The right-wing One Nation party will beef up its
anti-Asian immigration policies as the centrepiece of
its platform in national elections later this
year. One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has asked
Robyn Spencer, who has
links to extreme right-wing groups, to revamp the
party's immigration
policies before the election, expected in November
or December, The Sydney
Morning Herald reported Saturday. The policy will
stress opposition to the
growing number of boat people flocking to Australia
as refugees, policies
promoting multiculturalism and what One Nation
claims is favoured treatment
of Asians. One Nation has registered a surge in its
support this year and is
given a good chance of winning several federal
Senate seats, where it
currently has just one lawmaker. Spencer, who has
ties to such extremist
groups as the anti-Semitic League of Rights, said
Asian immigration will be
a major issue in the election. ``We are not talking
about individual Asians
being a problem,'' she was quoted as saying by the
Herald. ``What we are
against is government policies that bring all sorts
of people into Australia
and how that has an enormous impact on our
country,'' she said. (AP)
A media release is one thing, real political pressure is another. We will have to wait and see whether the Democrats will follow through on this. Nonetheless I have sent a message to them congratulating them on their [belated] stance, and welcoming the opportunity for the Greens and the Democrats to work together on this issue.
Chris Chaplin
Refugee Spokesperson
The Greens (Vic)
Today, The Hon. Dr Andrew Theophanous MP, had a Media Conference at the Commonwealth Offices, Melbourne. He called on the Ombudsman, who is independent of the Government, to use his powers to initiate such an inquiry. See the attachments for more details.
It worth to know that Mr Theophanous was under attack from Howard Government and his own party, the Labor, because his courageous stand from the shameful immigration policy which, cost him his membership in the Labor Party.
After all what we experiencing and witnessing, is Australia a Multicultural country?
It is true that we have more than 200 different ethnic communities, but make no mistake with the current politicians, we are too far from Multiculturalism and harmony. Does the WHITE Policy "Divide and Rule" lead to harmonies between communities?
Be prepared for the next Federal election, it seems that Howard will call for an early election at July this year.
In peace,
Asem Judeh
[Attachments]
"The malicious bashing of a young refugee boy is claimed to have provoked the recent violent action of the asylum-seekers at Port Hedland Detention Centre.This is the third such action this year that comes in direct response to ACM guards reportedly beating several asylum-seekers with metal batons." Dr Andrew Theophanous, the Federal Member for Calwell, said today.
"As a result I have written to the Commonwealth Ombudsman, calling for an objective inquiry into the actions of ACM staff, and the underlying reasons which have led to the violent responses of the refugees.
"It is clear tht the Howard Government will not instigate a judicial inquiry into detention centre practices. I have therefore called on the Ombudsman, who is independent of the Government, to use his powers to initiate such an inquiry," Dr Theophanous said.
"The recent claims against ACM staff have been made by several detainees who witnessed the events. I have the personal details of the key detainees involved in the matter, which I am happy to provide to you on a confidential basis," Dr Theophanous
wrote to the Ombudsman.
He continued:"I do not condone any of the violence, but I do believe that it is very important in the interests of justice and fairness to determine what happened in this instance. In my view, the Minister's release of selected videos of the events, and his subsequent commentary, have totally prejudiced any fair assessment, and any subsequent trial for the asylum-seekers should they be charged with offences.
"On 26 April an ACM guard at Port Hedland pleaded guilty to twice bashing a detainee on 19 January - the night before 120 detainees engaged in violent actions, obviously in direct response to this bashing. The fact that this ACM guard has been conviceted with two counts of occasioning bodily harm clearly shows that the asylum-seekers acted only when provoked by the 'guards'," Dr Theophanous wrote.
Letter to the Ombudsman
Dear Mr McLeod,
Re: request for an Inquiry in the Port Hedland Immigrationm Detention Centre
I am writing to you as the Independent Federal Member for Calwell to officially request a formal inquiry by your office into the causes of the recent violent incidents at the Immigration Detention Centre (IDC) in Port Hedland.
The Minister for Immigration and the media have made much of the recent violent incidents on 11 May 2001. However, I understand that there have been two earlier incidents this year at the Port Hedland IDC, on 26 January and 30 March. For reasons that I will explain I would like the inquiry to cover all three incidents.
In relation to the most recent incident on 11 May, I understand that Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) guards reportedly beat several asylum-seekers with metal batons. I have been informed that violent actions of the asylum-seekers on this occaion were in reponse to brutal actions carried out by ACM staff. In particular, a claim has been made that a malicious bashing of a young refugee boy provoked the violent action of the asylum-seekers.
The circumstances as they have been explained to me appear to be as follows: It is claimed that ACM officers told several Iranian detainees to follow them in order that they could make a statement about an earlier scuffle between several detainees. When they reached the van, the detainees discovered that ACM were going to take them to another detention centree, away from their families. One 17-year-old boy refused to go, and a a result ACM started to beat the boy while he was on the floor. The other detainees tried to prevent this, and as a result struggles occurred between them and the other officers. Enraged by this situation, other asylum-seekers sought to protect the Iranian detainees, and were then set upon by ACM staff using metal batons.This then led to the more violent scenes, which the Minister has been happy to release to the television stations.
The recent claims against ACM staff have been made by several detainees who witnessed the events. I have the personal details of the key detainees involved in the matter, which I am happy to provide to you on a confidential basis.
I do not condone any of the violence, but I do believe it is very important in the interests of justice and fairness to determine what happened in this instance. In my view, the Minister's release of selected videos of the events, and his subsequent commentary, have totally prejudiced any fair assessment, and any subsequent trial for the asylum-seekers should they be charged with offences. Leaving aside the unfair consequences of the Minister's acion in his releasing of the videos and making of his statements, I find it very difficult for ACM's account of events to be believed in the light of of their previous behaviour.
I am referring here to the revelations with respect to the so-called riot in Port Hedland on 20 January of this year. At that time, the Miister made similar condemnatory statements of refugees and refused to accept any account which suggested that the asylum-seekers may have been provoked. Yet on 26 April, an ACM guard at Port Hedland pleaded guilty to twice bashing a detainee on 19 January. - the night before 120 detainees engaged in violent actions, obnviouly in direct response to this bashing. The fact that this ACM guard has been convicted with two counts of occasioning bodily harm clearly shows that the asylum-seekers acted only when provoked by the 'guards'. It is my view, from the information that I have received, that his recent incident was also based on an illegal bashing of a refugee claimant, and the consequent provocation of the rest of the asylum-seekers who are living in extremely tense and tough circumstances.
