Tampa 2 years on: How much is this costing us?

BY DIANNE HILES

"Tell the women of Australia we are here. We want to see our husbands. We want our children to be happy."

Just what is so unreasonable about these sentiments?

These words were uttered to Marianne Dickie by distraught Afghan women she met in Topside Camp, Nauru when she accompanied Senator Andrew Bartlett on a recent visit — two of the few people able to get a visa to do this.

According to the managing agency, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), there are currently five unaccompanied minors on Nauru. There are also several children who have never seen their fathers, even though their fathers are living in Australia. These separations are pointless and damaging. Mental health problems abound on Nauru.

Just how much is our Pacific Solution costing us — and I don't just mean the millions of dollars we are throwing at it?

Last week ChilOut (Children Out Of Detention, which positions itself as a "Mums and Dads" group) turned two. There are still children in detention centres, including ones with physical and mental disabilities, who were there when we started. And the Nauru "Solution" just has to be unwound.

As the second anniversary of the shocking Tampa episode looms, we must ask our parliamentarians how much the "Pacific Solution" has cost us and demand the creation of a special humanitarian visa to allow these 400 Afghani and Iraqi souls some lasting peace.

They have suffered enough. We have suffered enough.

For more information about ChilOut, visit <http://www.chilout.org>.

[Dianne Hiles is a member of the ChilOut Co-ordination Team.]

From Green Left Weekly, August 27, 2003.

Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

From GLW issue 551