Reply to letter re Afghan refugees by Pat Conaghan M.P.

 

From: Conaghan, Pat (MP) <Pat.Conaghan.MP@aph.gov.au>

Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2021 2:01 PM
To: M. G.
Subject: RE: Afghanistan

 

Dear Mr G,

 

Thanks for your email.

 

The situation in Afghanistan continues to be volatile and dangerous.

 

Our top priority is the safe departure of Australian citizens and visa holders, including Afghan former locally engaged employees. We continue to work with our friends and partners to support one another’s evacuation operations.

 

Since 18 August, we have supported the evacuation of about 2,450 people from Kabul, including Australian and New Zealand nationals, visa holders and foreign nationals including British, US and a Fijian. Four more flights airlifted evacuees on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning (AEST) with more than 750 people. We have had three charter planes from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) into Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide that have returned 419 people to Australia.

 

Our consular officials are using every means possible to assist Australian citizens and visa holders – phoning and emailing directly as well as providing regular updates on the Government’s Smartraveller website.

 

Access to Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA) continues to be very challenging, but we do have a significant presence on the ground at the airport. We are encouraging Australian citizens, Permanent Residents and Australian visa-holders to go to HKIA, if it’s safe to do so. We will do everything we can in the time we have to get as many people out as safely as possible.

 

There is a discussion going on about the prospect of US extending its withdrawal deadline and we are part of those discussions and we are absolutely ready to support a continuing operation at HKIA.

 

Every visa applicant who does not meet the criteria of the category of at-risk employees now has their application forwarded automatically to the Department of Home Affairs to be automatically considered under another humanitarian stream. This process has already resulted in hundreds of other visas being granted to those who are ineligible for the special category.

 

The Australian Government has announced that an initial 3,000 humanitarian places will be allocated to Afghan nationals within Australia’s overall annual humanitarian program. The Government anticipates this initial allocation will increase over the course of this year, giving first priority to Afghan nationals within the offshore humanitarian program and affording them visa processing priority in the year ahead.

 

While I fully support this, I believe we can and should resettle more Afghan nationals as part of our humanitarian program. I will be urging my Parliamentary colleagues to join me in advocating for a minimum of 10,000 additional places in response to this crisis. Australia is consistently one of the world’s most generous humanitarian resettlement countries and I believe this is an opportunity to provide greater levels of support for Afghani people at risk from the Taliban.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

PAT CONAGHAN MP

Federal Member for Cowper

Our December Newsletter for 2020

 

