Newsletter for 8 August 2017 Rural Australians for Refugees Bellingen and Nambucca Districts

Next Market Stall - Coffs Harbourside Sun 27th August

Next Roadside Demo - Bellingen Thursday August 10th 2:30pm

National RAR group

That telephone conversation

Valla Beach market report

A big thank you to all our supporters who turned up to help at Saturday’s market in Valla Beach. Fourteen supporters came along at different times to lend a hand, making for a lively presence and a great impact. We had a new bumper sticker for sale,  a new pamphlet about the Manus Island crisis, we collected lots of signatures on our petition, did an interview with Nambucca Valley Radio and sold quite a lot of merchandise. A very successful morning,  including a lot of interaction with market-goers, which is so important to our key objective, which is to inform the public about the cruelty, immorality and inhumanity of our government’s asylum policy, and to demand  an end to offshore detention.

Our next market stall will be at the Coffs Harbourside market on Sunday  27th August. If you can help out at any time between 9.00 am and 1.30 pm, then please let Mike know by emailing him at: mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com.

Roadside demonstration: Thursday 10th August, Bellingen: 2.30 to 4.00 pm

A reminder that our next roadside demonstration is this Thursday in Bellingen. You will find us at a new location on Waterfall Way, adjacent to the playing fields, just after the entrance to the High School as you come into Bellingen from Urunga.  The offshore detention situation is now becoming critical and dangerous. Refugees on Manus are under huge pressure to leave the current detention centre and to move to the dangerous Lorengau transit centre. The recent publication of Turnbull/ Trump telephone conversation can only add to the fear and desperation of the refugees.  Please therefore try to join us if you can on Thursday to send a strong message to the government and the Labor opposition that this cruelty must end.

National RAR group

We now have a national RAR committee which plans to strengthen our voice on the national stage. You can find an update from the national group on our blog. The committee is planning to organise and coordinate a national day of action on 8th October. Watch this space!

That telephone conversation

You are no doubt familiar with the details of the telephone conversation between our Prime Minister and the US President of some months ago, the transcript of which was published last week. Twice in the conversation, our PM made it clear to Trump that there is no obligation in the agreement for the US to take any refugees.  The US could accept 1,000, 100 or none at all. Turnbull’s words were: “the obligation is to only go through the process.” This looks more and more like a cynical exercise in which our obligations towards the refugees take a very poor second place to political calculation. Turnbull also stated untruthfully that the refugees are “economic refugees”. The fact is that all those being considered for resettlement in the US have already had their refugee claims investigated thoroughly by the Australian government and have been granted refugee status. That is, it has been established, under the Refugee Convention, that they have a “well founded fear of persecution in their country of origin”, and are therefore legally owed protection by the Australian government. Economic hardship is not a criterion for refugee status.

Throughout the conversation it is clear that neither leader has any concern at all for the well-being of the refugees, many of whom have now been languishing on Manus and Nauru for up to four years. For these two businessmen, this is just another transaction.

All the more reason to keep up our protest. Please consider writing to both Coalition and Labor politicians, whose details were provided in last week’s newsletter, which you’ll find on our blog.

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 >500 recipients

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

(482 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

Border Force takes control of detention centres turning them into jails smh 5 December 2015

Controversial Border Force takes control of detention centres, turns them into 'jails'

Nicole Hasham

Environment and immigration correspondent

The Australian Border Force has taken control of the nation's immigration detention centres, implementing a "command and control" regime that has allegedly overseen the hand-cuffing of mentally ill detainees travelling to counselling and banning outings for children.

The Border Force, the military-style government outfit which in August proposed random visa checks that forced a Melbourne police operation to be aborted, confirmed it has taken "a more active role" in managing onshore detention centres since the force was established in July. This includes a "more uniform approach to managing the safety and security of detainees".

The Border Force this week confirmed it had cancelled a program run by nuns at the Melbourne Immigration and Transit Accommodation centre [MITA], which involved taking children outside the facility for picnics, ice-cream and trips to the playground or the zoo.

A Border Force spokesman said the outings also involved adult detainees and were scrapped due to "lack of proper oversight". He said community excursions still occur, supervised by trained staff.

Refugee advocate Pamela Curr said security provisions in detention centres such as MITA were "being stepped up to an unbelievable level" and detainees say "every day a new rule is being brought in".

