Woomera reportback #1

PERTH — More than 100 students from three universities — Curtin, Murdoch and the University of Western Australia — heard reports from the Easter protest outside the Woomera refugee detention centre in outback South Australia on April 15-17.

UWA’s Refugee Rights Action Network decided to run a campaign to turn UWA into a refugee sanctuary. It is organising a bus trip to Port Hedland detention centre in the mid-year break.

Woomera reportback #2

BRISBANE — An eye-witness report on the Easter protest at the Woomera refugee prison organised by the Refugee Action Colletive at the University of Queensland on April 17 attracted an audience of some 80 people.

At 4.30pm on April 26, a protest will be held outside the Brisbane offices of Theiss, the construction company involved in the building of detention centres.

Alternatives to detention

SYDNEY — “Criminality, disease, and all the other excuses simply don’t hold up — I simply cannot see any reason for locking up asylum seekers”, said Jacqui Everett from the Edmund Rice Centre, at a meeting on “Alternatives to Detention” held on April 17.

Jamal Daoud, from the Greens, agreed that mandatory detention is a horrible abuse of human rights, however: “The Greens support minimal detention, only for criminal and health checks, perhaps for a couple of days.”

Free the Refugees Campaign (FRC) activist Lauren Carroll Harris pointed out that mandatory detention did not occur in Australia before 1992. Refugees, she argued, are no more likely to be criminals than anyone else, and if free health care was offered, were unlikely to refuse it.

The meeting decided to initiate a morning protest outside the May 7 “Immigration & Population Conference” at Australian Technology Park, which immigration minister Philip Ruddock will be addressing. To get involved with FRC, phone Paul on 0410 629 088.

MCIMA hit by protest

DARWIN — “Say it loud, say it clear — refugees are welcome here”, protesters yelled outside Rydges Hotel at lunchtime on April 19.

Inside the hotel, the annual Meeting of the Ministerial Council and Standing Committee of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs was taking place.

From Green Left Weekly, April 24, 2002.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

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