men who are not indigenous, in a remote location with no hope of change to their circumstances will inevitably lead to more attempted suicides, more deaths, more violence and ongoing negative International attention.

There is a better alternative.  Please take the initiative as a new Prime Minister and insist that Australia meets its International obligations, setting a definite timeline for closure of the Manus RPCs, and relocation of those held there, in compliance with the obligations Australia has signed up to under International Human Right Conventions.

In doing this you will:

·       assert sovereignty as an independent nation within the Pacific Region.

·       provide an end to the agony of those held indefinitely in RPCs on Manus for

Australia’s purely political purposes. 

·       demonstrate PNG’s commitment to Human Rights and to meeting the spirit of your own High Court’s ruling with respect to detention of people under your Constitution, as those currently held under curfew and restricted in travel essentially are detained.

 Again, congratulations on your new role as Prime Minister of PNG, I sincerely hope that you can in your first term take action on this matter to resolve a situation which is both embarrassing and unnecessary to both of our nations.

Yours Sincerely

Australia, PNG governments agree to extend Paladin's Manus Island contract: SBS

Manus Island: From SBS video

"A day after Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister James Marape addressed the issue in parliament, both Australian and Papua New Guinean governments have agreed to extend Paladin's contract for security work on Manus Island.

The contract will be partially extended before the Papua New Guinean government takes over at a later date, it was announced in a joint statement."

READ MORE

 

Man who attempted suicide on Manus Island to be charged by PNG police

Australia has been seduced by creeping authoritarianism – and its citizens need to wake up: The Guardian

Deaths in Australian offshore detention

"In this country, 9/11 coincided with the arrival of the Tampa – and the general atmosphere of emergency facilitated the development of an increasingly draconian system, one that always required careful media management. The director general of defence communication strategies, Brian Humphreys, reportedly testified to a Senate select committee that defence minister Peter Reith instructed his staff to not humanise the refugees.

Offshore detention made the prevention of that humanisation easier, simply by placing asylum seekers a long way from the Australian media.

It also fostered an overtly colonial and authoritarian engagement with the regimes housing the camps.

In Nauru, for instance, the Australian government helped develop the local government’s policy for excluding journalists from the detention centre, even as, according to the Lowy Institute, the island “lurched towards authoritarianism”.

In Papua New Guinea, Australia pushed for the Manus camp, even though the facility violated the constitution, and then relied on the notorious mobile squad to police it."

Read all The Guardian article