She said one badly ill man with poor kidney function was restrained during a visit to a specialist doctor, which prevented him from giving a urine sample because "the guards would not undo the handcuffs".

Another man was forced to undergo a hand X-ray while wearing handcuffs and women leaving the detention centre for a medical appointment or counselling were forced to undergo pat-downs, Ms Curr said.

"That means women guards run their hands over their breasts, their bottom, their legs," she said, saying this had induced panic attacks in detainees with a history of being sexually abused.

Ms Curr said a fence more than four metres high had been built at MITA, and "children are now virtually living in a prison".

Visiting time was now highly regulated and children leaving the centre to attend school were accompanied by uniformed guards, causing them to be ridiculed by other children, she said. The Border Force confirmed a perimeter fence had been improved after a number of escapes from MITA, and did not deny the other allegations.

Amnesty International Australia refugee coordinator Graham Thom said security in detention centres was also heightened after detainees with criminal histories flooded the system.

Under recent laws, people can have their visas cancelled if they have been sentenced to 12 months or more in prison.

"We have great concerns about what that is doing to safety, and the increased security and therefore the mental health of asylum seekers in detention," Dr Thom said.

Dr Thom said he had heard anecdotal reports of a more "hands on" approach to security, including towards mentally ill detainees.

"Not only are people more routinely being handcuffed but … while they are outside the centre, a staff person has to have a physical hand on the individual when taking them to counselling," he said.

"You can only imagine the increased stress and pressure that puts on somebody."

Refugee advocate Jane Healey said there had been a "marked" increase in security under Border Force, including greater force towards detainees, more asylum seekers being placed in isolation and tighter visitor security.

The Border Force spokesman said it took a "compassionate approach to the care of those in detention".

"The ABF and its service providers work together in the management of detention centres, with security and safety of detainees, personnel and visitors the key priority," he said.

Meanwhile, more than 3150 doctors and other health professionals have signed a petition calling on the federal government to immediately release children and their families from immigration detention.

Sydney Children's Hospital paediatrician Karen Zwi, one of the petition's organisers, said the signatories were concerned at the time children had spent in detention.

"There appears to be no resolution to these circumstances ... and we know more harm is produced as children stay longer in detention," she said.

The government has previously said many children were in detention because their parents were subject to adverse security assessments.

stowaways and ship deserters - 458 known illegal ship arrivals in 5 years

Stowaways and ship deserters: the other faces of illegal sea arrivals

Date

October 29, 2015

Nicole Hasham

Environment and immigration correspondent 

View more articles from Nicole Hasham

Follow Nicole on Twitter Email Nicole

• Tweet
• submit to reddit
• Email article
• Print
• Reprints & permissions

Figures show 458 stowaways, ship deserters and illegal seaport arrivals came to Australia in the past five years.

• The two Australian girls living in 'jail'
• Thanks for your note, Nauru

Some swim out to a container ship and clamber aboard; others spend weeks in a dark cargo hold. A few slip away when the ship has docked, heading to big cities where they can melt into the crowd.

The federal government may have "stopped the boats" but stowaways, ship deserters and illegal seaport arrivals from cruise, cargo and other ships continue to test its tough border regime.

Figures show in the five years to June, 458 stowaways, ship deserters and illegal seaport arrivals were known to have come to Australia.

They either hid themselves on a ship, slipped away from the vessel or arrived at a seaport but were not cleared for entry.

Data supplied to Fairfax Media shows 95 such arrivals last financial year, 67 of which were taken into immigration detention.

Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre executive director David Manne has represented several stowaways and ship deserters, including a 15-year-old Ethiopian boy who stowed away on a cargo ship from Africa which docked at Gladstone, Queensland. After legal wrangling he was granted a protection visa last year.

Mr Manne said the current global humanitarian crisis involves "people in unprecedented numbers … taking desperate measures to get to safety".

Mr Manne said the Ethiopian boy was looked after on the ship, and now lives in Melbourne where he is "kicking a soccer ball as well as any of his peers".

But not all stowaways are so lucky. In 2005, two African stowaways were discovered in a cargo hold filled with phosphate in a Perth-bound bulk carrier. Two fellow stowaways had died.

After several weeks of sailing, the crew reported hearing muffled voices and scratching on the metal hull and investigated.

The four had boarded in Morocco with just a few days' worth of food and water, thinking they could sneak off in a European port. The two survivors were repatriated after reaching Australia.

