Amnesty International Australia hosted this week's vigil at the Maribyrnong Detention Centre, and a total of up to 150 people, including many children, brought flowers to send in to the mothers inside. At first the response from the ACM management was not very forthcoming, but in the end it was agreed the police would collect flowers left at the gate and take them back into the centre for distribution. No-one was actually allowed to enter the place, of course. Early arrivals were amazed to see a convoy of police reinforcements arrive, including horses. Apparently alarm bells had rung somewhere. Still, the animals got a bit of exercise in the back yard, and it was a beautiful day.
The organisers got people to arrange flowers on and in front of the wire fence, and this formed a backdrop to the speakers. Then some of the children headed a procession to the main gate, where the flowers were pushed under the wire, and Dr Andrew Theophanous addressed the crowd. While he was speaking, three police officers came up and loaded the flowers into a car.
To round things off, many of those present then walked round to the back of the compound and let loose a few rousing choruses of "It's Mother's Day today, Let them out to play!" and "Lock up Ruddock, Free the refugees!" Hopefully the volume was enough to carry over into the detainees' quarters.
"Over the last few years I've developed strong bonds with some of the mothers inside, and what they've been through has been horrific. A lot of the women have been tortured in their countries, raped, sexually abused, they have been sex-slaves for many years. And they arrive in Australia and they're out in detention ...
"One mother is currently in detention with her six children, all aged between 1 and 18. She .. gave birth to one of her children in detention. She celebrated ... her first birthday last week, and that signifies 1 year in prison ..."
Testimony of a mother with a teenaged daughter in detention.
"She (her daughter) has become withdrawn and depressed - I feel so helpless and frustrated because there is little or nothing I can do to help her change her situation. At times she calls out these strange comments that I can't fathom. I can fell guilty because I too find it really hard to cope and I too get depressed ..."
(Dana, from Amnesty.)
"Our Aboriginal sisters and brothers who used to freely roam this land 45000 years ago would rise from their graves if they knew that in 2001 there are men and women who are in prison only because they want to live in a free country like Australia.
"Australia's biggest shame we all agree is the inability of this government to say sorry to the Aboriginal people, the original inhabitants of Australia. I say to you that Australia's second biggest shame is the continued detention of women and children whose only fault is coming here illegally to flee oppressive regimes.
"This national government, whose public face on immigration matters is Minister Philip Ruddock, has unashamedly abandoned Australia's noble post WW2 reputation for humane and decent treatment of refugees. Its policy of detaining asylum seekers to protect its borders from illegal immigration is being implemented with such callousness that [it is] violating the human rights of women and their children ...
"We probably have the worst immigration system in the world."
(Melba, from the Victorian Immigrant and Refugee Women's Coalition.)
"How can a legal person ... become illegal?
"They are known as numbers rather than as names and persons ... so if a mother wants to get something for a child her number is called out, not a name."
(Nasra, from the Victorian Immigrant and Refugee Women's Coalition.)
"Many of us today, many Australians, are descended from mothers and grandmothers who were boat people .... 600 000 Australians benefitted from some type of humanitarian visa over the last 50 years, and then when you consider the families of these people - it's ridiculous that now the government would have such a punitive approach to the boat people.
"Refugees don't choose to become refugees. They are forced to leave their homelands. The people that we are talking about here today have come from Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka ... The government might tell you that they're queue-jumpers. But don't you think your mother would have run for her life rather thatn stand in a queue if she had that choice?"
(Georgina, from Amnesty.)
"Unfortunately at the moment the policy of mandatory detention is supported by both the government and the opposition. This is a very sad thing because Australia is one of the few western countries that actually supports this policy. And I am very pleased to be associated with Amnesty International, the Refugee Council of Australia and all the other organisations that have opposed this policy. And I hope that we will continue to oppose this policy.
"Now today is a very special day because it is Mother's Day and it is significant because a year ago the minister said that he was going to look at a model which would allow the release into the community of women and children - the so-called Swedish model - and he took that quite expensive trip to Sweden and some other countries to have a look. And I'm very sad to say that in fact what has happened is, rather than coming back with an enthusiasm to organise the release of the women and children from the detention centres, what the minister did is he has increasingly tried to debunk the Swedish model and to attempt in every way not to implement a model which would release the women and children.
"Recently I asked a question in Parliament in relation to this matter and in his answer he said to me that he's going to carry out one trial in Woomera, but it's only going to be 25 people - that's total women and children 25 - and this is what he said 'Subject to satisfactory arrangements being agreed with the Woomera community the participants will be located in community housing within Woomera town, but under immigration detention. This is a trial of alternative detention arrangements, not a release into the community.' That's what he said. And in fact what had happened is that every step of this supposed trial is being worked in such a way that it fails, and so that they can turn around and say we can't do this in Australia. But that's not what happens in Sweden. In Sweden all women and children are given a possibility of release from detention.
"And I say that's what should happen here in Australia. The mandatory detention regime is bad enough - to have mothers and their children in detention for extended periods of time is an outrage, and we have to have a community movement to ensure that both political parties start getting some backbone and saying we've got to do something about the mandatory detention regime. And we're going to do in particular something about women and children in detention.
"Now let me say that someone here called out 'fathers too'. Of course, that is what we want. And that's why I'm against the mandatory detention regime. Because the mandatory detention regime is an absurdity both from an economic, social and humanitarian point of view. It's an absurdity. 95% of the refugees from Iraq are released. By our own tribunals. And if you try to get through that tribunal, it's very hard. Why are they releasing 95% of the people from Iraq? Because they're genuine refugees, that's why. 96% of the people from Afghanistan are being released. So why are they releasing them?[Here the police collected up the flowers from the gate, to applause]( But we want more than just the flowers. We want the release of all people into the community.) What this policy's about, well we might have 2 or 3% of people who might disappear or they might have a problem. Since when do we say, you put 98% in detention because 2% might do something wrong? Imagine if we had that policy across the board. What would happen to our laws and our human rights in this country? We'd probably all be in prison. Now the fact of the matter is that this is a wrong policy and it ought to be changed, and we all ought to work to change it. And especially in relation to the mothers and the children.
"Let me just say one thing that has been mentioned about the temporary protection visas that people have spoken about. I'm proud of the fact that when this dreaded policy came in in November '99 I was the only person in the House of Representatives to speak against it. It's a disgrace, this 3-year policy, and it's been condemned by the United Nations and by international bodies because what we're saying is even after you've been classified as a genuine refugee you can't stay in Australia. You've got to have a 3-year visa. And I've asked the MInister, what happens to these people after 3 years? Three times I've asked him the question. Every time it's waffle. They may be able, he says, to stay permanently. They may be able. Not, they will be able. They may be able. So these people could be faced in three years' time with another 3-year temporary visa or another situation of having to wait and wait for their status to be determined. Now the worst aspect - and lets say this on Mother's Day - about the temporary protection visas is this: you cannot under that visa sponsor your spouse and children to come to Australia. You cannot sponsor them. This constitutes forced separation, forced separation of genuine refugees. So after you get your refugee [status], you get your 3-year visa, if your children, your spouse and children are in Afghanistan or Iraq or languishing in a camp in Pakistan, you cannot bring them to Australia. This is an outrage. And must be ended. And I call upon all of you to help us achieve this goal. Go to your parliamentarians of whatever persuasion and lets get some change in this policy in Australia."
(Dr Andrew Theophanous, MP.)
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