The January bashing that provoked the so-called riot at that time, were illegal and represented a gross abuse of human rights of refugee claimants. These bashings come on top of other human rights abuses which you have identified in your earlier report on IDCs. The attempt to describe the incident in January as an isolated action by one individual is incorrect. It now appears that a further bashing has provoked this round of violent disturbances. I believe that an investigation is therefore warranted as a matter of urgency, and I ask you to carry out your independent statutary responsibility, and initiate such an inquiry immediately.
For a number of years, I have followed closely the fate of our refugee claimants, especially those in detention. I would not be asking for this enquiry if I were not convinced that the three incidents at Port Hedland represent an exploding volcano which is a consequence of the terrible conditions that the refugees are suffering under in these centres and their treatment by the ACM. It is imperative that the Australian public receive an objective report as to:
- the underlying causes of the grievances of refugees;
- the immediate causes which provoked the violent actions of the refugee claimants on those three occasions, including allegations of brutality of ACM officers; and
- an objective account of the actual incidents that took place, rather than the one-sided picture presented by the Department and ACM.
Could you please inform me as soon as possible as to your intentions in this matter.
Yours sincerely,
Hon Dr Andrew Theophanous MP
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Greens Resolution on the refugee issue
Posted by Chris Chaplin, Refugee Spokesperson,The Australian Greens (Victoria)
At the Global Greens Conference held in Canberra over Easter, Greens parties from 70 countries around the world adopted an historic Global Charter which included the following clause under the Human Rights section:
"[The Greens] Call for governments to ensure that all asylum-seekers are treated in accordance with the 1951 Geneva Convention on the Rights to Asylum; have access to fair processes; are not arbitrarily detained; and are not returned to a country where they might suffer violations of their fundamental human rights, or face the risk of death, torture, or other inhuman treatment."
As part of the Conference, I attended a refugee workshop convened by Eleisha Mullane (who is currently working in Senator Bob Brown's office researching the refugee issue). There was a wealth of talent and experience represented in this workshop, including a Greens member of the German parliament and a parliamentary staff member from Sweden, plus several Australians working directly with refugees. We had a very worthwhile exchange of information, and it's clear that the German model is one we would do well to consider here in Australia, rather than the Swedish model Ruddock that has looked at and which is more like our own.
In Australia, of course, we have mandatory detention in remote concentration camps in the desert; denial of a whole range of legal rights; treatment of prisoners that would not be allowed in our mainstream (criminal) jails; immediate repatriation where arrivals do not specify that they are applying for asylum (even when they may not understand that this is what they need to say); and a two-tier system where those granted refugee status are punished for having arrived without authorisation, by being limited to a 3-year "Temporary Protection Visa" which denies them access to language classes, provides almost no support in accessing permanent housing, and prevents them from applying to bring out their partner or children under the family reunification program.
In Germany, on the other hand, they have about 70,000 unauthorised arrivals each year (compared to less than 5,000 per year in Australia). Asylum-seekers are allowed to remain in the community and are given many of the rights of residents, including access to government benefits at the rate of 80% of full entitlement, and the right to work. Those whose refugee applications are unsuccessful are not returned to their country if that country is deemed a risk; they are allowed to remain in the community and can apply for temporary residence permits every 3 months, entitling them to work and receive benefits.
On the down side, it's clear that while intra-European borders are opening up, external borders are closing, creating a "Fortress Europe". At the same time, the onus for weeding out unauthorised arrivals is being shifted away from the borders back to the place of departure, further limiting the ability of refugees to seek asylum. The carriers (eg, airline companies) now face not just the cost of repatriation for those arriving without proper or valid documentation but also a hefty fine.
There's no doubt that while Australia's treatment of refugees is the worst in the developed world, other Western governments in their desperate search for solutions to the refugee crisis are looking carefully at the Australian model. It's therefore even more critical for us to force the Australian government to change its approach.
The workshop was not nearly long enough (we agreed that we could have an international conference just on the refugee topic alone!), but we did manage to come up with the following resolution:
"The Refugee Workshop of the Global Greens Conference 2001:
- acknowledges that the term "refugee", in addition to its definition under the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, also applies to individuals, families and communities who are displaced for reasons of hunger, poverty, war, political oppression, environmental degradation, and other forms of direct or indirect denial of their basic human rights, and that this forced movement of people is an inevitable result of the inequitable control and distribution of global wealth and resources;
- calls for governments to treat all unauthorised arrivals as refugees;
- calls for governments to shift from mandatory and punitive systems of processing refugees, to a humane, supportive, community-based approach."
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Why people flee Iran
On Wed, 11 Apr 2001 12:45:23 +0100 ifir wrote:
To hear Maryam Namazie's live interview on Maryam Ayoobi's imminent stoning
to death in the Islamic Republic of Iran and reasons for flight of Iranian
asylum seekers on Australia's ABC TV's Lateline, please go to
www.abc.net.au/lateline.
Maryam Namazie, Executive Director
International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR)
PO Box 27236, London N11, England
Tel: +44 773 0107 337
Fax: +44 208 813 9734
E-mail: [email protected]
Web Site: www.hambastegi.org
Saturday Radio Program: www.radio-international.org
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More about Mohammed Dawood
Posted by Asem Judeh of the Palestinian Refugee and Exile Awareness Association(PREA) to refugeeaction 13 April:
Dear all,
"What can you do for me?"
"I want to get out of that room"
"Freedom, I want freedom"
"Can you ask the Christian people to get me out of that room?"
The above words for the young Palestinian refugee detainee Mohammed Dawood at Maribyrnong Detention Centre, Victoria, to an Australian Christian women had the chance to visit him last month.
Mohammed Dawood was in isolation room for more than seven months.
If you think Howard/Beazley inhumane treatment to the Asylum Seekers and DIMA's discrimination against Palestinian refugees unfair, we urge you to write/contact:
- The media;
- The Immigration Minister;
- Your local MP's and your State Senator
For more details and stories about DIMA's discrimination against Palestinian refugees' asylum seekers please do not hesitate to contact me on mobile 0415 802 780.
In peace,
Asem Judeh
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For your information:
This quote is from Philip Ruddock in September 1998,
in response to One Nation calling for temporary visas
for refugees - he describes how unjust that would be:
"From amongst the almost 30 million refugees and
displaced people around the world, Australia accepts a
very small number. What it means, of course, is those
people chosen by Australia, not only satisfy the
criteria, but are judged as having no prospect of
returning home, no prospect of staying where they are,
and for whom resettlement is the only viable option."
