#Iamwatching – For Crying Out Loud, #bringthemhere!

I just spent 10 minutes calling my local MP’s office, as well as the offices of Bill Shorten, Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Dutton to express my “utter disgust” (as I phrased it to Turnbull and Dutton’s staffers) at the current situation on Manus. Why, why, why do people still insist on treating refugees and asylum seekers as political footballs? Why do people not see that using punitive measures creates far more problems than it solves? Our response should be compassionate and respectful. Instead, we have this toxic dehumanising scary situation.

For those of you who are still unaware of what I’m talking about, here’s ASRC’s CEO, Kon Karapanagiotidis:

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FAsylum.Seeker.Resource.Centre.ASRC%2Fvideos%2F1591307030907437%2F&show_text=0&width=560

As of 17:00 today (i.e. 30 minutes ago), all food, water (drinking and running water, so no sanitation!), electricity and medicine access to the men imprisoned in offshore detention on Manus Island has been cut off completely. The Australian government workers and contractors have walked off the site and left “control” in the hands of the Paupa New Guinean military forces – the same group that has repeatedly threatened and made attempts to harm the men.

Supply is being cut off in order to force the men to move to a “transit centre” in another part of the island. A centre which hasn’t been built yet! If they more there? Well – as Kon says above it’s not the fault of the local people, who didn’t ask for the men to be on the Island in the first place. But moving 816 men into East Lorengau, with a population of 4,000 people, where resources are scarce enough to begin with – is quite frankly a worrying prospect. As Kon says in the video (starts about the 4 minute mark), the locals do not want them to come. They have petitioned against it and also made threats. Now, why would the asylum seekers want to move there?

These men do not deserve this. Bring them here! 

The men have been imprisoned for more than four years on Manus Island in squalid conditions. There are better ways of “dealing” with them!

Let’s reiterate some facts:

1. Seeking asylum is NOT illegal, whether you come by plane or boat (or land but that’s not possible in Australia)
2. Locking the refugees up doesn’t “stop the boats”
3. Asylum seekers leave their countries because they’re FORCED to – because they’re scared for their own lives or the lives of their families.

Australia will have blood on our hands after this, I fear.

Read more about the current situation here and here and here.

I’ve written about potential solutions before #BringThemHere, drat it! and REBLOGGED: Alternative to Offshore Detention and many others – search my blog using the keyword refugees and you’ll see. I hate this situation.

😦 I wish the politicians would actually behave compassionately rather than punitively. It bloody sucks.

Palm Sunday Refugee Walk for Justice

Taken from the Walk for Refugees 2017’s profile picture

This event is occurring this Sunday. I’m excited – it’ll be the first time I’m able to attend. (Meant to go last year, but the knee intervened…)

I saw this photo up at my uni the other day.

#LetThemStay poster at uni – on one of the health student discipline-specific noticeboards. Way to go!

It made me happy. A bunch of my friends – including some who did the #LetThemStay group shot with me last year (well, the same student club) – are going along to Sunday’s rally.

There are rallies across Australia:

Palm Sunday Rally 2017 details.

 

 

(Source: Catholic Religious Australia)

I’m going to the Melbourne one and I”m really pleased that some issues regarding solidarity – doing these events with refugees, not for or to them – appear to have largely been resolved. See the link below/.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FDemocracyInColour%2Fposts%2F1902309170026451&width=500

See if there’s a rally near you and come along!

#BringThemHere

Still, we must protest and raise our voices. The US-Australia deal is all-but-dead…why can’t the government show some courage and bring them here to Australia? close the camps!

Excellent analysis by David Manne in the following article: http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/05/opinions/us-australia-refugee-deal/

Also, a perspective from America focusing on the humanity at the US-Mexico border: https://vox-nova.com/2017/02/05/brains-bodies-borders-biases-and-the-circle-of-holy-belonging/#more-29821

#BringThemHere, drat it!

Anyone else see the Four Corners episode on Monday night?

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2016/10/17/4556062.htm

😦 Those poor children…we need to get them out of there. They belong in Australia, where they can be safe, not on Nauru in indefinite limbo, too frightened to go to school. We’re torturing them – for that is what leaving them in that environment, exposing them to physical, psychological and other forms of abuse is. See here: convention_on_the_rights_of_the_child

They’ve been through hell in their birth countries and have been classified as genuine refugees. They’re no longer in the “detention centres” on Nauru…but their situation, living in a hostile community that doesn’t want them, hasn’t improved.

They should be here!

