Our local RAR Newsletter May, 2021

ROADSIDE DEMONSTRATION REPORT

Our recent roadside demonstration in Coffs Harbour was a great success. For the first time in more than a year, our ranks reached double figures, and we were delighted to welcome back a number of supporters who we hadn’t seen for a while. The response from passing motorists, who couldn’t fail to be impressed by the number of placards and banners on display, was very positive.

 

Our next demonstration will take place on Saturday 22nd May from 10.00 until 11.30 am on Waterfall Way in Bellingen. You will find us at our usual location near the Yellow Shed, opposite the entrance to the golf club. Please join us if you can, to show your support for refugees and asylum seekers.

 

BELLINGEN MARKET REPORT

We had a beautiful warm and sunny day for our market stall on Saturday, and we were kept busy by a steady stream of visitors to our stall, many of whom expressed their deep dismay about our government’s ongoing punitive treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. We collected more than 150 signatures on our new open letter to the Leader of the Opposition, and more than $160 in donations and sales, all of which will be donated to the Asylum Seekers Centre in Newtown.

 

A big thank you to the supporters who helped make the morning such a success.

 

Our next market stall will be at the Valla Beach market on Saturday 5^th June from 9.00 am until 1.00 pm. 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, so that he can draw up a roster. New supporters are always welcome. Helping out at our markets is not an onerous task, and newcomers are always well briefed and supported.

 

OUR NEW OPEN LETTER

 

As you will be aware, we recently posted an open letter to the Prime Minister which had been signed by more than 800 people. We now have a new letter, this time addressed to the Leader of the Opposition, Anthony Albanese. It reads:

 

Dear Mr. Albanese,

As the Labor Party reviews its policy platform in preparation for the federal election, we, the undersigned, urge the Party to adopt a principled and compassionate asylum policy which is consistent with our international obligations. At a minimum, we urge the Party to commit to:

·      Bringing all remaining refugees from Nauru and PNG to Australia for resettlement here or in other safe countries, including New Zealand.

·      Urgently reviewing and processing all outstanding asylum claims.

·      Releasing all remaining refugees and asylum seekers from APODs and other mainland detention centres, except where in individual cases there are overriding security issues.

·      Issuing all genuine refugees in Australia with Permanent Protection Visas.

A clear and principled asylum policy, articulated boldly, would attract significant community support.

 

If you would like to collect signatures from family, friends or colleagues, then please email Mike at: mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com, and he will email a copy to you. It would be good if we could collect 1,000 signatures.

 

THE FEDERAL BUDGET AND REFUGEES

The government has decided to maintain the “temporary” pandemic-related reduction in our annual humanitarian refugee intake from 18,750 to 13,750 for at least the next three years. This comes at a time when there are more than 26 million refugees worldwide, most of them fleeing conflict, political upheaval or persecution in their homelands. The great majority of them are hosted in poor and developing countries which are already struggling to care for their own people, particularly in the midst of a global pandemic. It is deeply disappointing that our government, the tenth most rich country in the world, has decided to do less for refugees when it could, and should, be doing more.

 

 The government has allocated $811 million in the budget for the continued detention of refugees and asylum seekers on Nauru and in PNG. There are currently 109 people detained on Nauru, and 130 in PNG, meaning that our government plans to spend $3.4 million next year keeping each of these 239 refugees and asylum seekers out of sight and out of mind, and demonstrating to the world that we are irresolutely tough on protecting our borders from those seeking asylum on our shores. The trauma and suffering that we have inflicted on these people over a period of almost eight years is unconscionable.

 

We must continue our campaigning until this shameful chapter in our country’s history is brought to an end.

 

REFUGEES TO BE DETAINED INDEFINITELY

Last week the government passed into law, with the support of Labor, amendments to the Migration Act which give the government the power to indefinitely detain refugees, potentially for the rest of their lives. The new law allows for the government, where it has cancelled the visa of a refugee but could not send them back to their country of origin because they would face persecution there, to detain them indefinitely. The new law also gives the minister a broad unchallengeable power to withdraw a person’s refugee status recognition – declaring they can be returned to the country from which they had fled.