"What One Nation would be saying is that they have no
place in Australia. They are only to be here
temporarily. But if you've chosen correctly, the
people you bring in are likely to have been tortured,
traumatised, and in need of support for rebuilding a
new life. Can you imagine what temporary entry would
mean for them? It would mean that people would never
know whether they were able to remain here. There
would be uncertainty, particularly in terms of the
attention given to learning English, and in addressing
the torture and trauma so they are healed from some of
the tremendous physical and psychological wounds they
have suffered. So, I regard One Nation's approach as
being highly unconscionable in a way that most
thinking people would clearly reject ... The fact is
that when you have a minor party saying 'our agenda is
to do something totally unacceptable and quite
extreme,' for them to be able to run that agenda flies
in the face of how our political system works."
A few months later Ruddock implemented the One Nation
policy, setting up Temporary Protection Visas, which
all successful asylum seekers arriving in Australia
without valid visas receive. The TPV's are for 3
years, with limited rights to services and no right to
family reunion, causing untold suffering to hundreds
of people, all of whom have proved their case as
genuine refugees.
Source: Southern Cross Online
http://www.anglicanmediasydney.asn.au/September/features1.html
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Payout to jailed asylum seekers
Hello friends,
Tony Dewberry just sent me this article. It's from the British "Guardian".
John Tully.
***
Payout to jailed asylum seekers
�80,000 award could lead to avalanche of claims
Clare Dyer, legal correspondent
Society
Wednesday March 14, 2001
Two asylum seekers who each spent three months in prison after being
convicted of travelling on forged passports have been awarded a total of
�80,000, in the first of a rash of claims which could cost the government
millions.
The Home Office faces a barrage of compensation claims after the high
court
ruled in 1999 that prosecutions of asylum seekers for using false papers
breached Britain's obligations under the 1951 Geneva convention on the
status of refugees.
The court delivered a strong rebuke at the time to the home secretary,
Jack
Straw, and the crown prosecution service. Lord Justice Simon Brown said no
one in the criminal justice system had given "the least thought" to
article
31 of the convention, which states that asylum seekers should not be
penalised for entering a country illegally.
As a result, he said, many were in prison who should not be there. The
married couple, who each received �40,000, have asked not to be
identified.
The husband, 29, and the wife, 22, left Albania just before Christmas in
1998 intending to travel via Heathrow to Canada.
They were stopped, like most of those prosecuted, by airline passport
checkers rather than immigration officials, and turned over to the police.
They were taken to court the next day and advised to plead guilty by a
duty
solicitor because they had no defence to the charge. They were convicted
and
sentenced to six months in prison, of which they served three.
Their solicitor, Fiona Lindsley, from the London law firm Birnberg Peirce&
partners, said the couple were "overwhelmed and delighted" by their award.
The payment will come from the Home Office ex gratia compensation scheme,
which pays out in cases of serious default, and in miscarriage of justice
cases where the accused person has been completely exonerated.
Ms Lindsley said her claim on the husband's behalf had emphasised the
horrors of Wormwood Scrubs prison in west London, where he served his
sentence, drawing on official reports. The wife spent her term at Holloway
prison in north London.
The couple have since been accepted as genuine refugees and granted
permission to stay in Britain indefinitely.
Ms Lindsley said she was dealing with around 10 cases, some involving
compensation worth considerably more because there was evidence of severe
trauma. In one case, an asylum seeker from Iran had pictures to show he
was
sent to prison with still unhealed sores from whipping.
Lawyers had expected an award of �10,000 for a typical case. Between 500
and
1,000 are thought to have been prosecuted each year between 1994, when
prosecutions were stepped up, and the judgment in 1999. Most sentences
were
for six months, some were nine months, and a few 12 months.
Ms Lindsley said Amnesty International argued in a 1996 report that the
prosecutions breached the convention.
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From Simon O'Neill, posted to RAC-news 19 March
ABC
Author slams Australia's treatment of asylum seekers
The Author of a book, launched in Adelaide, claims successive Australian
Governments have discriminated against the so-called 'boat people' from Asia
and the Middle East.
In his book, "Asylum Seekers: Australia's Response to Refugees", Dr Don
McMaster criticises Australia's policy of incarcerating some asylum seekers
while treating people who overstay tourist and business visas with leniency.
Dr McMaster says the United Nations has recognised Australia's violation of
human rights, which he believes will take a massive swing to reverse.
Dr McMaster says his work began in 1993 when he was alerted to an Amnesty
International report on the issue.
"I was appalled that... as a so called civilized country, that we could be
treating a group of people, and they are a very small group of people, and
yet we treat them, we treat them so abysmally," he said.
"I am appalled by that and I am sorry to say that actually since 1993 things
have not changed a great deal."
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From Chris Chaplin, posted to [email protected]
TO: friends, family, comrades.
About 5000 refugees cross into Pakistan EACH DAY. Australia, a vastly
wealthier country, feels "overwhelmed" by less than that number arriving
without papers in the last TWO YEARS. Read on, for a description of the
misery our nation is so loathe to end, and back to which Ruddock is so
eager to deport those Afghanis who make it to our shores.
Chris
The Guardian Weekly
1-3-2001, page 28
Washington Post
A million Afghans refugees threatened by famine
Pamela Constable in New Delhi
Nearly three-quarters of a million displaced Afghans are struggling to
survive freezing temperatures in refugee camps with scarce supplies in
various parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, prompting the United Nations
to warn that many face imminent death unless drastic steps are taken to
alleviate their misery.
An estimated 500,000 homeless people are huddled in frozen camps in
western and northern Afghanistan, according to U.N. officials. Another
180,000 have crossed into Pakistan, where many are housed in camps in
that country's rugged northwest. In addition, relief officials say, an
unknown number of other Afghans may be wandering their country without
food or shelter, or struggling with the effects of drought and economic
hardship at home.
"We believe at least 1 million people are at risk of famine," Kenzo
Oshima, undersecretary general in charge of the U.N. humanitarian
affairs office, said last week in Geneva after he returned from touring
camps for displaced people in Afghanistan. "I saw a sea of people
living in unbelievable misery."
Oshima said international assistance to the refugees was urgent and the
situation "threatens to become a major humanitarian catastrophe." In
one camp in the western Afghan city of Herat, he said, he saw a
graveyard "full of small, new graves of children."
