Index

Click on subject of interest shown on the right under the heading "labels" to see all relevant posts

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25.2.15

Newsletter for 25 February 2015 RAR Bellingen and Nambucca

Children moved
​ back​
 to Nauru

Kaldor Centre Report -

Reports have emerged that children have been transferred from Australia to Nauru.

‘As the Coalition tried to distract from Children in Detention report, it was moving kids back to Nauru’,

click
​ ​
on New Matilda 
​ to read the article from 17 February 2015.​

This newsletter is stored here for archive purposes. To read complete newsletter click below

24.2.15

Costs of detaining Asylum Seekers in Australia and offshore

Refugee Action Coalition Sydney

Detention costs

At the same time as Abbott is imposing cuts across the board, his budget devotes $8.3 billion over four years to locking up refugees—much of it to pay for dumping asylum seekers in the camps on Manus Island and Nauru. This enormous sum could completely reverse Abbott’s cuts to Medicare, welfare payments for under 30s, education and health combined over the next four years. It is a stark example of the government’s priorities.

Cost of detention per person a year (Souce: National Commission of Audit)
Detaining a single asylum seeker on Manus or Nauru costs $400,000 per year. Detention in Australia costs $239,000 per year. By contrast, allowing asylum seekers to live in the community while their claims are processed costs just $12,000 per year, one twentieth of the cost of the offshore camps, and even less if they are allowed the right to work.
Abbott and Morrison are running a scare campaign about refugees. They seek to paint refugees as “economic migrants”, “country shoppers” or worse, equate refugees with terrorists. In reality, approximately 90% of those who arrive by boat are legitimate refugees, and no refugee has ever been convicted of a terrorist offence in Australia.
Before the election, Abbott promised “no cuts to health, no cuts to education.” Scott Morrison’s arrogance and refusal to answer questions about Operation Sovereign Borders also shows this government’s lies and deceit on asylum seekers. The government clearly has plenty to hide.
Abbott loves to claim success in “stopping the boats”. He will use his claim that refugees are some kind of threat as a scapegoat to try to distract attention from the cuts in the budget—and the fact that the real threat to our living standards is the Liberal government.
Abbott claims that stopping the boats is about saving lives at sea. This is as ridiculous as his claim to being the “best friend” of Medicare, or of workers. Processing asylum claims in Indonesia and flying those found to be refugees to Australia would save lives, and cost a fraction of the cost of detention.
Keeping thousands of asylum seekers locked in camps to deter others is a miserable and cowardly act. Effectively this government is saying “no matter what horrors you’ve come from, we’ll treat you worse in Australia. So die somewhere else.”
Morrison’s claim that the government will save $2.5 billion by stopping the boats and being able to close detention centres is another lie. As the boats that arrived from Sri Lanka and India in July carrying 41 and 157 Tamil asylum seekers have shown, people fleeing persecution will continue to ask for help, no matter how cruel Australia tries to be. There is no need to cut welfare, make you pay for the doctor, increase the cost of your education, and slash funding to hospitals.
The government will continue to waste billions of dollars sending asylum seekers to the camps on Nauru and Manus Island until we demand humane policies.

20.2.15

letter to Peter Dutton children in detention 20 Feb 2105

20.2.15

Letter to Minister Dutton to honour recommendations of "Children in Detention" report 16 February 2015

16th February 2015
Dear Minister Dutton,

On 11th February I listened to the Prime Minister scornfully dismissing Professor Gillian Triggs' thorough and objective Report on children in detention. It was a disgraceful performance and did nothing at all to instil any confidence in the parliamentary process. 

How have we come to sink so low? It is surely time for your government to start listening and to refrain from hectoring and insulting our intelligence. Shooting the messenger will not make the problems go away.

Professor Triggs' Report amounts to a thorough and comprehensive indictment of the policies of both the current Coalition Government and the Labor Government before it. How can the government hold more than 100 children indefinitely on Nauru, given that both Chris Bowen MP and Scott Morrison MP both agreed on oath before the Enquiry that holding children in detention does not deter either asylum seekers or people smugglers? 

