No to racism! Free the refugees!

[The following statement, initiated by the Melbourne Refugee Action
Collective, is to be published in the May 26 Australian. To add
you name to the statement and/or that of your organisation, or to make
a donation to help pay for its publication, contact the RAC-Victoria, GPO
Box 1473N, Melbourne 3001.]

We, the undersigned, are writing to protest against the treatment of
refugees seeking asylum in Australia. Under present Australian laws, these
refugees fleeing intolerable circumstances are subjected to mandatory detention.

In reality, those detention centres are medium security prisons. This
is an unambiguous breach of United Nations covenants and protocols concerning
the treatment of asylum seekers — agreements to which Australia is a signatory.
These laws mean that some refugees have spent years behind razor-wire fences
although they have committed no crime. Some children have known no other
life than that in a detention centre.

Australia is the only industrialised nation in the world which detains
asylum seekers in such a manner. Refugees have been subjected to a disgraceful
campaign of vilification and scare-mongering by politicians. Despite the
relatively small numbers (Australia accepts far fewer refugees than many
smaller and poorer nations), terms such as “flood” and “tidal wave” have
been used to describe the arrival of refugees by boat. Refugees have been
called “illegals”, even though it is legal to request asylum and enjoy
protection according to domestic and international law.

The government minister responsible for refugees has inflamed racist
opinion by falsely suggesting that the refugees are criminals, terrorists
or a health risk to the general public. We are told that the refugees are
“queue jumpers” when in fact there is no queue for people seeking asylum.

The government has said that Australia is considered a “soft touch”
for refugees. In reality, Australia has one of the harshest laws for asylum
seekers in the world. The United Nations, Amnesty International and the
US Department of State have condemned the government's treatment of refugees.
Even the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and the
Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee have stated that the treatment
of refugees “is inconsistent with Australia's human rights obligations”.
We do not believe that the government should use detention and processes
that result in further trauma and discrimination when undertaking checks
on asylum seekers entering the country.

Refugees should be treated with compassion. The government intends to
spend almost $150 million building and extending detention centres. We
believe this money would be better spent on assistance rather than incarceration.
We are calling on both Liberal and Labor politicians to act to overturn
these discriminatory laws and end the policy of detention and forced dispersal.
Action is urgently needed.

Free the refugees! Full rights, not temporary visas! Funding for settlement,
not detention! Stop racist scapegoating!

Organisations and individuals who have signed the statement include:
Labor Council of NSW; Victorian Trades Hall Council; ACT Trades and Labour
Council; Ethnic Communities' Council of Victoria; NSW Nurses Association;
Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre; Martin Clutterbuck, RILC; Australian
Refugee Alliance; Helen Newman, ARA; Eelam Tamil Association; Australian
Manufacturing Workers Union (Vic); Craig Johnston, secretary, AMWU (Vic);
Michele O'Neil, Victorian branch secretary, Textile, Clothing and Footwear
Union; Brian Pound, Victorian secretary, MEAA (Equity Section); Bayram
Aktepe, Islamic Council of Victoria; “Hope, Struggle, Freedom” group; Anatolian
Cultural Centre; Rev Alan Marr & Rev Meewon Yang, Baptist Union of
Victoria; Brunswick Baptist Church; Darebin Ethnic Communities Council;
Ezzedine Rafhi, vice-president, Moreland Ethnic Communities Council; Socialist
Worker; Green Left Weekly; National Union of Students (Vic)
women's department, The Australian Greens (Victoria); NSW Greens; Democratic
Socialist Party; Resistance; Carlo Carli, MLA (ALP) Coburg; Justice for
Asylum Seekers; David Pargeter, director of Justice and World Mission Uniting
Church; S11 Alliance; Immigrant and Refugee Women's Coalition; Grahame
McCulloch, general secretary, NTEU; Carolyn Allport national president,
NTEU, Howard Guille, secretary NTEU (Qld); Grass Roots Resource Centre;
Anna Bligh MP (ALP); Women's International League for Peace and Justice;
Julie Bignell, Qld secretary ASU (Clerical Division; Claire Moore, secretary
CPSU (Qld); Plumbers and Gasfitters Union; Hughie Williams, secretary TWU
(Qld); Jack Morel, secretary TCFUA (Qld); AMWU (Qld); ASU (Social and Community
Services Industry); Brisbane Migrant Resource Centre; West Moreton Migrant
Resource Centre; CEPU (Communications P&T branch); Ryan Heath, president,
UTS Students Association, and national general secretary National Organisation
of Labor Students; NSW Greens; Sydney University NTEU branch committee.

The following individuals have endorsed the statement, in a personal
capacity:

Justice Marcus Einfeld; Al Grassby, former immigration minister; Kate
Gilmore, national director, Amnesty International Australia; Charles Chow,
solicitor; Dr Bill Cope, former director, Office of Multicultural Affairs;
Dr Andrew Theophanous, MP; Greens Senator Bob Brown; Rod Quantock; Michael
Costa, secretary of the Labor Council of NSW; Tim Anderson, justice activist
and lecturer; Jagath Bandara, organiser ALHMWU (NSW); Amanda Perkins, secretary
of the printing division of the AMWU (NSW); Sally McManis, organiser ASU
(NSW) and many others.

From GLW issue 446