And the government has the frikking nerve to criticise the ABC and Amnesty International, whose scathing report on the situation was released yesterday. They’ve trotted out the “saving lives from drowning at sea” line again, insisting that the refugees are the responsibility of the Nauran government (which, by the by, has accused the ABC of being racist and an “embarrassment to journalism” after the program). Pathetic! The Australian government doesn’t care about the welfare of the people restricted on Nauru…all they care about is being “tough on borders”.

I’m sick of it.

When will politicians have the political and moral courage to admit that they are wrong in continuing this – and seek a better way? There needs to be a compromise, a true multilateral solution that focuses on the humanity, vulnerability and welfare of refugees and asylum seekers.

In the above link, Amnesty International suggests the following:

Amnesty International urges the Australian Government to show genuine leadership and adopt a better plan for refugees which could include:

• Boosting Australia’s aid program to help neighbouring countries better protect and support refugees. When people are legally recognised, have safe accommodation, can send their kids to school, and can work and access health services, they won’t be forced to make dangerous journeys to Australia.
• Making sure the most vulnerable people are resettled within our region and globally. Pressure on individual countries can be reduced if Australia works closely with New Zealand, Japan, the USA, Canada and others to ensure everyone does their fair share. This includes Australia welcoming a minimum of 30,000 refugees per year through its resettlement program.
• Including refugees in existing visa programs. In addition to Australia’s core resettlement program, to recognise the valuable skills and qualifications of many refugees by including them when allocating student, work and family reunion visas.
• Assessing refugee applications within a defined time period. When people know they will be assessed in an efficient and orderly way, they are less likely to make a dangerous boat journey.
• Undertaking timely search and rescue operations. Instead of hazardous push-backs of boats at sea, Australia can run search and rescue operations that save lives.

How about it, politicians?

It’s upsetting. My heart goes out to those children and young people. I pray that the situation will improve – and until it does, you bet I’ll keep speaking out about it.

[Convention on the Rights of the Child accessed here.]

 

#BringThemHere

https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/refugees/bringthemhere/upload-your-own-bringthemhere-message

I did this yesterday:

The Equality, Sustainability & Peace (ESP) Group at La Trobe says: #BringThemHere!

We stand with those on Manus and Nauru – we love you and support you. It’s past time for the government to stop stuffing around and close the camps. Set up some humane processes, open up onshore and offshore detention centres and #bringthemhere to #letthemstay.

Momentum is building – join us!

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/aug/17/this-is-critical-103-nauru-and-manus-staff-speak-out-their-letter-in-full?CMP=share_btn_tw

 

 

 

Close the Camps & Bring Them Here. Now.

Tomorrow there are rallies across the country taking place in support of bringing the refugees languishing on Manus Island and Nauru to Australia. PNG’s Supreme Court decided in April that the detention on Manus is unlawful and that the detention centre would have to close. It’s been four months and still the issue is being treated like a political football between the PNG and Australian governments, not to mention the Australian Opposition and other parties. What’s more, the end of August marks fifteen years since the Tampa affair.

I hope something changes soon, though i’m not holding my breath. It gets tiring doing the same things over and over, just to try and shift the “decency levels”a little. Right now, the politics of fear dominate. But the politics of decency are rising in some quarters. Activists need to take heart and try not to burn out as we speak out again and again.

Politician need to have the political courage to generate the will to do more – to bring them here and let them stay.  Some do have that courage. Others are gaining it bit by bit, or are at least open to decency’s possibility. I’m not wasting my breath on the hard-hearted xenophobes who aren’t even that.

We can give support through signing the petition below and then turning up to a rally tomorrow. Come on Australia – let’s show the politicians how much we want the refugees (most of the men on Manus have been found to be genuine refugees). I’ll see you there.

Petition link from GetUp!: https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/refugees/bringthemhere/we-say-bringthemhere

Rally details:
Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/events/266932076997739/?ti=cl
Melbourne: https://www.facebook.com/events/521484394717053/?ti=cl
Brisbane: https://www.facebook.com/events/1813808322182387/?ti=cl
Perth: https://www.facebook.com/events/1735011373427628/?ti=cl
Newcastle: https://www.facebook.com/events/276908372691641/
Darwin (28th due to NT election)

London (26th): https://www.facebook.com/events/814326572002602/?ti=cl
Tokyo: https://www.facebook.com/events/1574975659473330/?ti=cl

What the F*** are We Doing?

TRIGGER WARNING – graphic imagery about food and mentions of rape, torture, murder.

Look, I wanted to write a positive refugee week post. I really did. I’ll do that tomorrow – positivity is important.