What possible rationale can the government offer, then, for the indefinite detention of children seeking asylum in Australia?

The findings set out in the Report are both shocking and shameful. No other country mandates the closed and indefinite detention of asylum seekers. It is clear that the actions of the Government, and its predecessor, are in breach of our international obligations.

I call on the Government to give the most serious and urgent consideration to the recommendations set out in the Report and to make a serious commitment to the  Australian people that the recommendations will be acted on in the shortest possible timeframe.

I look forward to receiving your response to the questions raised above.

                                                                                                            Yours sincerely,


                                                                                                            Mike Griffin

Letter to Minister Dutton to honour recommendations of "Children in Detention" report 16 February 2015

16th February 2015
Dear Minister Dutton,

On 11th February I listened to the Prime Minister scornfully dismissing Professor Gillian Triggs' thorough and objective Report on children in detention. It was a disgraceful performance and did nothing at all to instil any confidence in the parliamentary process. 

How have we come to sink so low? It is surely time for your government to start listening and to refrain from hectoring and insulting our intelligence. Shooting the messenger will not make the problems go away.

Professor Triggs' Report amounts to a thorough and comprehensive indictment of the policies of both the current Coalition Government and the Labor Government before it. How can the government hold more than 100 children indefinitely on Nauru, given that both Chris Bowen MP and Scott Morrison MP both agreed on oath before the Enquiry that holding children in detention does not deter either asylum seekers or people smugglers? 

What possible rationale can the government offer, then, for the indefinite detention of children seeking asylum in Australia?

The findings set out in the Report are both shocking and shameful. No other country mandates the closed and indefinite detention of asylum seekers. It is clear that the actions of the Government, and its predecessor, are in breach of our international obligations.

I call on the Government to give the most serious and urgent consideration to the recommendations set out in the Report and to make a serious commitment to the  Australian people that the recommendations will be acted on in the shortest possible timeframe.

I look forward to receiving your response to the questions raised above.

                                                                                                            Yours sincerely,


                                                                                                            Mike Griffin

18.2.15

Newsletter for 18 February RAR Bellingen and Nambucca

Our RAR stall will be held at Community Markets on alternate months at Valla Beach and Bellingen Community Markets

The next stall will be held at Bellingen Community Markets on Saturday 21 MARCH, not February

This newsletter is stored her for archive purposes. To read the complete newsletter click below

16.2.15

Lettyers to Peter Dutton children in detention 16 Feb 2015

letters to Dutton

4

16th February 2015
Dear Minister Dutton,

On 11th February I listened to the Prime Minister scornfully dismissing Professor Gillian Triggs' thorough and objective Report on children in detention. It was a disgraceful performance and did nothing at all to instil any confidence in the parliamentary process. 

How have we come to sink so low? It is surely time for your government to start listening and to refrain from hectoring and insulting our intelligence. Shooting the messenger will not make the problems go away.

Professor Triggs' Report amounts to a thorough and comprehensive indictment of the policies of both the current Coalition Government and the Labor Government before it. How can the government hold more than 100 children indefinitely on Nauru, given that both Chris Bowen MP and Scott Morrison MP both agreed on oath before the Enquiry that holding children in detention does not deter either asylum seekers or people smugglers? 

What possible rationale can the government offer, then, for the indefinite detention of children seeking asylum in Australia?

The findings set out in the Report are both shocking and shameful. No other country mandates the closed and indefinite detention of asylum seekers. It is clear that the actions of the Government, and its predecessor, are in breach of our international obligations.

I call on the Government to give the most serious and urgent consideration to the recommendations set out in the Report and to make a serious commitment to the  Australian people that the recommendations will be acted on in the shortest possible timeframe.

I look forward to receiving your response to the questions raised above.

                                                                                                            Yours sincerely,



                                                                                                            Mike Griffin


______________________________________________________

Joint statement - Let's end the detention of children once and for all


The name of Rural Australians for Refugees Bellingen and Nambucca Districts has been added to the  list of organisations supporting this statement. 


