BY KATRINA HECKENDORF & PAUL OBOOHOV
On May 28, protest actions were held outside immigration department office in Adelaide, Canberra, Brisbane, Darwin, Perth and Sydney by asylum seekers and their supporters to launch the National Anti-Deportation Alliance.
NADA seeks to campaign against federal government moves to deport all Iranians held in immigration detention centres, as well as Afghan and Iraqi asylum seekers, and 1600 East Timorese who have lived in Australia for the last 10 years.
In Sydney, 30 people demonstrated. Among them were representatives of the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC), Free the Refugees Campaign and religious groups. Francis Milne from the Uniting Church recounted how an 18-year-old asylum seeker had been killed within two months of being deported to Pakistan.
In Canberra, 60 people attended the launch of NADA outside the immigration department's national headquarters in Belconnen, which was addressed by RAC activists and by ACT Greens MP Kerry Tucker. A similar number attended the Brisbane NADA launch, which was addressed by Democrat senator John Cherry and Hasam Gulam from the Hazara community.
From Green Left Weekly, June 4, 2003.
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