Right now, though…

Manus Lives Matter. A really good reminder from Sister Jane Keogh about how the men on Manus are people too. This sentiment is brought into sharp context when things like the image and situation below pop up in my newsfeed…

Ew. Shudders. And this is the standard we give to them?

Along with the injuries. The deaths. The rapes.

This is what my effing govt is subjecting desperate people to?! I don’t know how much better it would be under Labor, either. I don’t think it could be worse though.

Why can’t we have some politicians with principles on the front benches of Labor & the  Coalition stand up and drag the rest of their parties into a better place instead of a blooming race to the bottom?!
(I understand there are some working behind the scenes, but I mean someone or some people at Shadow-/ Cabinet-level or higher to have the actual political courage, decency and will to be public about it and work towards it. Something like Fraser did.)

They say they’re stopping “deaths at sea”. Do you know what stops “deaths at sea”?? Proper fricking processes like true multilateral co-operation, high supported intakes, and BLOOMING HUMAN DECENCY! 

We are better than this, for goodness’ sakes.

/rant over. This just makes me so despairing sometimes….

Hang Parliament and elect people of decency, dammit!
(Here’s a link to a website comparing the Greens, Labor and Coalition’s policies on asylum seekers. You see the problem.)

By the way, the trauma counsellor whose article I pointed to on Tuesday has been sacked for speaking out. They want us to be silent – but I. Will. Not!

As a health sciences uni student, I cannot. As a Catholic, I cannot. As someone with a reasonable sense of empathy I cannot.

I will keep talking about these situations and highlighting what’s going on until something changes.

“Before you vote, think of the children on Nauru.” – statement from activist group Grandmothers (& Friends) Against Refugee Detention.

Refugee Week: Chasing Asylum

Hi everyone. I’ve been absent a few weeks because my scheduled posts ran out completely, just when the uni calendar went to exam mode. I’m trying to get back into the swing of things, but it’s still pretty busy.

Anyway.

TRIGGER WARNING for links to torture, rape & violence. 😦

This week is Refugee Week in Australia. Last week, I watched the film Chasing Asylum. It’s a film about asylum seekers trying to come to Australia and the conditions in Nauru, Manus Island and Indonesia, as well as a bit of a history lesson in past politics from the 70s and Fraser to now. It was a very good summary of events and conditions. Hmph. Populist politics of fear is what’s driving the determination to keep asylum seekers away from Australia. It’s led to a lack of political will to do something humane instead.

I wish the film could be shown on public television. People need to see it.

Here’s the website for the film: http://www.chasingasylum.com.au/
Check if there’s a screening near you, or host one.

Here’s the trailer for it:

You might have seen this article, too. It’s horrifying.

Hmph. This election, I’m voting for a party that denounces this stupidity and promises to fix it!

I’ll post about the better things of Refugee Week tomorrow.

Reblogged – Your Fault, Dutton, Not Advocates

TRIGGER WARNING FOR DISCUSSION OF SELF-HARM, SUICIDE & NEGLECT OF DUTY OF CARE BY AUTHORITY

[Meme by lynettag of a still from Q&A with captions & speech-bubbles added. It reads: you know a government is morally bankrupt when its NSW mental health minister says she doesn’t have an opinion about the crisis happening in our detention centres…
Tony Jones speech-bubble – ‘What is your opinion on asylum seekers?’; NSW Mental Health Minister speech-bubbles – ‘I don’t have an opinion’ ‘I don’t know the facts’ ‘It’s not an issue I follow closely’]

 

Neglect by government.

How the hell do Dutton and the rest of the government (not to mention the Opposition) sleep at night? I honestly can’t fathom the kind of dissonance they possess. In Dutton’s case (and Morrison’s), it seems to me that they’re able to sleep by being heartless b–tards. I really hope they are turfed out in the coming election. I don’t like hating people.

I have one message for politicians who don’t support this abhorrence. Cross the floor!
By voting with them on these issues, even as you speak out against them, you become become complicit – and I (& others!) can’t vote for you.

Placard seen at the recent protests in Melbourne:

(Reads: “I would vote ALP if ALP would #BringThemHere”)

You know how I was talking about knowing your ‘voting issues’ and ‘deal-breakers’ on Monday? As many of you would probably know by now, the humane treatment of asylum seekers is one of mine. Indeed, it’s my main one.

The current situation sickens me. Many on both sides of politics are complicit in it and I will NOT be voting for them.

Last Thursday I spent some time outside the Melbourne Immigration Office (opposite Parliament station on Lonsdale St) supporting the protest/vigil the Refugee Action Collective were holding there, in support of asylum seekers and in memory of Omid.

