The Refugee Action Coalition is urging the Coalition to act quickly to grant a protection visa to the defecting Zimbabwean ambassador to Australian, Jacqueline Zwambila.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe human rights abuses of Zimbabwe\u2019s dictator Mugabe are well-known,\u201d said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven before the July elections, Mugabe\u2019s opponents often disappeared. With Mugabe\u2019s supposed coalition with the MDC at an end, there is no doubt that MDC-aligned ambassador is at risk should she be forced to return to Zimbabwe. The Australian government should act quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zwambila\u2019s defection is the highest profile request for asylum since the defection of Chinese diplomat, Chen Yonglin in 2005. Chen obtained a protection visa within three months.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut as much as we urge Scott Morrison to act quickly, the events surrounding Zwambila\u2019s defection highlight the government\u2019s inconsistencies dealing with issues of protection visas. If a victim of Mugabe\u2019s government arrived by boat, Scott Morrison would refuse to process their protection claim and could send them to Nauru or Manus Island, just as he is doing with asylum seekers from Syria,\u201d said Rintoul.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are many asylum seekers arriving by boat with cases as compelling as that of the Zimbabwean ambassador. But under Scott Morrison\u2019s regime there are two rules – one for plane arrivals and another for asylum seekers coming by boat.<\/p>\n
“The Zimbabwean ambassador needs protection, and so do all those asylum seekers who arrive by boat.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Refugee Action Coalition is urging the Coalition to act quickly to grant a protection visa to the defecting Zimbabwean ambassador to Australian, Jacqueline Zwambila. \u201cThe human rights abuses of Zimbabwe\u2019s dictator Mugabe are well-known,\u201d said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition. \u201cEven before the July elections, Mugabe\u2019s opponents often disappeared. With Mugabe\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311091,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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-3048","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\/3048","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=3048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3048\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}