ACCOMMODATION CRISIS IN COFFS HARBOUR   Coffs Harbour is in the middle of a major housing crisis. There has been an influx of people from the city which has put a strain on an already tight market. Many rental properties have been sold, resulting in leases being terminated and the renters being evicted. Christmas has traditionally been a very difficult time to rent, but this year is much worse. A worker from one of the NGO groups that works with refugees in Coffs has told us that their service alone currently has four refugee families that are either homeless, or will be, in the coming 4-6 weeks. He told us:   "This is the tip of the iceberg, and I know of numerous other refugee families not with our service who are in the same predicament. These include : A family of 3 adults, including elderly mother, couch surfing. A family of 6, including new baby, in a long term, tiny cabin.  A family of 9, 4 weeks left before eviction. A family of 6, including elderly parents. 6 weeks before eviction.  These families are genuine refugees who have sought and received refuge in Australia from trouble spots around the world from Africa to Syria and Myanmar. They are accustomed to paying rent in the range of $350 to $560 depending on the size of the rental property.   CAN YOU HELP? DO YOU HAVE A PROPERTY YOU COULD LEASE TO A FAMILY IN NEED? PLEASE EMAIL bellingen.rar@gmail.com or RING MARGARET at 0414 592 519 Note :  there are no cabins, caravans or hotel/motel rooms available in Coffs Harbour at all.     Please sign this petition requesting Coffs Council to open Coffs Showgrounds for local homeless families Copy and paste this link  https://www.change.org/p/coffs-harbour-council-open-coffs-harbour-showgrounds-for-local-homeless-individuals-families-to-sleep-safely?fbclid=IwAR0YduP4dtvyWtTn7r_EtQ_43TaOvsvyAZ859VsyOAR0t9AIGsJvo20tpLU Kate Wickman started this petition to Coffs Harbour City Council (Local Gov) and 5 others Homeless individuals and families who have not been able to secure housing/accommodation, due to lack of availability, should be allowed to have somewhere safe to sleep in their CARS at night whilst they await approval for the rental properties they have applied for. Individuals moving out of cities are being given preference over LOCAL FAMILIES in the rental housing market and as a result many are now homeless due to NO FAULT of their own. VALLA BEACH MARKET REPORT   We had a very successful time at Valla Beach market on Saturday. The sun shone, the crowds arrived and we had a busy time talking to market-goers, selling our merchandise and getting people to send greetings to parliamentarians, asking them to free the Biloela family by Christmas. People were also very generous with their donations, and we will make our final donation of 2020 to the asylum Seekers Centre in the days ahead. Hopefully, in the New Year, we will be able to plan a number of fundraising activities, particularly as we can now invite up to fifty people to a private house. A big thank you to the market organisers and to our team of supporters for helping to make the morning so successful.  ROADSIDE DEMONSTRATION REPORT   Just a small number of us braved the heat last Saturday for our demonstration on the Pacific Highway next to the Big Banana. Fortunately, there was a strong, cooling breeze to sustain us, and the reaction from motorists, as always, was overwhelmingly positive, and at times enthusiastic! Our final demonstration for 2020 will take place by the Pacific Highway, opposite the base hospital In Coffs Harbour on Saturday 12th December from 10.00 am until 11.30 am.  Please come and join us if you can, and show your solidarity for the plight of the thousands of asylum seekers and refugees who continue to suffer terribly under our government’s punitive and cruel immigration policy. ANOTHER GENEROUS DONATION    Following his successful exhibition at the Nexus Gallery in October-November, one of our supporters, Jeremy Barrett, has very kindly donated $600 from the sale of his work to RAR, which we will forward to the ASC together with any final income from sales and donations at the Valla Beach market. This will undoubtedly be a welcome end-of-year gift to the ASC, who need every dollar that supporters can raise during these very challenging times.  A big thank you to Jeremy for his generous gift.   THE UDAWATTA FAMILY FROM KEMPSEY   In our newsletter two weeks ago, we described the plight of the Udawatta family, who face deportation following the death of the father of the family in September. We urged supporters to contact our local MP, Pat Conaghan and the Acting minister for Immigration, Alan Tudge. At the time of writing, we have received a reply from Pat Conaghan MP, assuring us that he has made representations to the Minister on behalf of the family and that he will continue do all he can to ensure that they remain in Australia.   That is very encouraging and positive news. You might wish to thank Pat Conaghan for his timely intervention, and ask him to continue to advocate for the family to stay.   We have not, to date, received any response from the minister’s office. Could you therefore please consider phoning Alan Tudge’s office? *Tell them that you are aware that Pat Conaghan has made representations on behalf of the Udawatta family. *Ask whether the Minister has made a decision to intervene to allow the family to stay in Australia. *Tell him that this is an urgent issue, and that you know that he has the power to intervene. Emphasise that the Kempsey community is fully supportive of the family and that they are hoping that the Minister will make a decision before Christmas. You can find letters to both politicians by clicking on the link to our blog at the end of this newsletter. Pat Conaghan’s phone number:  6277 4446 (Canberra), or 6652 6233 (Coffs Harbour).  Alan Tudge’s phone number:  6277 7790 (Canberra) or 03 9887 3890 (electoral office). THE BILOELA FAMILY If you happened to be listening to RN last Thursday morning, you might have heard a report by Fran Kelly about the continuing plight of this Sri Lankan family of four, who have now spent more than 1000 days in detention after being snatched from their home in Biloela in March 2018, where they had been living for a number of years. The family have been held in detention on Christmas Island for well over a year. The two young daughters are accompanied to school by guards each day, and their lives are both precarious and miserable.   The Biloela community has fought long and hard to persuade the government to grant the family leave to stay in the country and the town that they call home, but to no avail. Minister Dutton, true to form, is utterly dismissive of the family’s and the community’s pleas for compassion. He has made it clear that the family is not welcome here, and accuses them of “trying every trick in the book” to avoid deportation. At our market stall in Valla Beach on Saturday, we gave out specially-made Christmas cards, provided by our national RAR committee, to send to politicians about the Biloela family. The message inside reads:   3 years after Asylum seekers Nades, Priya and their two daughters, Kopika and Tharunicaa were taken by Border Force from their newly adopted home in Biloela Queensland in March 2018. They are still in detention. Despite strong support from the people of Biloela and the wider Australian community, the government continues to deny them residency. We ask that the children will not face another year in detention and that they will be safely home in Biloela by Christmas. You might like to send your own Christmas cards, using these words, to the politician of your choice. Pat Conaghan MP: PO Box 2056, Coffs Harbour, NSW 2450 Peter Dutton MP: PO Box 2012, Strathpine, Queensland 4500 Alan Tudge MP:  Suite 4, Level 1, 420, Burwood Highway, Wantima South, VIC 3152 TEMPORARY: THE PODCAST   This new project is produced by UNSW’s Andrew and Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, initiated with support from the Collier Charitable Fund, and features an eight-episode narrative podcast series from the UNSW Centre for Ideas and Guardian Australia. Temporary offers rare access and intimate understanding of people navigating Australia’s refugee system, with no way to secure permanent protection. In their own voice, each refugee and asylum seeker speaks from a shadowy legal limbo of Australia’s creation. You can listen to the podcast series by clicking on this link: https://temporary.kaldorcentre.net.    We have about 100 postcards to distribute, provided by national RAR, for you to send to politicians. We’ll be handing them out at our markets in the months ahead, and we hope that you will join the campaign to impress on politicians that we want an end to the punitive and inhumane policy which inflicts so much suffering on people who have fled their homelands to seek a safe haven in Australia. We need to send a strong message that we will not vote for this cruel policy. 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. This newsletter is sent to >630 recipients 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