Gladstone Mission to Seafarers chaplain Russell Cunningham said ship deserters were usually seeking "a better life free from oppression and exploitation … escaping persecution on board could also be a motivator for some".

"From my experience they always head for big cities where they can get help to blend in, but usually always end up just being exploited and used as cheap labour on a building site or in a restaurant," he said.

In August a Turkish crew member was reportedly caught on a bus heading to Brisbane after failing to return to his ship at Gladstone.

In April a Chinese man also reportedly deserted ship at the same port and made it to Sydney, before handing himself in to immigration officials.

An Immigration Department spokeswoman said it "remains alert to any manner of illegal maritime arrival" and penalties apply for those who fail to comply with the rules.

Mother's visa cancelled and moved to Villawood with her children

Salwa Abas stands out in the busy school drop off: she is the only child escorted by a guard. Classmates tease the five-year-old for living in a "jail" and when she returns home, each pocket of her bag is searched.

Salwa and her sister Yasmin, 3, are Australian citizens. But they have been living with their mother behind locked gates at Sydney's Villawood detention centre for almost a year, after the federal government cancelled their mother's visa.

In doing so, the government acknowledged the decision was not in the children's best interests. Their mother Zahra, who is pregnant with her third child, has begged Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to intervene.

"They were happy Australian kids, why [did the government] do this to them, they don't deserve to be here," she told Fairfax Media from inside the detention centre.

"[My children] are really upset inside and they are asking me 'What are we doing for Christmas, are we getting out? Why are we here?'".

Villawood detainee Zahra Abas and her Australian children Salwa, 5, and Yasmin, 3.

Ms Abas, originally from Iraq, arrived on a boat from Indonesia in 2009 with other family members. They were taken to Christmas Island then granted protection in Australia.

Her father, known as Captain Emad, arrived in Australia in 2010. He fled two years later, after ABC's Four Corners program alleged he was running a people-smuggling racket from Canberra.

The case cast a spotlight on his family, and the Department of Immigration determined Ms Abas, who was 19 when arriving in Australia, had falsified information on her visa application, including the reason why she needed protection.

Ms Abas said this week her father was "abusive, controlling and angry" and told the family to lie to immigration officials about their names and background.

"In Indonesia he wanted to break my legs because I wanted to run away from him, and he took a hammer and hit my leg and I got stitches from it," she said.

"He told us to tell un-genuine information and I did, but my intention wasn't anything bad, I just wanted to live [in] freedom without him abusing me any more."

Under the former Labor government, the department said while Ms Abas had breached her obligations under migration law, her visa would not be cancelled. 

But in December last year when the Coalition was in office, then Immigration Minister Scott Morrison personally intervened to cancel Ms Abas' visa. She was informed on Christmas Eve.

In a letter to Ms Abas, the veracity of which the department did not dispute, Mr Morrison wrote that she had been living in Malaysia for many years, rather than in Iraq where she claimed to have suffered persecution, and should not have been granted a protection visa.

He said there was no evidence she was under duress from her father when applying for a visa.

"Notwithstanding that the best interests of the dependent children would be served by a decision not to cancel the mother's visa, this is outweighed by the seriousness of the non-compliance," Mr Morrison wrote.

Ms Abas was taken into detention in January, and lives in residential-style housing. Her Australian citizen husband suffers medical problems and depression after an accident and cannot care for the children, forcing them to live with their mother at Villawood indefinitely.

Ms Abas' husband visits the family in detention and she is 21 weeks pregnant. She is also severely depressed and fears for the future of her unborn baby and young daughters.

Salwa, once a bubbly child with many friends who loved the film Frozen, is now lonely and suffers nightmares. Yasmin has become unhappy and clingy.

"Every day [Salwa] says 'I had a really bad day, I hate this school, I hate you, I hate this place', and then she goes in her room and cries. She doesn't want to go out, she doesn't want to eat," Ms Abas said.

"It's like a jail - you have no freedom, no control over your life or your children's life."

Mr Dutton and the Department of Immigration refused to answer questions regarding Ms Abas, or explain why she was the only family member being detained. A spokeswoman for Mr Dutton said his department was "managing" the case.