 

Even the government-controlled joint parliamentary committee on human rights raised serious concerns about the law, arguing it presented a “real risk that detention may become indefinite” and “may also have implications for Australia’s obligation not to subject any person to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. These concerns do not appear to have troubled either the government or the opposition.

David Burke, the legal director at the Human Rights Law Centre, said the legislation exposed the government’s willingness to leave growing numbers of refugees in detention without any plan.  He states:

 

 “The government should not have the power to lock people up for potentially the rest of their lives without any safeguards. This forces refugees into an unthinkable choice between spending potentially decades in immigration detention, or agreeing to go back to a country where they will be persecuted. These new laws allow the Morrison government to warehouse people who have nowhere else to go.”

 

It should surely never be acceptable for a minister, at the stroke of a pen, to overturn the fundamental protection that the government has given, after due process, to someone whose life is at risk.

How did we get to this?

Newsletter March 23,2021

 

OUR NEXT MARKET: SATURDAY 3rd APRIL AT VALLA BEACH   You will be aware that, due to the incredibly wet weather, Bellingen Market, scheduled for last Saturday, had to be cancelled. Our next market stall will be at the Valla Beach market on Saturday 3rd April from 9.00 am until 1.00 pm. As usual, we’ll be handing out leaflets, asking people to sign our open letter, inviting people to send a postcard to the PM about the Sri Lankan family held on Christmas Island, and selling our Boat People merchandise, together with art works, to raise funds for the Asylum Seekers Centre. If you can help out for an hour or two at our stall, then please let Mike know by emailing him at: mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com. Let us hope that the sun shines.

ROADSIDE DEMONSTRATION: THURSDAY 25TH MARCH   A reminder that our next roadside demonstration is on Thursday 25th March from 2.30 to 4.00 pm by the Pacific Highway in Coffs Harbour, opposite the base hospital. It would be great to have a good turnout to remind people that the voices of the community need to be heard in relation to the cruelty of the government’s treatment of asylum seekers and refugees.   Our demonstrations are always positive and affirming events, and we remain very confident that they do matter, and that public opinion does, in the end, influence our elected members. The worst that can happen at our demonstrations is the occasional rude gesture from a passing motorist. We are certainly not in any danger of being fired upon for exercising our democratic right to demonstrate!

FUNDRAISING LUNCH AND AUCTION: SUNDAY 11TH APRIL   A reminder that our first major fundraiser of 2021 is now less than three weeks away. Since the last newsletter, we have received offers of a number of great items to go under the hammer on 11th April, some of which include: A one-day cheesemaking experience at the Big Banana, valued at $200. A Persian meal for four, served in your own home. Various items of pottery. A large, framed painting from the Janakpur Women’s Development Centre in Nepal. A wooden platter. A pair of binoculars. We do hope that many of you will want to attend the event. You will enjoy the company of fellow RAR supporters, and the auction will be fun.   Please bring a plate to share if you can. Drinks will be provided by the hosts.

TWO IMPORTANT ACTIONS FOR YOU   1. We are urgently seeking further items for the auction. Please consider donating an object of interest that you think will attract bids of at least $25. It would be most helpful if you could let Mike know fairly soon what you plan to offer, so that he can create a sales catalogue in advance of the event. 2. It is important that we know in advance that you are intending to come to the lunch and auction, so that we can plan accordingly. We will have lunch from 12.30 pm, with the auction to commence at about 1.30 pm. If you want to skip the lunch and just come along for the auction, that’s fine, but it is important that you let us know.    Please email Mike in the coming days at: mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com to let him know your intentions. Directions to 39, Rogers Drive, Valla Beach, and parking options, will be included in the next newsletter.