Letter: To: 'Pat.Conaghan.MP@aph.gov.au'---Subject: The Udawatta family

The Udawatta family made a life in New South Wales.(Supplied: Florence Udawatta)

 To: 'Pat.Conaghan.MP@aph.gov.au' 

Subject: The Udawatta family

Dear Mr Conaghan,

I recently watched the 7.30 Report news item about the plight of the Udawatta family, and listened the following morning to your interview with Hamish McDonald. I felt greatly encouraged by your expression of support and compassion for Florence Udawatta and her children.

As you stated in the interview, it should not be  necessary for the family to wait eighteen months or more for a decision by the Acting Minister for Immigration regarding the appeal against the decision to not grant them a Protection Visa. In any event, as you will know as a former immigration lawyer, their chances of being granted a Protection Visa, given the circumstances of their arrival in Australia, are virtually zero. The Acting Minister, as you stated, has the power under the Immigration Act to grant the family a permanent visa on compassionate grounds. I was very pleased to note that you have stated that there is no case for sending them back to Sri Lanka, and that the Minister should allow them to stay. They are a much-loved and highly respected family in the local Kempsey community.

I trust that you have made formal representations to the Acting Minister and that you have sought an early decision in this very sad case.

I would be grateful if you could update me at some point on the progress with your representations to Alan Tudge. It would be wonderful if the family could have some certainty very soon about their future, given all that they have had to endure during Raj Adawatta’s illness and subsequent death in September.

Yours sincerely,

Mike G

Valla Beach NSW 2448

See ABC Story

Bello Nambucca RAR Newsletter 18 August 2020

WE ARE BACK IN ACTION   A group of eleven RAR supporters met recently to discuss how we can best move forward safely in the current climate. We agreed on the following actions: Roadside demonstrations: We will organise these fortnightly, on Saturday mornings, at three different venues, from 10.00 am until 11.30 am. People who feel that an hour is as much as they can manage are encouraged to arrive at 10.30 am, so that our numbers grow, rather than diminish. Markets: We agreed to restart our market stall, though we will not be asking people to sign petitions. Only two people can be located inside the gazebo at any one time, though it is OK to have one or two people standing at the front of the stall. Mike will organise a roster for each market. Fundraising: We accepted that we can’t organise concerts, lunches and auctions at present, which greatly restricts our ability to raise funds. However, we did come up with some COVID-friendly ideas. Watch this space! Letter-writing: We agreed that this is an important activity for our group, and that we would continue, through the newsletter, to encourage people to write letters to the press and to politicians on specific topics. We agreed that Mike would provide specific suggestions about the content of letters to make it easier for supporters to respond. Newsletter: We agreed that the newsletter will continue to be published fortnightly.