The refugees' plight has been caused partly by a severe drought that has
affected Afghanistan for the past year, killing large herds of cattle
and sheep and rendering vast areas of cropland unusable, especially in
the dry southern regions. At the same time, a protracted civil war
between Afghanistan's ruling Islamic militia, the Taliban, and
opposition forces based in north-western and central Afghanistan has
driven hundreds of thousands of people from the north, where fighting
and bombing have destroyed hundreds of villages.
In the past months, nearly 80,000 people have reached the Herat area,
where they are huddled in six camps under makeshift tents with little to
eat. Temperatures have fallen below zero on some nights, and U.N.
officials estimate that about 150 people, mostly children, have died
from cold.
"Unless more food and aid can be delivered to remote villages, I expect
the total number of displaced persons [in Herat] may go beyond 100,000
this spring," said Hans-Christian Poulsen, the United Nations' regional
coordinator for western Afghanistan.>
In north and central Afghanistan, tens of thousands of people are living
in camps in areas controlled by the Northern Alliance, the armed group
that opposes the Taliban. Some have tried to flee north to Tajikistan
but have been turned back, and about 12,000 are stranded on two islands
in a river that divides the neighbouring countries. The United Nations
is providing food and shelter to the refugees, but the Tajik government
refuses to let them cross the border. "They feel if they let these
refugees in, there could be another 150,000 close behind," the U.N.
official said. "It would be taking the cork out of the bottle."
Refugees who have reached camps inside Pakistan are in relatively better
conditions, but 15 children died there from the cold recently. With
about 700 people still crossing the border daily, officials from U.N.
refugee and food programs said they are reaching the limits of their
supplies of food, tents and other emergency needs, while aid from
foreign donors has dropped sharply.
Last month the U.N. Security Council imposed new economic sanctions on
the Taliban, which included an arms embargo and limits on the travel and
foreign missions of its officials. The U.N. has demanded that the
Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi fugitive and Islamic
radical whom U.S. officials accuse of masterminding foreign bombings,
but it has refused.
Taliban officials have protested that the sanctions are inflicting
further hardship on the general populace at a time of great need. But
U.N. officials said they were aimed only at the government, while the
U.N. humanitarian arm is providing food, shelter and medicine for
hundreds of thousands of Afghans.
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The following was posted to the vicwto maillist by Alan Griffiths.
And Ruddock tells us that refugees are simply seeking economic prosperity!
Chris
WTO Activist ([email protected]) Posted: 02/25/2001 By
[email protected]
Ansar Burney condemned execution of innocent women by hanging in
Afghanistan:
KARACHI, Pakistan: The renowned human and civil rights
activist Ansar Burney, Advocate has strongly condemned
the barbaric attitude of the Taliban authorities against
women in the name of Islam in Afghanistan.
Ansar Burney, Chairman 'Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International'
said that in a recent act by the Taliban in which they publicly
hanged two young Afghan women, Shagufta and Waseela on the alleged charges
of adultery, without giving them any chance of defence is intolerable and
mount to be an international crime.
"These two married women were publicly executed by hanging till
death on Friday 23rd February after Friday prayers at Footbal
Stadium in Kandahar. While two other unknown women received
publicly 39 lashes each and ten years imprisonment", He said.
He said before execution, these young women were crying and
shouting for help while declaring themselves innocent on oath.
According to information received from Afghanistan, the women
were hung till death, protesting their innocence till they no
longer could. The hanging took longer than usual, creating more suffering
for the dying women.
He said nine men were also whipped before a public crowd in the
same place. The convicted Afghan men who were flogged identified
as Mohammad Nabi, Akhtar Mohammad, Gul Ahmad, Abdul Salam, Abdul
Jabbar, Mohammad Anwar, Abdul Jalil, Faqir and Sher Mohammad.
"Women were convicted to death sentence by Maulana Abdul Ali of
Kandahar High Court", Ansar Burney added.
END. http://www.ansarburney.org
**************************************************
ANSAR BURNEY WELFARE TRUST INTERNATIONAL
Website: http://www.ansarburney.org
**************************************************
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----- Original Message ----- From: Chris Chaplin
To: Refact ; Refugee Action
Cc: AG Activist list ; vicwto
Sent: Saturday, February 03, 2001 12:58 AM
Subject: [refugeeaction]
Disease-laden refugees, warns Ruddock
Ruddock proves that he's a consummate propagandist.
Clever Trick #1: Six asylum-seekers have typhoid, so Ruddock uses this as an argument for detaining all legitimate refugees until they're proven free of disease. Applying the same logic to non-refugees, we should have Australian tourists put into mandatory detention as soon as they step off a plane returning from India and Asia, as this is where most of the hundred filthy nasty Aussies bring typhoid into our white-king-sacred land each year.
Clever Trick #2: Ruddock returns from Sweden after public pressure forced him to investigate that country's more humanitarian asylum-seeker detention model, and now explains to eager journos that Sweden is looking to Australia to lead them and the rest of the world out of their slavish devotion to human rights and international refugee conventions.
For his salutary example of staunch leadership in the face of logic, and his tenacity in defending our nation's basest traits of racism and living-standard protectionism, I nominate Ruddock for the inaugural "Robert Hill" (an award named in honour of the legendary Australian senator, who managed to get the Kyoto greenhouse summit to reward the world's most polluting nation [per capita] with a licence to increase our rate of pollution and to burn ancient native forests as "renewable" energy).
Apologies for X-postings....
Chris
* PS - note the sensationalist header The Age uses for its refugee articles. But perhaps "tide" isn't strong enough - after all, tides have their ebb. I think the Age should say what it really means, and call it "Immigration: The Stinking Third-World Deluge". Or how about that old favourite, "Invasion of the Yellow Peril". Now THAT should sell more papers.
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Hello all,
i got the following email from the "Free the Refugees Campaign" email list,
which is a Sydney based activist group. Thought you'd be interested.
yours in solidarity,
arun
----------
From: paul.benedek
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Free-the-Refugees-Campaign] The facts of the Port Hedland events
Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2001 9:45 AM
The following illuminating report was compiled on 25-1-2001 by Zainab, from
the International federation of Iraqi refugees, and a part of the Free the
Refugees Campaign...
The facts of the Port Hedland events
The Port Hedland events started after about 47 detainees from Woomera
Detention Center were moved to Port Hedland. According to information
provided by phone by a Port Hedland detainee, one of the transferred
detainees was cruelly beaten in front of Port Hedland Detainees.