TWO MEDEVAC REFUGEES RETURN TO NAURU   Two medevac refugees who spent more than a year in Darwin immigration detention were flown back to Nauru, at their request, last week. Kirubakaran  Rasanayagam said that he and his wife requested to go back to Nauru because they could no longer tolerate their indefinite detention in Darwin. They decided that, although they often felt unsafe on Nauru, they were at least able to move around freely and were permitted to work.   In the Darwin facility, on the other hand, they were locked up for 23 hours a day, and their privacy was constantly invaded by guards, who would routinely enter their room and shine torches in their faces in the middle of the night. It is outrageous that medevac refugees, who should be receiving care, support and medical attention, are instead treated like criminals by Border Force operatives. Amnesty International refugee coordinator Dr Graham Thom, had this to say: “The government is now forcing people to choose between detention offshore, where they face medical neglect, or hotel detention in Australia, where they are locked in rooms for up to 23 hours a day.” Our fight for justice for refugees goes on. 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

Fundraiser for Refugees at Mylestom August 24th SOLD OUT

Fund raising to support a local family of refugees.

"These people have been accepted by Australia as genuine refugees who cannot return to their countries of origin because they have a well-founded fear of persecution or worse. After all the trauma that they have suffered, they need now to rebuild their lives in Australia. Sadly, the current government policy of issuing these genuine refugees with Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs) or Safe Haven Enterprise Visas (SHEVs), rather than permanent protection, makes it very difficult indeed for them to get on with their lives."

Letter to Pat Conaghan MP by M.G.

Response to Tanya Plibersek letter 26 December 2017

_From: Mike

_{Sent: Tuesday, December 26, 2017 3:50 PM}

_{To: Tanya Plibersek MP}

_{Subject: Offshore detention}

_{Dear Ms Plibersek,}

_{Many thanks for your detailed response of 22nd December to my letter of 13th August, sent to Shayne Neumann and copied to you. I very much appreciate the time and trouble that you have taken to address the issues that I raised and to set out the Labor Party’s position. I do  accept, for the most part, the criticisms that you make of the Turnbull government’s utter failure to deal adequately with the appalling situation for asylum seekers and refugees languishing in offshore detention. But we need to address the problem of the elephant in the room. The Labor party went to the last election promising the Australian people that there was no difference between the Labor party and the Coalition in relation to the key pillars of asylum policy, namely: turning back the boats, the maintenance of offshore detention camps, and the Rudd-era policy of preventing people arriving by boat from ever settling in Australia. In these crucially important areas, the Labor party’s policy stance has not changed. It seems somewhat disingenuous to me for the Labor party to state that the detention camps were never regarded as being indefinite. Apart from the government’s incredibly stupid refusal to take up the NZ government’s offer to resettle 150 refugees annually, the Coalition tells the same story, and Dutton wants us to believe that he is trying to get people off Manus and Nauru as quickly as possible. In the meantime, many hundreds of asylum seekers and refugees continue to suffer both physically and mentally whilst politicians essentially look the other way.}

_{In the present terrible circumstances, the Labor party should bite the bullet, decide that enough is enough and take the political  risk of declaring that all detainees in offshore detention should be brought to Australia  without delay for their safety and well-being. This would allow an orderly progression to appropriate third countries, which would include the US and NZ, but would exclude Third World countries such as Cambodia. Those wishing to remain in Australia, where a number of them have family connections, should be allowed to do so.}

_{It is time to bring this shameful chapter in our history to an end.}

_{Yours sincerely,}

_{Mike Griffin}

_{39, Rogers Drive, Valla Beach NSW 2448}

Forum in Port Macquarie on 7 November 2015

Agenda for meeting at Repton on Sunday 13 April 2014

Agenda 

Rural Australians for Refugees

4pm Sunday 13 April^th

at the little church in Repton, 1 Bailey St,

Attendance

To discuss Charter and structure for the group

End the policy of children in detention?

End of Temporary Protection Visas, bridging visas?

Allow asylum seekers to work?

Closure of Manus Island and Nauru detention centres?

Other

Fundraising events, campaigns we could organise to support organisations such as Chilout

Individual letter writing campaign, MPS and newspapers

Questions and comments

Next meeting, how often