SEVEN YEARS TOO LONG: OUR M.P'S RESPONSE The following letter was received recently from our local MP, Pat Conaghan, in response to a letter from Mike, whose letter is on our blog (http://bellorar.blogspot.com.au): Dear Mr Griffin, I am aware you have long-standing dissatisfaction with the Australian Government and your perception of its handling of asylum seekers who have attempted to circumvent our immigration processes. As I stated in my previous email to you on 8 May 2020, those who are able to prove they are genuine refugees and have not attempted to arrive onshore illegally will receive support to settle in Australia. The Government's policy on people who have tried to enter Australia illegally has not changed. As a sovereign nation, we have every right to protect our borders. We also have the right to refuse entry to those who attempt to come here illegally. We will not be taking up New Zealand’s offer to resettle asylum seekers. New Zealand citizens are automatically granted Special Category visas on arrival in Australia under the Trans-Tasman Arrangement, and this would be another way for these individuals to circumvent our immigration laws. At any time, these people who seek to flout our laws have options that do not require them to be allowed to settle in Australia. These include returning to their country of origin, at the Australian taxpayers’ expense; to reside permanently in Nauru or PNG; or to take up the US Government’s settlement offer. They are not required to stay in detention. I would also point out that of those who have sought medical attention in Australia through the (now repealed) Medevac legislation, around one third have refused treatment. Additionally, a significant proportion of those brought here for treatment are now refusing to leave, despite having signed an agreement agreeing to do so. Australia has one of the most generous humanitarian programs in the world. We do more than most to assist and resettle genuine refugees in need of protection. Yours sincerely,   PAT CONAGHAN MP Federal Member for Cowper Mr Conaghan chooses to ignore the difference between the act of seeking asylum and the formal processes of our immigration system. He continues to assert that it is illegal for people to seek asylum, when it is not. The right to seek asylum is enshrined in international law, to which our government is a signatory. He asserts that asylum seekers who resettle in New Zealand have an automatic right to then seek entry to Australia under the Trans-Tasman agreement, in spite of the fact that the New Zealand government has stated  in recent times that it is a matter for the Australian government to decide who is granted a visa to travel from NZ to Australia. It is not the case that a third of Medevac evacuees have refused medical treatment on arrival in Australia, though it is true that a small number have. The evidence seems to be that, as mentally unwell and confused individuals, who do not speak English, they are fearful about what is happening to them. Little wonder, given that they are kept isolated and under guard, which can only add to their trauma. What stands out in this response is the complete lack of empathy for these people whose lives have been ruined by the direct, punitive action of our government. As far as our politicians are concerned, these asylum seekers have only themselves to blame. Meanwhile, Australian citizens continue to protest at the incarceration of refugees in hotels and in detention centres in Australia. At the weekend, some 400 demonstrators protested outside the Kangaroo Point hotel in Brisbane, where a large number of Medevac refugees have been held for may months. Refugee Action Coalition spokesperson, Ian Rintoul, commented; “We could have them in houses in the community overnight.” The punishment continues.

At Kangaroo Point in Brisbane

Roadside demonstration: Saturday 22nd August from 10.00 am until 11.30    You will find us by the Pacific Highway in Coffs Harbour, opposite the base hospital. Please come and join us if you can, and help us to keep the plight of refugees and asylum seekers in the public eye. We have lots of new banners and placards to share. We hope to see you there. Market stall: Sunday 6th September in Coffs Harbour   We are planning to hold our first market stall in a long time at the Coffs Harbourside market on Sunday 6th September from 9.00 am until 1.30 pm. If you are able to help out for an hour or two, then please contact Mike at: mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com and let him know the times that would be convenient for you. We will need to create a roster to ensure that we don’t have too many people at the stall at any one time. HELPING YOUNG CHILDREN WITH THEIR READING   A group of independent community volunteers are seeking more people to help out with reading to primary school children from resettled former refugee families in Coffs Harbour area.   We co-ordinate with a local Coffs primary school and all you need is a FREE volunteer Working With Children Check, which we can help you to organise. We'll give you all the briefing and simple training. Current and past volunteer readers have found the experience very rewarding and positive. It provides the children with valuable home reading that their parents are unable to provide.  If you would like to join us and have one hour a week after school time then please contact us c/o:  Fi                      Fiona.mcaulay@det.nsw.edu.au

SALE OF WORKS AT THE STRINGER ART GALLERY IN NAMBUCCA   A big thank you to all who have dropped in to see Marlene’s art exhibition in the Stringer Gallery. The works have been selling well, and the attached photo of the exhibition is an updated version, following the sale of a number of paintings. If you are not able to visit the gallery, but would like further details of any of the paintings in the photo, then please contact Marlene at: marlene.griffin46@bigpond.com. It would be wonderful to reach Marlene’s target of $1000 for the ASC!

