STAND UP FOR REFUGEES
End all detention
Rally 2pm Sunday 11 October, Sydney Town Hall
* No to the Border Force Act * Close Manus, close Nauru * Raise the refugee intake
* No deportations * No boat turnbacks
Speakers include:
Dr David Isaacs Nauru whistle-blower and Professor of Paediatric Infectious Diseases at Westmead Children’s Hospital & Sydney University
Ian Rintoul Refugee Action Coalition
Abdul Hakim Syrian refugee
Invite your friends to the Facebook event below
https://www.facebook.com/events/747142838763801/
Download a poster here to stick up at work or near where you live
https://refugeeaction.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Refugee-rally-Oct2015-A3-resize.pdf
Endorsed by: ChilOut, NSW Greens, Labor for Refugees (NSW), National Tertiary Education Union (NSW), Blue Mountains Refugee Support Group, Asylum Seeker Centre, Sydney Uni Postgraduate Representative Association, International Federation of Iranian Refugees, Grandmothers Against the Detention of Refugee Children, Hunter Asylum Seeker Advocacy, Socialist Alliance, Solidarity, Federation of Italian Migrant Workers and Families, Refugee Action Coalition
Email refugeeactionsyd@gmail.com or contact Ian 0417 275 713
The refugee crisis in Europe has produced a sea-change in attitudes towards refugees. Not even Tony Abbott can deny the evidence of desperation and persecution, particularly of those from Syria. Abbott says the government will accept 12,000 more refugees from Syria, but Australia could do much more. And senior government ministers are suggesting they do not want Muslim refugees, only Christians.
There are Syrian refugees in Villawood, and on Manus and Nauru that the government has tried to send back to Syria.
And Abbott continues to insist that governments must “stop the boats” to deal with deaths at sea, like that of baby Alan Kurdi, whose body was washed ashore in Turkey. But the fact is the Fortress Europe policies and turning back boats costs lives, and only means refugees are left to die somewhere else.
Offshore detention
The growing evidence of rape and torture of asylum seekers and refugees on Nauru and Manus Island has reinforced the horror of offshore processing. Transfield Services, which runs detention on Nauru, admitted to a Senate inquiry in July there had been 67 child abuse allegations and 33 rape and sexual assault allegations there.
But opposition is growing. There has been widespread defiance of the government’s attempt to silence detention whistleblowers through the Border Force Act, introduced on 1 July. Under the Act those working in detention, including doctors, teachers and health workers, face two years’ jail for speaking out to expose abuses. This is an obvious attempt to cover up conditions in detention, and to avoid media scrutiny.
Doctors, teachers and health workers have all staged protests and declared their intent to defy the law. The detention camps on Manus and Nauru must be closed, and all the asylum seekers brought to Australia for processing. Join us to raise our voices against the Abbott government’s anti-refugee policies on 11 October and demand change.
