Refugee rally
BY MICHAEL FORNO
On Tuesday 23 November a crowd of over one hundred people gathered at Customs House Square in a show of solidarity with the some 1800 asylum seekers detained by the Australian Government.
The meeting was organised by the Refugee Action Coalition Sydney and was in protest of Immigration Minister Peter Dutton’s plans to ban all asylum seekers in detention from ever entering Australia.
Spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition Sydney, Ian Rintoul, told City Hub that he is deeply concerned about the Government’s stance towards asylum seekers.
“We want to see the lifetime ban legislation defeated and it is important that is defeated. The arguments that the Government is putting forward are entirely spurious.
“I think it’s got everything to do with the Government’s declining popularity and their attempt to use anti-refugee sentiment to try and prop up their declining electoral popularity,” he said.
Despite his concern Mr Rintoul is confident that the bill will be rejected by Senate crossbenchers.
“There are very good indications that the crossbenchers will oppose the bill in the Senate. The Government doesn’t seem to have crossbench support and it is crucial,” he said.
There were calls at the rally to close all detention camps run by the Australian Government and for crossbench senators to vote against the proposed lifetime ban. It’s a sentiment Mr Rintoul believes is shared throughout the Australian electorate.
“It is certainly the case that recent opinion polls show that a large majority of the electorate is in favour of resettling refugees from Manus and Nauru in Australia,” he said.
NSW Greens MP Mehreen Faruqi spoke at the rally and has a longstanding opposition to Government’s position on asylum seekers.
“The brutality, inhumanity, racism and xenophobia of Turnbull and Dutton policies must end.
“Locking up people who seek asylum, especially in conditions that lead them to self-harm and attempt suicide, is government policy of the lowest order. The Australian Government must close the offshore detention centres at Nauru and Manus Island as a matter of urgency and relocate all detainees to Australia,” she says.
Earlier this week Minister Dutton attacked the pro-asylum seeker policy of the former Fraser Government. In parliament he also made the link between people of Lebanese heritage and terrorism.
“The advice that I have is that out of the last 33 people who have been charged with terrorist-related offences in this country, 22 of those people are from second and third generation Lebanese-Muslim background,” he said.
Mr Rintoul expressed shock at Minister Dutton’s comments.
“I don’t think anyone would have expected to find the comments from Peter Dutton about Lebanese Muslims would have been acceptable a few months ago, but it has now become the parlance of Peter Dutton and unfortunately it is supported by Malcolm Turnbull,” he said.
Given the positive response from Tuesday’s rally and the likely defeat of the bill, Mr Rintoul sees this as a possible turning point for Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers.
“The fact that this lifetime ban is likely to be defeated, the fact that the government has been pushed to declare some kind of resettlement is an implicit admission that the offshore arrangements have been a failure.
“They have finally had to concerned that Manus and Nauru have no future and have to be closed,” he said.
