The Refugee Action Coalition has condemned Tony Abbott\u2019s trip to Nauru as a cheap publicity stunt.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo doubt Abbott hopes the media will follow him to Nauru and he can get another sound bite or two to pursue his anti-refugee politicking,\u201d said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.<\/p>\n
\u201cOff-shore processing has no place in a humanitarian refugee policy \u2013 not in Malaysia, not in Nauru, not on Christmas Island. There is no choice to be made between Nauru and Malaysia. Asylum seekers should be welcome at Australia\u2019s borders to be processed on the Australian mainland while they live in the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cRefugee policy should not be about stopping the boats or how can the government most effectively violate asylum seekers human rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cNauru was a hell-hole under the Howard government. It was a place of mass mental health problems, notorious for lip-stitching, self harm, dengue fever and mass hunger strikes. It was notorious for the abuse of human rights that took place under the guidance of Australian immigration authorities and the International Organisation of Migration. No third country would take refugees that were Australia\u2019s responsibility so they languished there. It was the worst form of long term detention.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwenty-eight babies were born on Nauru to asylum seekers\u2019 families. Hundreds of unaccompanied minors were kept in appalling conditions away from any scrutiny, or oversight. More than forty minors were coerced into returning to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
\u201cTragically, the only think that is giving Tony Abbott political oxygen, is the Gillard government\u2019s disgraceful Malaysia Solution. Abbott is seizing the opportunity to propose even harsher restrictions while he recycles myths about asylum seekers destroying identity documents.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis comments to the Lowy institute reveal how little Tony Abbott really knows about asylum seeker policy. Australian law already imposes mandatory prison sentences on people smuggling \u2013 something which has been condemned by refugee advocates and even judges. And there is no time limit on ASIO security clearances \u2013 that\u2019s the reason there are refugees still waiting almost two years after being told they have been accepted.<\/p>\n
\u201cHumanitarian policy demands that government upholds the rights of asylum seekers. The debate of Nauru versus Malaysia is being driven by the race to the bottom politics between Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard looking for more and more imaginative ways to violate asylum seekers human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
World Refugee Day rallies demanding \u201cNo Malaysia Solution; End Mandatory Detention are scheduled for 19 June for Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and 25 June in Brisbane.<\/p>\n
For more information contact Refugee Action Coalition: Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Refugee Action Coalition has condemned Tony Abbott\u2019s trip to Nauru as a cheap publicity stunt. \u201cNo doubt Abbott hopes the media will follow him to Nauru and he can get another sound bite or two to pursue his anti-refugee politicking,\u201d said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition. \u201cOff-shore processing has no place […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311091,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-press-releases"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/311091"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}