Brisbane student dragged from school and sent to detention centre August 2015

Brisbane student 'dragged on ground', sent to Darwin detention centre

Date

August 9, 2015

• Comments 192

Amy Remeikis

Queensland political editor

View more articles from Amy Remeikis

Follow Amy on Twitter Email Amy

• Tweet
• submit to reddit
• Email article
• Print
• Reprints & permissions

Milad Jafari's wife, Mojgan Shamsalipoor, was forcibly transferred to a Darwin detention centre without a chance to say goodbye to her husband. Photo: Supplied

A Brisbane man says he has been left "heartbroken and hopeless" after his wife was forcibly detained by immigration officials and refused permission to say good-bye to her husband before being sent to a Darwin detention centre.

Australian resident Milad Jafari, 21, said his wife, Mojgan Shamsalipoor, also 21, was taken from the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation centre, where she had spent the past eight months and taken to Darwin on Friday.

The following day, more than 100 people gathered in Brisbane city to protest the move and the Border Force Act.

Mr Jafari said his "heart is broken" by the decision.  The couple married in October 2014 and Ms Shamsalipoor was placed in detention in Brisbane after two years in the community, two months later, after her asylum claim was rejected.

Mr Jafari said his wife was determined to continue her schooling, to achieve her dream of being a midwife, and spent her time in detention finishing Year 11 and Year 12. 

She was three months away from graduating from Yeronga High School when she was taken, with Mr Jafari saying she was "dragged on the ground" by officers after she resisted immigration officers and asked to call her husband.

"I have been here for four years, I have been trying to develop as much as I can, you know, I have been trying to be an engineer, she was trying to be a mid-wife, she was always dreaming about this," Mr Jafari said.

"...That is not Australia that is not the country I believe in, it is not the people of Australia – Australian people care about us, they care."

The Immigration Department told the ABC that the move was for operational reasons and it was attempting to resolve cases of failed asylum seekers living in the community, with the expectation they would leave voluntarily, with the option to detain them if they did not co-operate.

But Mr Jafari said his wife had fled an extremely unsafe situation in Iran, which was not easily proved, but had left Ms Shamsalipoor "terrified" of returning.   He also believed that her marriage to him will have put her at further risk, if she was forced to return.

"I haven't been eating, I have been having some trauma at night, I couldn't sleep," he said.

"Deeply...it hurts really hard. It's like they have taken part of me out, they have taken something that was really part of me, they have taken part of me and I can't feel life.  It has been eight months now, and now it is worse.   I haven't been to Darwin, and even I go to Darwin, if they deport her back...do you know what will happen to her?

"Does the Australian people consider this?  Do they know how ugly those governments are in Iran?  They don't.

"...If she goes back to Iran, there will be something really bad happen.  And then, then, I cannot survive.  That is what I am saying to people. I cannot survive."

Yeronga High School teacher Ken Myers, who is also the director of Helping Hands International Australia, a refugee relief centre, said while he had seen a number of students moved previously, he had not "seen anything quite like this before".

"The whole school community is really hurting," he said.

"Our students, our teachers – teachers by nature are typically compassionate people, because that is what the profession requires, you become a teacher because you want to help somebody.

"...I understand the government believes that what they have done is appropriate, and they have worked within the laws they have written, I understand that part, but everyone I talk to, and sure, everyone may not agree with me, but everyone I have spoken to, is saying, 'where is Australia's compassion?'

"...Where is that compassion from Australia?"

Mr Myers said Ms Shamsalipoor had spent four years at the school working hard to be able to contribute to Australian society.

"She was performing, she is an arty type girl and she wants to be a midwife," he said.

"She is doing appropriate subjects to do it and she is getting As, Bs and Cs in everything she is doing to achieve it. 

"She is not a straight A student, but she is a hard worker and she is succeeding in every subject. 

"She wants to be a mid-wife, she wants to contribute to Australia and every indication from her teachers is she will succeed.

"So there is a person here who has the potential to contribute positively to the country – but no, we lock her up in detention."  

Mr Jafari, who will have to leave his family and job to follow Mojgan to Darwin, said all he wanted was the chance for a normal, safe life.

"...I just got married.  Everyone else goes on a honeymoon, everyone else is going to their new house, we have never experienced that.  For 18 years, we have never had a peaceful life. I and my wife only want to live.  Not to have a good job, not to have a great job.  We just want to [contribute] to this country."

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/brisbane-student-dragged-on-ground-sent-to-darwin-detention-centre-20150808-giuqdx.html