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Perth Immigration Detention Centre: Vigil against the Violence
by Free all refugees 2006-04-13 8:20 PM +0800
Imagine being so desperate to flee from the Taliban or Saddam Hussein that you would pay your whole savings to flee to somewhere where you thought you might be safe. IMAGINE then spending up to SIX YEARS in detention in Australia. Below is the text of a leaflet being distributed outside Perth Immigration Detention Centre - next to the Perth Domestic Airport. Feel free to join us from Noon Good Friday.
Violent abuse
of innocent people
is happening
right here, right now

As you come here to fly out, or to meet friends or family who are flying in, or out, spare a thought for the people right under our very noses, who came here to ask for help, and are now imprisoned at the Perth Immigration Detention Centre, right here at the Perth Airport Domestic Terminal. They can’t fly in, or out. Some of them are stateless. They aren’t allowed to live in Australia. But no one else in the world will take them. Under the current laws, supported by Liberals, Nationals and Labor, these people will stay in this building until the day they die. WHAT IF THAT WAS YOUR RELATIVE?

That nondescript building (if you didn’t spot the razor wire on the walls) on your left as you came in to the car park, is where an asylum-seeker spent FOUR YEARS in detention, in a facility that is intended as short-stay accommodation for overseas citizens who have committed crimes in Australia, and are waiting to be deported.

What if it was your family?

Imagine being so desperate to flee from the Taliban or Saddam Hussein that you would pay your whole savings to flee to somewhere where you thought you might be safe.

IMAGINE then spending up to SIX YEARS in detention in Australia.

This has happened to hundreds of people and there are still three people in this very detention centre who came here asking for help from the land of the fair go, who got told that this actually the land of ‘Go’.

Just Go.

Go Away.

If you’re in distress, JUST GO AWAY. DON’T BOTHER US.


YES, it’s true that Australia takes in between 10,000 and 15,000 refugees every year through the established refugee resettlement programs. But in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and West Papua, THERE IS NO QUEUE for these resettlement programs.

“We will decide who comes into this country, and the circumstances in which they come here” said John Howard in 2001 when the Tampa arrived, with a hearty “Hear, hear” from Kim Beazley. We were told that those Iraqi refugees could be terrorists.

BUT ALMOST EVERY SINGLE PERSON FROM THE TAMPA IS NOW LIVING IN AUSTRALIA AS A LEGITIMATE REFUGEE.

Where in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or West Papua is there an Australian consulate or embassy, or even a UN mission, where people might queue?

They come to beg for help. For what we take for granted: food, water, shelter, safety from war. Australia is looking at the most helpless people in the world, and saying GO AWAY. ASK SOMEONE ELSE.

This is one of the richest countries in the world. Can’t we offer a helping hand to some of the poorest and most desperate people in the world?

And shouldn’t we be able to do better in helping people who need help?

WHY DO PEOPLE FLEE ILLEGALLY ACROSS BORDERS?
WOULD YOU JUST WALK AWAY FROM EVERYTHING YOU KNEW
AND ALL YOUR FAMILY
JUST FOR A LARK?

It is way past time for all asylum seekers in Australia to be released.

FREE ALL REFUGEES.

This vigil is in solidarity with the global days of action on rights for asylum seekers, especially the Australian convergence at the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney.

Contact the Refugee Rights Action Network for more info. Phone: 0405 101 362

Link here
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End mandatory detention
by pindy 2006-04-13 9:22 PM +0800
End mandatory detention
Close the detention centres
Abolish temporary protection visas
Stop all deportations
Let the boats land
Fight racist scapegoating



Link here
ALLOWED:18050

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