Joint statement by Australian organisations and community groups 13 February 2015

NEVER AGAIN: LET’S END THE DETENTION
OF CHILDREN ONCE AND FOR ALL
The report of the Australian Human Rights Commission’s National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention provides compelling evidence of the need for Australia to cease the detention of children once and for all. Drawing on interviews in detention facilities with more than 1000 children and their parents, the report offers a deeply disturbing record of the harm inflicted on so many children by successive governments. The Government, Opposition and all members of the Australian Parliament must take immediate action to ensure that all children are released from Australian-funded detention centres, in Australia and Nauru, and to ensure that these policies are never repeated.
The indefinite mass detention of children is a national disgrace for which both of Australia’s major political parties bear responsibility. Under the Rudd and Gillard Governments, record numbers of children were detained, reaching a peak of 1,992 in July 2013. Under the Abbott Government, hundreds of children have experienced prolonged detention, with the average time spent in detention rising from three months in August 2013 to more than 14 months in January 2015. In doing this, governments have ignored numerous reports, including from the Commission’s previous national inquiry in 2004, which have outlined detention’s shocking impacts on the mental health of children.
At the public hearings conducted as part of the inquiry, previous Ministers for Immigration Chris Bowen and Scott Morrison both acknowledged that the detention of children was not an effective mechanism for deterring boat arrivals or preventing deaths at sea.1 Without a clear policy purpose, it is bewildering that this deeply harmful and exorbitantly costly practice has continued for so long.
For more than a decade under successive governments, we have watched Australia’s detention policies go through the same cycle: people are kept in indefinite detention unnecessarily for prolonged periods until the human and financial costs of doing so become so high as to compel the Government to make greater use of community-based alternatives. It is high time that we put an end to this cycle.
Australia is the only country in the world to detain children as its first option. In the United Kingdom, for example, the number of children simultaneously in UK immigration detention over the past three years has not exceeded four, a tiny fraction of the number detained by Australia.2 The United Kingdom also has legislative limits on the detention of children which restrict the detention of families with children in pre-removal centres to a maximum of 72 hours, or seven days if authorised by the responsible minister.
Effective alternatives to detention already exist in Australia – and have done so for a decade. We urge the Australian Government to expand the use of these alternatives, ensure that they are used routinely for children and families and develop safe alternatives to detention for children now detained in Nauru.
We reject the argument that the welfare of asylum seeker children sent to Nauru is the sole responsibility of the Government of Nauru. The harm being inflicted on children detained there is a
1 Former Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said that detention was “not an effective deterrent” and that the “cost on children was too great for any deterrence value”. See Bowen, Chris, Testimony at the AHRC Public Hearings on 9 September 2014 (page 1), available at https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/Hon%20Chris%20Bowen.pdf; When asked if the “purpose of long-term detention [is] to deter people from coming to Australia by boat?”, Minister Scott Morrison said “no”. See Morrison, Scott, Testimony at the AHRC Public Hearings on 22 August 2014 (page 25), available at https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/Hon%20Scott%20Morrison%20Mr%20Bowles.pdf
2 A comparison of quarterly statistics for the detention of children in Australia and the UK from 2012 to 2014, compiled by Refugee Council of Australia, can be found at http://bit.ly/1CcOG6a

15.2.15

letter to Peter Dutton Nauru 15 February 2015

15.2.15



3
                                                                                                Valla Beach
                                                                                                NSW 2448
                                                                                               
