Actions, protests & rallies
Kaurna Yerta/Adelaide
Where
Tarntanyangga / Victoria Square
Adelaide SA 5000
AustraliaWhy
** Indefinite Detention Is Torture – 8 Years of Harm **
8 long and destructive years will soon have passed, since when on 19th July 2013, Kevin Rudd announced that all asylum seekers coming by boat would be sent offshore, and never be settled in Australia.
Over 3500 were subsequently taken offshore by force.
Many of these people continue to this day to be detained, without charge, indefinitely, quite possibly to the end of their earthly life. For 13 that has been the case, with death in detention by medical neglect, suicide, and murder.
The Australian parliament (LNP with Labor support) has recently changed our laws to allow indefinite detention, without any charge, to continue. It is a law that does not apply to ‘us’, but to ‘them’.
Over 1000 are still waiting for settlement.
About 230 remain offshore in harsh conditions, in Port Moresby and Nauru; 70 in oppressive locked detention in Australia, 500 in community detention, and 500 on a 6 month ‘departure visa’ with nowhere to go.
The Royal Australasian College of Physicians states: "Australian held (locked) detention is harmful to the physical and mental health of people of all ages in the short and long term."
We have seen the expected harm unfold year by year. Indefinite detention without charge or trial should be anathema to anyone who has any concern for others as fellow human beings.
We will meet 2pm at Tarntanyangga / Victoria Square, and walk to the Vietnamese Boat People Monument (next to the River at the end of Kintore Ave), with speakers telling of the unjustifiable harm being done. Will you join us in opposing the appalling harm of indefinite detention and calling for a home for these vulnerable and suffering people?