Petitions etc

NATIONAL PETITION CALLING ON THE ALP TO END MANDATORY DETENTION AND TO GRANT ASYLUM SEEKERS FULL, PERMANENT RESIDENCY RIGHTS

Dear Mr Beazley
We note that current Australian Labor Party policy supporting mandatory detention of unauthorised arrivals contravenes the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the associated 1967 Protocol, as well as UN conventions on torture, the rights of the child, and civil and political rights. We note that Australia is a signatory to all these conventions.

The refugee convention unambiguously states that "contracting states shall not impose penalties, on account of their illegal entry or presence, on refugees who ... enter or present in their territory without authorisation". We call on the ALP to end all discrimination between asylum seekers who come here through the Special and Humanitarian Program and those who are forced to flee from persecution by whatever means is available and without authorisation.

We believe that mandatory detention and the system of temporary protection visas further traumatise people as well as stigmatising refugees as a problem and a burden. Current ALP policy suggests that the community has something to fear from people who are in detention. This suggestion is encouraging racist sentiments among some in the community.

We believe the Labor Party should recognise the contribution these people will make to Australian society by funding housing, language lessons, trauma counselling and other services that these migrants may need, instead of wasting millions of dollars on unnecessary incarceration.

We urge you to take a lead on the refugee issue by ending Labor's support for the policy of mandatory detention and returning Australia to full compliance with UN conventions and protocols.

Yours sincerely

You are welcome to photocopy and distribute the petition as widely as possible. For more copies or more information please call (02)9660-5222 and ask for the Refugee Action Collective. Please return all completed petition sheets to RAC, c/- PO Box A338, Sydney South NSW 1235.

Speech by Mohammed Aljanabi at Coburg 29 Sep 2001

Good afternoon. My name is Mohammed Aljanabi. I'd like to welcome you all here. Today I am going to tell you about my experience and about detention centres.

I was in Woomera Detention Centre for seven months.

Firstly there are many problems in [the] Middle East like governments persecuting their people, a lot of people sent to jail for a long time, some of them never coming back, like my brother: he was taken away 21 years ago. at the moment I don't know where he is, [whether] he is alive or no. I am not just talking about myself, there are many people like me.

And another problem [is the] economic embargo against the Iraqi people. It has [been in force for] 11 years against the Iraqi people. This situation has forced and pushed too many people to flee their own country and become refugees, leaving behind them their families and beloved ones. I left Iraq 10 years ago to Jordan, then to Turkey, then to Iran, then to Pakistan, and [then]I came back to Iran again. I moved between those countries from jail to jail, from crisis to crisis, sometimes I had no place to live and sometimes I had no food to eat myself. Then [the] Iranian government pushed us to leave their country or they [would] send us back to Iraq, and I decided to come to Australia.

In Woomera Detention Centre they told is 'next month you will have [a] visa, and next month finished and they said again next month, they want just to keep us for a long time without any reason. And after six months we broke out of the detention centre. We called 'we want freedom.' We stayed in Woomera town for two days. It was too cold . We stayed without any food or drink and we won. We took our freedom.

And after that a few refugees were granted temporary visas for three years, which is practically a sort of compulsory supervised residency. They are deprived of the very basic human rights. They are not allowed [access] to the family reunion scheme or travel. We sincerely wonder what does this temporary visa mean? And what will happen to us after three years? Are we going to be sent back to the country of violence, of wars and serious danger of death? Or are we going to be kept again in detention centres?

America wants to start a third world war. It has become [a situation of] all people homeless, hungry, and more refugees. Do you know what war means? It means killing, displacement, homelessness. I'd like to say no war, no to racism.

In conclusion I would like to say do you know what it means [when] someone has no country, or he has lost his country, or he feels no safety in his country? Do you know what it means [when] someone has lost his identity? He lives from country to another country, from jail to jail, he can't reach his family.

I leave all these questions to you. Thank you.