                                                                                                10th February 2015

Dear Minister Dutton,
Yesterday I was utterly dismayed and horrified, but not at all surprised, to read  Professor David Isaacs'  and Alanna Maycock's account of their time on Nauru in December. We, the Australian people, get few insights into the disgraceful treatment meted out to asylum seekers in our name. We are deliberately kept in the dark, and for obvious political reasons. 
I applaud Professor Isaacs' courage in speaking out, notwithstanding the gagging clauses in his contract. The Australian people have a right to know about the outrageous and immoral consequences  of the government's obsession with stopping the boats at any price. As Professor Isaacs and Alanna Maycock say, imprisoning people indefinitely and without trial - people who have committed no crime - contravenes international law. Equally importantly, the policy contravenes the moral code of any country which claims to uphold civilised values.
Mr Abbott tells us that his government, of which you are a senior member, is listening and is ready to change. Given the widespread opposition to the government's unlawful and cruel treatment of innocent children and their mothers in offshore detention centres, will the government now take serious steps to close these centres ? They are a monstrous affront to humanity and bring shame on us all.
I look forward to receiving an answer from you to my specific question.

                                                                                                            Yours sincerely,


                                                                                                              Mike 
________________________________________________________________________________

Pregnant refugee attempts suicide on Nauru


------ Forwarded Message
From: "refugee@lists.justfreedom.org.au" <refugee@lists.justfreedom.org.au>
Reply-To: <pamelacurr@justfreedom.org.au>
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2015 14:52:03 +1100
Subject: [Refugee] Fwd: PREGNANT REFUGEE ATTEMPTS SUICIDE ON NAURU

Refugee Action Coalition
MEDIA RELEASE

PREGNANT REFUGEE ATTEMPTS SUICIDE ON NAURU – ONE MORE REASON TO CLOSE NAURU

An eights months pregnant Somali refugee attempted suicide by drowning
last night (Wednesday night, 11 February) on Nauru.

The Somali refugee who lives with her husband in the Nibok area, made
the suicide attempt around 10pm Nauru time.

The Somali woman was rescued by a returning fisherman and was
transported to hospital.

She is still in the hospital under observation. But her present
condition is not known.

“The suicide attempt is one more indication of the desperate
circumstances facing asylum seekers and refugees on Nauru,” said Ian
Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.

“The Human Rights Commission report on children in detention documents
the appalling conditions on Nauru. Like the other asylum seekers and
refugees on Nauru, the Somali family is a victim of the government’s
offshore processing regime.”

“Nauru will not allow refugees to permanently settle on the island, so
there is permanent uncertainty for refugees and their children. That
uncertainty is taking its toll.”

One Nauruan refugee told the Refugee Action Coalition, “Like all of
us, she is under too much pressure from Australian immigration. In our
situation, this sort of reaction becomes natural.”

For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713


letters to Dutton

4

16th February 2015
Dear Minister Dutton,

On 11th February I listened to the Prime Minister scornfully dismissing Professor Gillian Triggs' thorough and objective Report on children in detention. It was a disgraceful performance and did nothing at all to instil any confidence in the parliamentary process. 

How have we come to sink so low? It is surely time for your government to start listening and to refrain from hectoring and insulting our intelligence. Shooting the messenger will not make the problems go away.

Professor Triggs' Report amounts to a thorough and comprehensive indictment of the policies of both the current Coalition Government and the Labor Government before it. How can the government hold more than 100 children indefinitely on Nauru, given that both Chris Bowen MP and Scott Morrison MP both agreed on oath before the Enquiry that holding children in detention does not deter either asylum seekers or people smugglers? 

What possible rationale can the government offer, then, for the indefinite detention of children seeking asylum in Australia?

The findings set out in the Report are both shocking and shameful. No other country mandates the closed and indefinite detention of asylum seekers. It is clear that the actions of the Government, and its predecessor, are in breach of our international obligations.

I call on the Government to give the most serious and urgent consideration to the recommendations set out in the Report and to make a serious commitment to the  Australian people that the recommendations will be acted on in the shortest possible timeframe.

I look forward to receiving your response to the questions raised above.