Omid is the third man (I believe) to die from injuries directly caused by government neglect.

Hasn’t it gone on long enough?

The below article from Guardian Australia says more about the despair of people imprisoned on Manus and Nauru. Go here for the full article. As I warned at the top of this post, be aware that there are discussions of self-harm and suicide, mental health issues and sheer desperation in it.

Refugees don’t self-harm because of me, Peter Dutton, they self-harm because of you

Sarah Smith

Refugee advocates work day and night trying to prevent asylum seekers harming themselves – it is our greatest fear. To be blamed for it is devastating

‘We cannot sleep, Peter Dutton. We can close our eyes, but the horrors we are witnessing don’t go away.’ Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Thursday 5 May 2016 11.11 AEST 

Comments

1,322

Peter Dutton, what do you do between the hours of midnight and 5am? Do you sleep? If so, I really must ask – how can you?

Dozens of Australians sit up all night, every single night, comforting asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru. You don’t have to, therefore the task falls to the advocates.

Let me tell you what this entails, since your statement blaming advocates for suicide attempts – of actually encouraging self-harm – suggests you are clearly unaware.

 https://embed.theguardian.com/embed/video/australia-news/video/2016/may/03/sarah-hanson-young-refugee-policy-designed-break-people-video

(If embedded video doesn’t work, here’s the link: Sarah Hanson-Young: asylum policy is designed to break people)

It is mind-blowingly hot on Manus and Nauru during the day, so our friends there try to sleep. We, safely onshore, sit tensely in the evenings, watching for the little green light that signals people have come online. When someone doesn’t show up, there is a flurry of frantic calls between advocates; when did you last hear from them? What did they say? Are they in danger of self-harm? Who do you know in the same compound? The result of these calls can be anything from relief upon locating our friend, safe and sound, or that which is becoming more common – they’ve harmed themselves and are in International Health and Medical Services, or have been beaten by guards and thrown into solitary confinement.

Peter Dutton accuses refugee advocates of encouraging suicide on Nauru

Read more

We cannot sleep, Mr Dutton. We can close our eyes, but the horrors we are witnessing don’t go away. And on the rare occasions we actually do get to sleep, we know there are no guarantees that our loved ones will be unharmed when we wake.

I will never forget the last night I actually slept for eight hours – it was in September last year, and I woke to discover one of my dearest friends on Manus had stabbed

 

#BringThemHere

From GetUp! – an email earlier in the week:

The Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea has ruled that detaining people in Australia’s abusive Manus Island camp is illegal. That means they must be freed.¹

So what happens next? Peter Dutton says ‘nothing will change’² – but that’s just the final, stuttering scratches of a broken record. In reality, the governments of Papua New Guinea and Australia are urgently deciding how to deal with this ruling.

We need to speak up together, right now.

Legally, the government might have a few options – but morally, there’s only one. The Manus Island camp must be closed, and everyone the government illegally imprisoned brought to safety in Australia.

Click here to sign the petition to #BringThemHere

The Australian government’s offshore detention regime has always sat on shaky legal ground (i.e. it’s illegal under international law), but the last six months have seen its corporate and popular support plummet. A growing number of voices – from doctors to investors – have spoken out against the human rights abuses in the camps, and the people power of #LetThemStay is turning the tide.

#LetThemStay showed that more people than ever support allowing people seeking asylum already in Australia to move into our communities. Now, we must prove once and for all that our shared compassion extends to those on Manus Island and Nauru.

While the government is scrambling for a response to this ruling, we need to say loud and clear that the people the government has imprisoned on Manus Island and Nauru should be brought here to safety, and the camps closed forever. Sign the petition to #BringThemHere: http://www.getup.org.au/bringthemhere

Today’s news is the latest blow to the government’s brutal offshore detention regime. Together we can make this blow decisive – and build compassionate policies in its place.

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Right now is a time of flux. Things are happening and the pressure has ratcheted up again. We have good news – like the protests that occurred today (Friday 29th) and will occur tomorrow (Saturday 30th).

There is also awful bad news – like the man ‘Omid’ who set himself on fire being declared dead (I swore when I read that).

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-29/nauru-refugee-who-set-himself-on-fire-dies/7371112 (trigger warning for suicide).

We have to act, now. I’ll be going down to the Melbourne rally. I will also email my local representative. Things have to change. It won’t be easy, but it is right.

Come on, Australia! We’re better than this – so let’s #bringthemhere to #letthemstay.