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.

This newsletter is sent to >630 recipients

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

Letters to PAT CONAGHAN MP Federal Member for Cowper

The Murugappan family

Dear Mr Conaghan,

It is not and has never been illegal to seek asylum in Australia, whether arriving by boat or plane.  Keeping people in indefinite detention is, however, illegal under our international obligations.
I understand what the official Government policy states, and that both major parties subscribe to it.  It is cruel and needless in my opinion.  The boats have been successfully turned back for many years now.  The option of New Zealand has been offered to our country over the last several years, and should immediately be accepted.

Whether the Tamil family needs protection is not the issue, they are a hard working decent family that were making their own way in a regional town that valued them, and need to be returned there.  Priya saw her family murdered before her eyes and she and her husband have good reason to fear for the safety of their family simply because of their ethnicity
.
Thank you very much for your reply, I really appreciate it. I just cant  agree with injustice.  Australia should not discard people as not worth giving assistance to simply because of a political ideal.  Kindness is underrated when we discuss our country's values.  As is true equality for all.
Yours faithfully,
Pat de Jong

On 30 July 2020, at 9:31 am, "Conaghan, Pat (MP)" <Pat.Conaghan.MP@aph.gov.au> wrote:

Dear Mrs de Jong,

Thanks for your email.

I understand you have had long-standing apprehensions regarding the treatment of asylum seekers. I appreciate your heart-felt concern for people who have been impacted by the Australian Government’s immigration policies.

As has been stated on many occasions by the Government, those who have tried to enter Australia illegally, trying to circumvent the process we have in place to assist genuine refugees, will never be allowed to stay here permanently.

I don't believe those who have tried reaching our shores by boat are cunning criminals, but I certainly believe those who provide the boats, who provide the opportunity as a 'viable' alternative to a legitimate refugee process, are the criminals. These criminals do not care about the human cost, they do not care for the safety of their 'cargo' and are waiting for any opportunity to recommence their activities. The last time people smugglers took this type of opportunity, people died. We do not want to see any more senseless deaths at sea. If that means our Government stays tough on border protection, then so be it.

In relation to the Murugappan family you refer to (the family on Christmas Island), both adults arrived in Australia as Illegal Maritime Arrivals (IMA), having paid a people smuggler and arrived in Australia illegally by boat. After arriving separately in Australia, they met and married and had two children. Since 2012, the family’s claims to engage Australia’s protection obligations have been comprehensively assessed on a number of occasions by the Department of Home Affairs and various merits review bodies. The family has consistently been found not to be owed protection. Mr Murugappan was found not to engage Australia’s protection obligations in late 2012 and that decision was affirmed by the Refugee Review Tribunal in 2013. Mrs Murugappan was found not to engage Australia’s protection obligations in 2016. The Immigration Assessment Authority affirmed that decision in 2017. These decisions have also been the subject of judicial review, including in the Federal Magistrates Court/Federal Circuit Court, appeal to the Full Federal Court and applications for special leave to appeal to the High Court. Each of these applications have been dismissed.

Our country has one of the most generous humanitarian programs in the world. We do more than most to assist and resettle genuine refugees in need of protection and will continue to do so.

Yours sincerely,

Dear Mr Conaghan,
It is not and has never been illegal to seek asylum in Australia, whether arriving by boat or plane.  Keeping people in indefinite detention is, however, illegal under our international obligations.
I understand what the official Government policy states, and that both major parties subscribe to it.  It is cruel and needless in my opinion.  The boats have been successfully turned back for many years now.  The option of New Zealand has been offered to our country over the last several years, and should immediately be accepted.
Whether the Tamil family needs protection is not the issue, they are a hard working decent family that were making their own way in a regional town that valued them, and need to be returned there.  Priya saw her family murdered before her eyes and she and her husband have good reason to fear for the safety of their family simply because of their ethnicity
.
Thank you very much for your reply, I really appreciate it. I just cant  agree with injustice.  Australia should not discard people as not worth giving assistance to simply because of a political ideal.  Kindness is underrated when we discuss our country's values.  As is true equality for all.
Yours faithfully,
Pat de Jong

Dear Mrs de Jong,

Thanks for your email.