The detainee who phoned added that 6 Port Hedland detainees couldn't accept
this attack, and raised objections to the beating.
The guards took those that complained to the prison directly. That sparked
protest amongst all the detainees, clashes with the guards, and ultimately
the detainees took control of the detention center.
Police came in big numbers to quell the protest. They took 48 detainees to
prison, & forced the rest to their rooms and locked the doors.
The detainee who rang said that security only opened the doors after 3 days
- and only then could detainees contact the outside world and try to let
people know what happened.
The detainee also reported that the 48 detainees who are in prison are,
until now (25 Jan), on a hunger strike.
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Reposted from [email protected]
Hi all,
Amazingly, the Swedish model continues to draw
interest, especially after the letter to the editor
this week, with main Immigration Researcher for the
Parliamentarian Library in Canberra contacting me
saying she has been inundated with requests from
politicians wanted further information, particulary on
the source saying that refugees and asylum seekers in
Sweden have contributed to the Swedish economy and
haven't increased crime or welfare dependency. The
source for anyone who needs it is: "Economic
Perspectives on immigration and
intergenerational transmissions", Torun �sterberg,
Gothenburg University, October 2000.
DIMA also contacted me today saying they want more
information and the Australian are planning a complete
look at the approach.
To add to the momentum of this, Charlie Ocampo of the
NCCA and I are hoping to run a forum late March to
look at alternatives to detention (or alternative
approaches). We will have a panel, asking a range of
people to present a paper, inviting the media, from
which we hope to formulate a position paper
representing a range of organisations. We expect
parliament to be discussing any changes of law
required to release women and children at around the
same time, so it should be quite timely. This will be
held in Melbourne. Please let Charlie or myself know
if you would like to contribute in some capacity.
cheers
Grant
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Seeking shelter in an inhospitable land
Peter Mares on violence in Australia's detention centres
[Following is the text of an article published in the Review section of
the
Australian Financial Review on Friday, 8th June 2001. (The text is slightly
different from the printed version, but was provided by the author and published with permission.) ]
On Saturday May 26th, at around 5.30 am in the morning, 170 officers
armed
with guns, batons and shields conducted a raid on the Port Hedland
immigration detention centre. The officers came variously from the
state
and federal police, from the Australian Protective Service and from
Australasian Correctional Management (ACM), the private company that
runs
the detention centre. According to the detainees, the officers burst
into a
room where people were kneeling on the ground in prayer, they roused
people
from their sleep, and interrupted them in the midst of washing and
dressing. The purpose of the raid was to arrest 22 people accused of
taking part in a riot at the detention centre earlier in the month. The
immigration Minister defended the scale of the action, saying it was
necessary to have "sufficient personnel to be able to handle the
situation". His officers pointed to the discovery of what the media
called
'a cache of weapons', including, it was alleged, a garrotte fashioned
from
a guitar string, sharpened sticks, and concealed razor blades.
The Pt Hedland raid is the latest disquieting episode in the sorry
history
of Australia's immigration detention centres. In the past five months
there
have been five serious outbreaks of unrest. On the 21st of January,
180
detainees were involved in a riot at Pt Hedland. Capsicum spray was
used to
quell the disturbance and police were hit with bricks and steel pipes.
Six
days later, 300 detainees are involved in a riot at the Curtin
detention
centre near Derby in WA. The riot did not become public for four days
and
was only revealed after a federal human rights committee visited the
detention centre. On March 29th, 60 detainees were involved in a riot
at
Pt Hedland Detention Centre and on April 4th, another riot broke out at
Curtin. Demountable buildings were set alight, fences pulled down and
ACM
guards use tear gas and batons to regain control. On May the 11th,
around
100 detainees rioted at Pt Hedland. Four detention centre officers
were
injured and one ended up in hospital.
One take on the rioting would be to conclude that the asylum seekers
detained in Curtin and Pt Hedland really are dangerous criminal
elements
who pose a threat to the security of Australian society. This is likely
to
be the dominant public perception. The riots will be seen as graphic
proof
of why the policy of mandatory detention is necessary. The violence
reinforces the sense of fear attached to people who arrive in this
country
uninvited, especially those who come by boat. An alternative view, is
that
the frequency of violence in Australia's detention centres shows that
the
system itself is seriously flawed.
In each case of unrest, only a minority of the detainee population was
involved. The recent statistical record shows that the majority of
asylum
seekers detained in Australia are likely to be recognised as refugees
under
the 1951 Convention and released into the community, after detailed
background and character checks carried out by federal government
agencies
including ASIO. In other words, most people passing through Australia's
detention centres are fleeing persecution and most are of good
character.
It is also important to note that while those involved in the violence
are
usually young men, there are also women and children locked up in the
detention centres. That means women and children are being placed in a
situation where serious violence is, on the basis of the past five
months,
likely to break out. A situation where - if the Immigration Department
is
to be believed - caches of weapons are being stockpiled. A situation of
considerable risk and great stress. 900 children passed through
Australia's
immigration detention centres last year. 30 of them were detained for
more
than twelve months.
The Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural
Affairs
Bill Farmer has told a Senate Committee Australia's detention centres
are
becoming increasingly violent because of the growing proportion of
detainees who have had their applications for refugee status rejected.
Mr
Farmer said that around one in three detainees are now in this
category. In
theory these 'failed' asylum seekers are awaiting removal from
Australia;
in practice many of them face indefinite detention because there is
nowhere
for Australia to send them. Australia has agreements with some
countries,
like China, to return nationals who arrive here without authorisation,
but
such arrangements are largely lacking in the Middle East. It is hardly
surprising that these detainees feel - in Mr Farmer's words - that they
have "nothing to lose".
This is no excuse violent attacks, riots and arson. Detainees who have
committed criminal acts should be prosecuted. Properly constituted
legal
proceedings can also help to clarify what actually took place in each
of
these incidents and why detainees were moved to violence in the first
place. Court hearings can help to lift the veil of secrecy that
surrounds
the detention centres. Currently we must fumble for the truth amidst
official pronouncements from the Immigration Department and the
alarming
snippets of information that filter out from detainees themselves. The
lack of transparency in the detention system prevents us from knowing
the
circumstances behind each outbreak of unrest but the information that
is
available adds weight to the view that the problems lie with the system
itself. We do know for example, that the most recent violence in Pt
Hedland on May 11th was sparked when an Iranian teenager resisted ACM
officers who were attempting to move him, along with four other men, to
the
police lockup. What happened next is disputed. According to one
account,
the Iranian youth was beaten by guards wielding batons, even though he
was
handcuffed. The Minister's office denies this and says that that the
riot
began because "someone had started screaming that officers were beating
them". In other words, a deliberate false alarm. It is hard to believe
that guards would beat a handcuffed detainee. However we know that this
is
exactly what happened in January, when an officer twice beat a detainee
with a baton on the arms, legs and body. During the first attack the
detainee was being held by other guards. During the second attack, he
was
hand-cuffed to a bed. The officer was the centre's operations manager,
effectively second in charge at Pt Hedland. He pleaded guilty to the
attack
and was given a suspended sentence, on the basis that his actions were
out
of character and brought about by stress. According to his lawyer the
officer had made repeated unsuccessful requests to management for
additional workers, psychological support and emergency equipment.
