Sarah Stephen, Sydney
Phil Glendenning from the Edmund Rice Centre (ERC) was the keynote speaker at a meeting organised by the Refugee Action Coalition on April 21. He told a crowd of 70 people that the Australian government has been involved in using bribes and "false documents to dupe the officers of another foreign state" in order to deport asylum seekers.
The ERC released a report called Deported to Danger in October 2004, which revealed the danger that many asylum seekers faced when they were returned by the Australian government to the countries they had fled from.
Glendenning has spoken at public meetings around the country about the findings of the report. He described how he addressed a crowd of 450 in Pennant Hills, part of PM John Howard's electorate of Bennelong in early April, and a packed meeting in Bathurst.
Glendenning revealed that there have been three federal police raids on the ERC's offices since the report was released. He noted that, as a result of the ERC's work, Syria has refused to take any more deportees and the United Nations has sought to offer protection to those people identified in the report as facing potential danger.
RAC activist Ian Rintoul and Iranian refugee Farshid also addressed the meeting. Farshid explained, "All detainees will tell you, the worst thing about being in detention is the fear of deportation".
[Visit <http://www.erc.org.au> to read the ERC report.]
From Green Left Weekly, April 27, 2005.
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