                                                                                                            Yours sincerely,



                                                                                                            Mike Griffin


______________________________________________________

3
                                                                                                Valla Beach
                                                                                                NSW 2448
                                                                                               
                                                                                                10th February 2015

Dear Minister Dutton,
Yesterday I was utterly dismayed and horrified, but not at all surprised, to read  Professor David Isaacs'  and Alanna Maycock's account of their time on Nauru in December. We, the Australian people, get few insights into the disgraceful treatment meted out to asylum seekers in our name. We are deliberately kept in the dark, and for obvious political reasons. 
I applaud Professor Isaacs' courage in speaking out, notwithstanding the gagging clauses in his contract. The Australian people have a right to know about the outrageous and immoral consequences  of the government's obsession with stopping the boats at any price. As Professor Isaacs and Alanna Maycock say, imprisoning people indefinitely and without trial - people who have committed no crime - contravenes international law. Equally importantly, the policy contravenes the moral code of any country which claims to uphold civilised values.
Mr Abbott tells us that his government, of which you are a senior member, is listening and is ready to change. Given the widespread opposition to the government's unlawful and cruel treatment of innocent children and their mothers in offshore detention centres, will the government now take serious steps to close these centres ? They are a monstrous affront to humanity and bring shame on us all.
I look forward to receiving an answer from you to my specific question.

                                                                                                            Yours sincerely,


                                                                                                              Mike 
________________________________________________________________________________

2

Sunday, January 18, 2015 11:44 AM
To: Peter.Dutton.MP@aph.gov.au
Subject: Manus Island

Dear Minister,
I am writing to request that you do all in your power to close the detention centre on Manus Island and to bring the 1035 men who are currently detained there to Australia. I am deeply troubled by recent reports which describe their desperation, self harm and hunger strikes. These are desperate people, who increasingly live in great fear for their lives.  You will be aware that it was recently reported that locals massed menacingly outside the centre and that local staff vandalised the kitchen in one of the compounds.  We are now almost at the anniversary of the terrible violence last year which left one asylum seeker dead and many more injured. It is unsurprising therefore that asylum seekers on Manus are resorting to desperate measures to bring their plight to the attention of the world.
It is a matter of record that many locals in PNG are very hostile towards the refugees. Prospects for their resettlement in PNG are therefore remote, particularly as this is a very poor country with limited services and resources for the population.
Australia has a duty under international law to ensure the safety of asylum seekers. They are our responsibility.They should therefore be transferred to Australia and have their asylum claims properly and fairly assessed. Those found requiring our protection should be offered resettlement in Australia.
I strongly object to the current costly, damaging and punitive offshore regime. Many PNG nationals and community leaders also strongly object to these arrangements which have been foisted on PNG in return for aid assistance.
We are better than this. Will you bring this ugly and shameful policy to an end?
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Mike  



_______________________________________________________________________________________

1
 

3rd January 2015

Dear Minister Dutton,

I trust that you are enjoying a well-earned Summer break with your family and friends.
Sadly, for the asylum seekers and refugees on Nauru, their days and nights continue to be filled with fear and uncertainty as a result of the Coalition's asylum policies. 

We read on a regular basis, notwithstanding the government's efforts to shroud the harsh realities in secrecy, of the constant threats of physical and sexual abuse, and of violence committed against refugees now "settled" in this utterly inappropriate environment.

The Australian government, in spite of assertions to the contrary, continues to be responsible for the safety and the lives of these people.

Why should female asylum seekers and refugees feel obliged to sleep in their jeans because of their fears of rape? Why are asylum seekers and refugees fearful of reporting assaults and other abuse to security guards or to the police? 

How can things be so bad for refugees on Nauru that some of them have asked to be returned to the detention centre?

Save the Children is contracted by the Australian government to provide social services to refugees on Nauru.  

Notwithstanding the gagging clauses in their contract, they state: "Save the Children believes that Nauru is not a sustainable, long-term option for the resettlement of humanitarian refugees."  

Given this statement of the obvious, and given that punishing these people is costing the Australian taxpayer up to $5billion per annum, will you not now begin to take some steps to respond to the voices of so many decent Australians  who believe that offshore detention should be brought to an end in 2015? 

Surely it should now be acknowledged  that it is time to put this ugly and shameful chapter in our history behind us.

I look forward to hearing from you.

                                                                                                Yours sincerely,

                                                                                                Mike