This incident occurred directly before the January 21st riot in Pt
Hedland
and was probably the catalyst for that unrest. After the riot the
Minister
called for greater powers for detention centre officers. He wanted to
make
it easier to use sedatives - or chemical restraints - to control
threatening behaviour by detainees and he wanted to give ACM officers
the
power to conduct strip searches, including searches of children as
young as
ten years old. It is a disturbing sequence of events. An officer
brutally
bashes a detainee, other detainees riot and the Minister's solution
is to
give the officers even more untrammelled power.
After viewing video footage of the most recent Pt Hedland riot the
immigration Minister described it as "quite horrific", but evidence
presented to the Flood Inquiry - commissioned by the Minister after
allegations of child sexual abuse at Woomera - shows that detainees are
far
more likely to inflict violence on themselves than they are to attack
detention centre officers. The evidence came in the form of statistics
compiled by the Commonwealth Ombudsman, summarising ACM incident
reports
from the detention centres between October 1999 and November 2000. The
Commonwealth Ombudsman sorted these reports into different categories,
and
the summary reveals that during the 12 month period studied, there were
121
reported incidents of actual or threatened self harm in Australia's
six
immigration detention centres (Woomera, Curtin, Pt Hedland, Villawood,
Maribyrnong and Perth). In other words, an average of ten such
incidents
per month. In addition, ACM reported a total of 68 hunger strikes in
detention. These statistics show that detainees are more likely to turn
their anger and frustration on themselves, than to assault or threaten
to
assault detention centre staff (43 such incidents were reported in the
same period).
Only rarely does news of incidents of self-harm filter through to the
outside world, as when detainees stitched their mouths together as
part of
a hunger strike at the Curtin detention centre in February last year.
But
we know from court evidence that one of the factors that had stressed
the
detention centre officer found guilty of bashing a detainee at Pt
Hedland
in January was the threat of a mass suicide by an entire family. This
may
be the same Iraqi family that was split up as a result of the arrests
made
during the Saturday May 26th raid at Pt Hedland. The father and mother
were
remanded in Roebourne prison, their two teenage boys were sent to a
juvenile detention centre in Perth, while a six year old daughter and
an
eleven year old son were left in the care of other detainees at Pt
Hedland.
We know - because it was part of the evidence used to oppose bail for
the
family - that the family had threatened to commit suicide and that the
15-year-old son has a history of self-harm.
Anyone familiar with the detention centres can tell other shocking
tales of
desperate acts, such as the 17 year old boy from Iraq who attempted to
slit
his throat after being detained at Maribyrnong in Melbourne for
fourteen
months. Or the Sri Lankan youth who set his hair on fire with lighter
fluid
from a cigarette lighter. Or the Iranian man who, fearful of being
sent
back to his homeland, stuck his hand in an electric toaster, in a
futile
attempt to erase his fingerprints and obscure his identity.
On April 2nd we witnessed the much more public act of self harm by
Shahraz
Kayani, who set himself on fire outside parliament house in Canberra
and
died several weeks later from his injuries.
Mr Kayani was an Australian citizen who originally came here as a
refugee
from Pakistan six years ago. His case raises many of the problems
inherent
Australia's current treatment of asylum seekers and refugees. Above
all, it
exposes the myth of the queue jumper. This image, employed frequently
by
the Minister, suggests a remarkable degree of order in world affairs.
It
paints a picture of refugees waiting meekly in line for their turn to
be
resettled in safe countries.
My Kayani had been waiting in line for six years to bring his immediate
family to join him in Australia. His applications had twice been
rejected
by the Immigration Department because one of his daughters suffers from
cerebral palsy, and was assessed as likely to place too great a
financial
drain on the Australian health system. Mr Kayani applied to bring his
family to Australia under the humanitarian component of Australia's
immigration intake, but the Minister now says the Mr Kayani should have
applied under the family program, a different stream within the system.
According to the family's spokesman however, no one ever told Mr Kayani
this. No one told him that his application would have more chance of
success if it were submitted under a different category (a category
where
the family, rather than the government, would have picked up the tab
for
his daughter's initial medical bills). It seems rather odd, if not
disingenuous, for the Minister to suggest, retrospectively, that Mr
Kayani
had applied under the incorrect category. One of the specific
intentions of
the humanitarian program is to re-unite refugees already in Australia
with
their relatives oversees. The so-called 'split family' category - to
which
Mr Kayani applied - is designed for people in exactly his situation;
people
granted permanent protection in Australia as refugees who are separated
from their immediate family. So Mr Kayani was standing in the right
line,
but he had run up against an invisible barrier, impossible to pass for
a
girl like his daughter.
Mr Kayani's tragic act of self-immolation outside parliament house also
sounds a warning on the government's recent introduction of temporary
protection visas. The situation that caused Shahraz Kayani such
emotional
agony - living as a refugee in Australia, but separated from his
immediate
family - is now replicated by hundreds of people who have been
released
from immigration detention centres over the past year. These people
have
been recognised as refugees in danger of persecution in their homeland,
but
under the visa changes introduced in October 1999, have only been
granted
temporary protection in Australia. This means that they cannot even
begin
the process of applying to have family join them here for at least
three
years. Given that the process, when successful, usually takes two
years,
this means that they will be kept separate from their families for at
least
five years.
The violence in the detention centres and the tragedy of Mr Kayani's
fiery
suicide call for considered debate about the direction of Australia's
policy on refugees and asylum seekers. There are no simple answers, but
the
evidence that we have got it wrong continues to mount.
