Media Release, October 28 2010<\/p>\n
Refugee advocates have called on the Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen, to act urgently to prevent the deportation of a Chinese family, scheduled to be removed from Villawood detention centre tomorrow morning (Friday 29 October).<\/p>\n
Last minute efforts are being made to get new information to the Minister documenting the danger that faces the underground Christian family if they are returned.<\/p>\n
The second son of the family, resident in China, was only recently released from a re-education camp after seven months following his arrest for holding an unlawful gathering of an underground Christian community.<\/p>\n
The man\u2019s brother was arrested and questioned when he recently returned to China, by authorities who mistook him for his brother in Villawood. A summons to appear in court in China has now been delivered to the family in China. A copy of the summons has been sent to the Minister.<\/p>\n
The family has been in Australia for eight and half years, meaning the 17 year-old son has spent his formative years in Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cHumanitarian grounds alone should be enough for the Minister to act. But the Minister has also said that complementary protection legislation would be introduced before the end of the year to provide protection for people who fall outside the strict convention grounds for refugee status. It is straight hypocrisy for the Minister to announce this legislation yet refuse to halt the removal of people who might fit the criteria,\u201d said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is obvious that the family is under surveillance by authorities and that the man is wanted in China. This should rule out any question that the family can be safely sent back to China.<\/p>\n
Australia has an obligation under the Refugee Convention and the Convention on Torture and not to refoule (return) an asylum seeker to danger.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are urging the Minister to act immediately to stop the deportation of this family. China is not safe. The human rights abuses by the Chinese government are well-documented. There have been too many instances of so-called failed asylum seekers being returned to disappear, be arrested, or killed. The Minister should stop playing with asylum seekers\u2019 lives,\u201d said Ian Rintoul.<\/p>\n
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713<\/p>\n
IMMIGRATION MINISTER URGED TO HALT DEPORTATION OF CHINESE FAMILY<\/p>\n
Refugee advocates have called on the Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen, to
\nact urgently to prevent the deportation of a Chinese family, scheduled to
\nbe removed from Villawood detention centre tomorrow morning (Friday 29
\nOctober).<\/p>\n
Last minute efforts are being made to get new information to the Minister
\ndocumenting the danger that faces the underground Christian family if they
\nare returned.<\/p>\n
The second son of the family, resident in China, was only recently released
\nfrom a re-education camp after seven months following his arrest for
\nholding an unlawful gathering of an underground Christian community.<\/p>\n
The man\u2019s brother was arrested and questioned when he recently returned to
\nChina, by authorities who mistook him for his brother in Villawood. A
\nsummons to appear in court in China has now been delivered to the family in
\nChina. A copy of the summons has been sent to the Minister.<\/p>\n
The Lui family has been in Australia for eight and half years, meaning the
\n17 year-old son has spent his formative years in Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cHumanitarian grounds alone should be enough for the Minister to act. But
\nthe Minister has also said that complementary protection legislation would
\nbe introduced before the end of the year to provide protection for people
\nwho fall outside the strict convention grounds for refugee status. It is
\nstraight hypocrisy for the Minister to announce this legislation yet refuse
\nto halt the removal of people who might fit the criteria,\u201d said Ian
\nRintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is obvious that the family is under surveillance by authorities and
\nthat the man is wanted in China. This should rule out any question that the
\nfamily can be safely sent back to China.<\/p>\n
Australia has an obligation under the Refugee Convention and the Convention
\non Torture and not to refoule (return) an asylum seeker to danger.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are urging the Minister to act immediately to stop the deportation of
\nthis family. China is not safe. The human rights abuses by the Chinese
\ngovernment are well-documented. There have been too many instances of
\nso-called failed asylum seekers being returned to disappear, be arrested,
\nor killed. The Minister should stop playing with asylum seekers\u2019 lives,\u201d
\nsaid Ian Rintoul.<\/p>\n
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Media Release, October 28 2010 Refugee advocates have called on the Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen, to act urgently to prevent the deportation of a Chinese family, scheduled to be removed from Villawood detention centre tomorrow morning (Friday 29 October). Last minute efforts are being made to get new information to the Minister documenting the danger […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311091,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-488","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488","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=488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}