Asylum seekers on Nauru sent us the audio below of their recent protests. The recordings of two separate protests continue for over 20 minutes of chanting each but shorter selections from each are below.
Chanting from a protest on Nauru, Thursday 28 February
More chanting, including “Close Nauru” and “Nauru same as Guantanamo”
Speech in English from protest on Nauru a few days ago
The text of the speech is:
I’m reading this letter as representer of these guys.
In our democratic or dictator countries when a group of people demonstrate for any ideas and reasons, high-ranking officials try to meet them and solve the problem. If the authorities couldn’t answer people’s demands they will be allowed to see the journalists and they may be able to solve the problem.
We are asylum seekers who live in exile in Nauru. We have been protesting to be processed onshore for six months. But the Australian government didn’t answer us and there were no reporters or journalists to speak with them about our situation.
We want to ask Australian government a question: in which country have we been imprisoned?
Famous human rights organisations such as Amnesty International, Red Cross and UNHCR have reported the bad asylum seekers’ circumstances in Nauru. Does the Australian government respect human rights, or are they boasting of their behaviour?
Have we believed a big lie? We have left our countries to reach human rights, freedom, justice and equality. Unfortunately we have found a big lie.
