Protestors demand freedom for refugees

By Holly de Boer

Protestors gathered outside Town Hall on April 17 to demand action on the plight of refugees currently being held in detention centres across Australia.

According to the Refugees Action Coalition , things have never been worse in mandatory detention centers.

Australia has had a mandatory detention system for two decades now, with the latest figures showing a total of 6,758 people currently in detention, 1,040 of which are children.

Daniel Burke a leader of the Refugees Action Coalition said: “The Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen said he didn’t like the idea of children being in mandatory detention because he didn’t like the idea of his own children being in detention centers. However things have gotten worse since he has become the Immigration Minister for Australia”.

Mandatory detention has been condemned by Amnesty International Australia, leading mental health experts and church organisations.

In recent months mental healthhas become a prominent issue in detention centres with five suicides in the last seven months.

Dr Graham Thom, refugee campaign coordinator for Amnesty has described Australia’s mandatory detention policy as “inhumane and unacceptable”.

“It’s basically a case of bureaucratic brutality in Australia,” he said. “There is no story about what these people have gone through. Australians don’t understand why they come here when they do.”

Ironically what prevents refugees from gaining freedom in our country is the Government’s fear of national security and the possibility of terrorism.

When the Labor Government came into office in 2007 it promised that detention would be capped to 90 days.

Yet as at February 2011 78 per cent of detainees have been behind razor wire for three months or more.

According to Burke, almost half of refugees are detained between 12 and 24 months.

When asked what happens after the refugees are released Burke replied:

“In the last two years I have known only three people to have gotten out. The system largely exists to protect itself. We have a huge number of deeply racist people in Australia, and basically our politicians are pandering to that”.

Sister Susan Connelly of the western Sydney-based Mary MacKillop Institute of East Timorese Studies, is one of Australia’s most respected advocates for the East Timorese people. In her powerful speech at the rally she said:“ It is so embarrassing to be an Australian. We should be opening our doors in our schools and our universities to the Timorese to educate them to meet their future in view for what we owe them from the past”.

Towards the end of the Rally Raj Moghadam an Iranian refugee and ex-detainee, gave an emotional account of his traumatic experiences in detention centres.

“When I came to Australia I was imagining something else. The mental health of refugees is severely affected in detention centres. I have seen things that no man deserves to see”.