Shame Howard on Tampa Day

BY PIP HINMAN

August 26 marks one year since the Coalition government refused to
allow the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa to deliver those asylum seekers
it had rescued to Christmas Island — it marks one year of the “Pacific
Solution”.

Refugees' rights activists around Australia aim to make August 26 a
day of protest against the government's policy. Paul Benedek from Sydney's
Free the Refugees Campaign told Green Left Weekly that FRC
is calling on people to wear black armbands on the day to symbolise their
anger at the government's inhumane policies.

“If it wasn't for Captain Arne Rinnan's determination to make sure those
refugees were looked after, the Tampa crisis last year may
have become just another blip on the radar of Canberra's human rights abuses”,
said Benedek. “Instead, it was the trigger for many to start organising
against the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers.”

Last year, $500 million was allocated to the “Pacific Solution”. This
year, $3 billion has been devoted to “border protection”, money that could
be better spent on resettling refugees in Australia, said Benedek.

While some 4000 refugees, including children, remain detained without
trial in remote detention centres at Woomera and Port Hedland and in the
offshore detention centres in Nauru and PNG, nearly that number of people,
who have been declared refugees, face deportation when their temporary
visas expire. This is another reason to protest on August 26, said Benedek.

Already a number of networks have indicated their support for the idea
of shaming Prime Minister John Howard on Tampa Day. They include Rural
Australians for Refugees, Children out of Detention (ChilOut); Fortians
for Refugees; the Progressive Young Hazaras; Australians Against Racism;
Public Servants for Refugees, ACT; Action in Solidarity with Asia and the
Pacific; the Socialist Alliance; the Multicultural Council (NT); the Mary
MacKillop Institute for East Timorese Studies and several refugee-rights
groups from around the country.

“August 25 has been declared Refugee Sunday by many churches”, Benedek
pointed out. “If pupils and teachers, workers and neighbourhoods donned
armbands for the day it would create quite a stir.”

For more information or to order black armbands ring Paul Benedek on
0410 629 088 or email <freetherefugeescampaign@yahoo.com>.

From Green Left Weekly, July 10, 2002.

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From GLW issue 499