I understand you have had long-standing apprehensions regarding the treatment of asylum seekers. I appreciate your heart-felt concern for people who have been impacted by the Australian Government’s immigration policies.

As has been stated on many occasions by the Government, those who have tried to enter Australia illegally, trying to circumvent the process we have in place to assist genuine refugees, will never be allowed to stay here permanently.

I don't believe those who have tried reaching our shores by boat are cunning criminals, but I certainly believe those who provide the boats, who provide the opportunity as a 'viable' alternative to a legitimate refugee process, are the criminals. These criminals do not care about the human cost, they do not care for the safety of their 'cargo' and are waiting for any opportunity to recommence their activities. The last time people smugglers took this type of opportunity, people died. We do not want to see any more senseless deaths at sea. If that means our Government stays tough on border protection, then so be it.

In relation to the Murugappan family you refer to (the family on Christmas Island), both adults arrived in Australia as Illegal Maritime Arrivals (IMA), having paid a people smuggler and arrived in Australia illegally by boat. After arriving separately in Australia, they met and married and had two children. Since 2012, the family’s claims to engage Australia’s protection obligations have been comprehensively assessed on a number of occasions by the Department of Home Affairs and various merits review bodies. The family has consistently been found not to be owed protection. Mr Murugappan was found not to engage Australia’s protection obligations in late 2012 and that decision was affirmed by the Refugee Review Tribunal in 2013. Mrs Murugappan was found not to engage Australia’s protection obligations in 2016. The Immigration Assessment Authority affirmed that decision in 2017. These decisions have also been the subject of judicial review, including in the Federal Magistrates Court/Federal Circuit Court, appeal to the Full Federal Court and applications for special leave to appeal to the High Court. Each of these applications have been dismissed.

Our country has one of the most generous humanitarian programs in the world. We do more than most to assist and resettle genuine refugees in need of protection and will continue to do so.

Yours sincerely,

PAT CONAGHAN MP

Federal Member for Cowper

Dear Mr Conaghan,

I am writing to you as my local representative because it has distressed me for years now that refugees have been imprisoned and left without any certainty of a normal future life in society. Every one of them has fled persecution, whether called by our country a 'refugee' or asylum seeker. Only desperate people risk their lives in leaky boats, not cunning criminals as one or two politicians have described them.

Please do your utmost to have all of them, either offshore or here locked up from Christmas Island (the Biloela family) to mainland cities, released into society. You can be assured that there are many many organisations prepared to care for all of them. It has been so utterly cruel and immoral what Australia has and still is doing.

Thank you also for your advocacy concerning a decent amount for our unemployed to live on.

By the way, millions of dollars,hundreds of millions, will be saved by doing this. Just read about what Peter Dutton has showered various companies(e.g. Paladin) with in return for 'guarding' the refugees.

Regards,

Pat de Jong.

-----Original Message-----
From: Pay Dr Jong
Sent: Saturday, 25 July 2020 3:48 PM
To: Conaghan, Pat (MP)
Subject: Refugees

Dear Mr Conaghan,

I am writing to you as my local representative because it has distressed me for years now that refugees have been imprisoned and left without any certainty of a normal future life in society. Every one of them has fled persecution, whether called by our country a 'refugee' or asylum seeker. Only desperate people risk their lives in leaky boats, not cunning criminals as one or two politicians have described them.

Please do your utmost to have all of them, either offshore or here locked up from Christmas Island (the Biloela family) to mainland cities, released into society. You can be assured that there are many many organisations prepared to care for all of them. It has been so utterly cruel and immoral what Australia has and still is doing.

Thank you also for your advocacy concerning a decent amount for our unemployed to live on.

By the way, millions of dollars,hundreds of millions, will be saved by doing this. Just read about what Peter Dutton has showered various companies(e.g. Paladin) with in return for 'guarding' the refugees.

Regards,

Pat de Jong.

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.