Peter Mares presents 'Asia Pacific' on Radio Australia and Radio
National
and is the author of 'Borderline: Australia's treatment of refugees and
asylum seekers' (UNSW Press $29.95)
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An eyewitness of the events at Woomera last year
Reposted from [email protected];
I was at the Woomera Immigration Reception and Processing Centre at the
time of the mass escape in June and also during the demonstrations, fires
and rioting in August. These two events attracted some media attention, but
they were actually high points along a whole series of protests inside the
centre. There were individual protests, hunger strikes, and many suicide
attempts, and they all seemed to be inappropriately dealt with.
In June, daily protests had been growing because at that stage, not
one detainee from Woomera had received a visa. There was no evidence of any
progress on even the most clear-cut of cases, and there were rumours around
the detainee population that no-one would be released before the Olympics.
So, in the afternoons, several hundred detainees would begin marching around
the compound, chanting "We want Freedom".
ACM responded in the way they would respond to a protest in prisons;
they videotaped the protests and then arrested the alleged leaders and
removed them to Sierra (Secure) Compound. This policy is especially
threatening to people from the Middle East becuase in these regions, if you
are arrested, you very rarely return. To see their loved ones and friends
arrested is terrifying for these people, but the officers often say the
women are 'hysterical' and the men are 'going off again'. So, the extraction
of the 'trouble-makers' only provoked the detainees more, and they staged a
sit-in at the far fence of the compound late in the evening. A meeting was
held right up against the outer fence, and while speeches were given,
several young men sawed through the mesh with home-made hacksaws. Then
12:30am, the group jumped to their feet and ran across the compound to the
fence with India Compound, which contained detainees that had been isolated.
They threw mattresses and blankets up onto the razor wire, and pulle The
Centre Emergency Response Team raced ahead of them in a ute and tried to
turn them back with batons, but the officers were outnumbered by around 300
men, women and children. 1100 stayed inside the fence, but the others
marched 3 kilometres right into Woomera at 1 in the morning. They stopped
and sat down in the square in the centre of town, and were surrounded by the
officers once they had caught up.
All morning special squads were flown in from ACM prisons and
detention centres around the country, and then around midday, another
protest march inside the centre began shaking the five metre razor wire
fence, and when a news camera was spotted outside the fence, they re-opened
the hole made during the night, and another 250 detainees climbed through.
Only a skeleton staff was at the centre because they were all deployed in
the town, and so the officers merely drove in front of the second group as
there
had been a mass escape from Curtin detention centre at Derby, WA when they
had heard about the Woomera escape on TV, and there was also a walk-out at
Port Headland.
During the night when the first group escaped, unrest in Sierra
Compound heated up into a brawl between a few detainees and the officers,
who retreated and abandoned the compound. Sierra was used at the time for
punishment and isolation, not yet for legal 'screen-outs'. ACM management
was planning to put all the escapees in Sierra, and wanted to have it
cleared before they returned, so in the afternoon they prepared to use gas
for the first time in an Australian detention centre. ACM had only
previously used gas to quell unrest in the Junee and Arthur Gorrie
(Brisbane) prisons. Instead, two riot squads moved into the compound, and
they put everyone on the ground with baton blows to the back of the knee,
including many who had not been involved in the brawl.
For the rest of the afternoon and into the evening the escapees
stayed in the town square, negotiating their demands with the DIMA
officials. They were asking for the Minister for Immigration to come to meet
with them and to tell them some reliable information about their cases. Many
of these people had arrived on Ashmore Reef and Christmas Island in October
99, and so by now they had been in detention for up to 8 months. Many had
been to all three of their visa application interviews, but some had only
been called for one interview. The escapee group refused to return to the
camp, and stayed overnight in the near-freezing conditions. Only the
children were allowed to have a meal.
In the morning the local priest invited them to move to the
churchyard, which was back along the street leading out of town, and so the
group moved out of the squaree. After being told they would only be fed if
they returned to the compound, and assured they would not be locked in the
Sierra Compound,a group of several hundred marched back to the centre. The
rest of the escapee detainees were told that the Minister would be coming to
Woomera within two weeks, and so into the evening groups of people walked
and were driven by mini-bus back to the Centre for dinner.
The mass escape was the most serious crisis in ACMs history, and could
have been easily averted if they had been prepared to engage with the many
delegates and avenues of communication established with the detainee
population, instead of just arresting those seen as organising any protests.
The same policy was the catalyst for the next round of unrest 3 months
later, as well as to this week's disturbance in the Port Headland centre.
Each time, there has been dissatisfaction and frustration with the detention
bureaucracy, and there have been individual detainees speaking up and
questioning the detention policies. ACM continue to assume that the system
is working, and that it is 'troublemakers' who are organising protests, and
so they still perform extractions and isolate any alleged troublemakers.
In late August, a communique was distributed to the staff that trouble
was expected for Refugee Sunday, which had been organised by the Council of
Churches to highlight the situation for refugees both abroad, and once they
made it to Australia. Protests had been building again, largely organised by
women and families to object to the children still being kept in detention
while many single men were being released. Protests were taking many forms,
from boycotts of the school and kindergarten, to hunger strikes and suicide
attempts. The regular releases that had began in June and July of around 80
people a week had slowed to only 15 a week in August, and once again rumours
abounded in the camp that no more would be released before the Olympics.
A large protest march was organised at Villawood in Sydney, and other
demonstrations were held by student, refugee and religious groups outside
the other five detention centres around the country. Extra security was
flown in, and many detainees were saying the [...]
On Friday there was a
large march around the compound, involving many families, and this was
videotaped by ACM officers. The alleged 'trouble-makers' were identified
from the video, and on Saturday evening moves were made to arrest the small
group blamed for the protests. ACM interpreters attempted to convince
management to wait until after Refugee Sunday to make the extractions,
knowing it would be provocative, but the officers went in to the compound
with the handcuffs late on Saturday night. When one of the detainees started
shouting that he was being arrested, a crowd gathered and one of his friends
threw a stone at the officers. More CERT team officers came in riot gear,
and some more rocks were thrown, and then more officers came into the
compound, and a running battle ensued with the masked detainees. Around 2am
a large group began shaking the external fence, and a water cannon was
turned on them twice and they kept coming back to the fence. This was the
first time water cannon was used on Australia.
On Sunday morning there were
many red eyes at breakfast in the compound, and tensions ran very high with
the officers. Again they were reviewing video-tapes, and then at 4am on
Monday they went in again with riot squads to arrest two teenage boys, who
they allege were behind the violence. When the family realised what was
happening, they called out for help and a crowd gathered. Other young men
began to throw stones again at the officers, but the boys were carried away
out of the compound. Almost immediately, several of the detainees lit balls
of toilet paper under the two demountable mess buildings, and these very
quickly were well alight. Stones were flying everywhere now, and the
officers charged in several times, but did not get close enough to put out
the fire. Next, the new empty school building was set alight, and then
several others, as the young boys began throwing long distance stones at the
officers and offices outside the compound. The Radio Control room,
Operations room and Medical Centre It was only a select group of angry
young men and boys throwing stones, and many more detainees stood back,
shaking their heads. Many of the young men were Iranian, Arabic and Kurdish,
who had been refused. The Kurds are allegedly protected by the UN no-fly
zones, and so Immigration does not accept that they are persecuted, and Iran
is not quite repressive enough to qualify as persecution, despite
discrimination against any who are not Shi'a Muslim.
When some of the boys lifted up the fence again the officers rushed
in to mend the hole and force them back with the water cannon, and this back
and forth continued many times through the afternoon. It was only when they
finally used delegates and negotiated that the situation simmered down, and
the officers returned to patrol inside the compound. The special riot teams
then enforced curfews for several days afterwards, with the entire camp
population confined inside for most of the day, while more extractions took
place. Around 30 young men identified from videos were bussed out to the
Adelaide Remand Centre, and then around 15 more were moved a few days later.
There is no right and wrong in a riot, law and justice dissolve in
such frustrated violence between private police and non-citizens, but some
of these men are still in prison for doing exactly what they were provoked
to do.
One of the main causes of the riots and fires in August 2000 was the
humiliation and frustration of bureaucratic detention in an untried system.
No other democratic country has used isolated gulags to perform one of the
most basic functions of the government of a country, processing the papers
for the people within the land. The principle behind Woomera is intended to
be 'bureaucratic detention', but this ends up meaning that detainees are
only ever referred to by their number. Each boat is assigned a prefix, POC,
RAP, NIM, DON, CAI, MUD etc, and then the individuals are numbered off from
LOC 1. DON 59 or LOC 127 becomes the number you say when ticked off at
mealtime checks, the number that you give to the medical staff, the number
that DIMA officials call you on and the number that the officers broadcast
over the PA system when they want anyone to come for an interview. Of course
it was possible to learn people's names, but the cold officiality of numbers
is easier for a rotating casual staff to remember. Many of the young men
who lashed out at the compound had been refused from their first interview,
and then had failed at the Refugee Review Tribunal. They receive
notification from their case officer and then receive a print-out of the
judgement, in English which is difficult for many to read. Their only other
avenue is a legal challenge which can only deal with any legal errors which
may have occured, otherwise they can only wait and think the worst. A week
or so after their reusal they are usually offered a chance to return to
their homeland, but of course most people have little chance of returning
safely to Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Palestine or Kurdistan, so they tend to
decline the offer. When it got to late August, many young men had been
holding their temper for too long, and had nothing left to lose.
Refugee Action Collective
SRC Sydney Australia
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From: Susan Varga
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2001 1:55 PM
Subject: [AusnewsMessage] 400 at Bowral meeting
RURAL AUSTRALIANS FOR REFUGEES - A CALL TO ACTION
The inaugural meeting in Bowral last night of Rural Australians for Refugees was an extraordinary event. Close to 400 people packed the Bowral Memorial Hall to listen to speakers and hear local candidates express their views on refugees and the war in Afghanistan. After the meeting dozens of people said it was the best meeting they had ever attended and said they felt heartened to hear an alternative, more compassionate view expressed on the plight of refugees.
Brigadier Adrain d'Hage, retired after thirty years of high level service in the army, and Head of Security at the 2000 Olympics, received a standing ovation for his views on refugees and the war:
"Whilst it is necessary to keep our borders secure - when there are no queues in Afghanistan - when there is no embassy - when the international situation has produced millions of people who who have sold everything they have to give their kids a chance - Mr Howard, Mr Beazley, take note - you don't have to do it this way. Most of them are precisely the sort of gutsy people this nation needs. And when Pakistan and Iran each take a million refugees and we don't reach our miniscule quota of 1200 and fill very few - if any - of the 400 "Women at Risk" places, we should not be surprised when decent people around the world are increasingly seeing Australians as compassionless, inward-looking and racist."
Mr David Bitel, President of the Refugee Council of Australia, and secretary-general of the Australian section of the International Commission of Jurists, drew historical parellels, citing the admirable behaviour of the Danish people in WW2 in saving the Jews of Demmark from annihilation by the Nazis. He called on Australians to show similar courage and compassion. He also exploded several current myths on asylum seekers. He stressed Australia's obligations under the UN Treaty on Refugees to take in and assess all asylum seekers, and debunked the notion that there is such a thing as an orderly queue in Afghinistan or Iraq, or for that matter, in Iran and Pakistan which each host (and fund on meagre resources) close to two million refugees apiece.
Ms Abeda Eqbal, a University student whose family fled Afghanistan some years ago, talked movingly of her family's experiences, praised Australia's diversity and mulitculturalism and made a plea for unity and tolerance.
A young Serbian refugee gave a riveting performance piece outlining his experience as a thirteen year old boy forced from his home.
Local Candidates were then questioned on their views. Liberal candidate Joanna Gash was notable by her absence. Labor candidate Jan Merriman was given marks for courage in attending but the Labor Party's views were met with scepticism bordering on hostility. There was a strong feeling in the audience that the two major parties had abandoned all principle in the refugee crisis and that their votes would flow to either Democrats or Greens.
The conveners of RAR - Rural Australians for Refugees - see this meeting as the beginning of a movement that will spread throughout Australia. "People in the cities do not have a monoply on informed compassion" one of RAR's convenors, Susan Varga said. "The time has come for an alternative voice to be heard."
Local veterinary surgeon Ken Davidson was applauded enthusiatically when he suggested that the the refugee "problem" could be solved if rural towns with a popuation of more than 5000 would each take in a refugee family. Various resources in the community would contribute to giving the family a new start.
RAR distributed a ten-point plan to the meeting as a basis for future action.
An open letter, signed by more than 600 Southern Highlands residents, protesting the Australian Government's policy, will shortly be published in the local newspaper.
RURAL AUSTRALIANS FOR REFUGEES CALL OTHER COUNTRY TOWNS TO ACTION. They cite an an Armidale group, Justice for Refugees, which recently held a very successful candlelight vigil for the 350 boat people drowned, and several other groups and individuals in country towns throughout Australia who have already contacted RAR.
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