Sarah Stephen, Sydney
Sydney's Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) held a meeting on December 6, attended by 25 people, to organise a defence campaign for four refugee supporters charged with helping asylum seekers who escaped from detention obtain false passports so they could leave Australia.
The meeting decided to draft a petition and a "drop the charges" statement that will be used to gather the names of organisations and prominent individuals who oppose the government's moves to punish the four. At least 10 asylum seekers who managed to escape from Australia were granted refugee status in New Zealand.
During RAC's meeting, activists got wind of a motion that Labor Senator Joe Ludwig planned to introduce into the Senate on December 7 that, if passed, would have declared the Senate's support for charges that have not even gone before the courts.
The motion stated: "That the Senate (a) notes and affirms the recent action of officers from the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs and the Australian Federal Police in raiding places suspected of manufacturing counterfeit passports; (b) notes that the forgery of passports is a serious crime; (c) rejects claims from the Refugee Action Coalition that alleged manufacture of these passports was somehow justified; (d) in particular, totally rejects claims by the Refugee Action Coalition that such actions have any similarity with those who broke the law to free Jews from Nazi Germany; and (e) notes the hurt and damage that such absurd claims do to the cause of genuine refugee activists who abide by the law."
In less than 16 hours, RAC and Labor for Refugees members issued press releases condemning the planned motion and contacted ALP parliamentarians to express their disgust at Ludwig's motion. The motion was later withdrawn.
Ludwig was particularly offended by comparisons made between the actions of refugee supporters who helped asylum seekers to flee Australia and the those of people who helped Jews to flee Nazism during World War II.
Activists have often pointed to the example of Frank Foley, a British official based in Berlin in the 1930s, whose name was in the news in mid-November when he was honoured with an official ceremony in Germany. Working as a passport control officer, Foley ignored strict regulations and issued thousands of visas to Jews trying to escape persecution. His bending of the rules under which London was trying to limit Jewish migration to British-ruled Palestine also included helping to forge passports.
All struggles for human rights have at times involved breaking bad laws. These have included the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, the struggle of Jewish people and others to escape Nazi tyranny, and the refusal of many young men to fight in the Vietnam War. More recently, thousands of Australians joined a sanctuary network coordinated by members of the Catholic Church. They said they were prepared to break the law to shelter Timorese refugees whom the government wanted to deport.
Comparing these with refugee supporters who face charges today is entirely justifiable. The Edmund Rice Centre released a report in October called Deported to Danger, which found that the government had deported people to countries such as Iran, Algeria, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan where they faced extreme danger. To do this, the immigration department sometimes used false documents. An interim report released by the Edmund Rice Centre in March, titled No Liability — Tragic Results from Australia's Deportations, discovered that at least three people were killed when they were sent back, and others have disappeared.
[To read the RAC statement visit <http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2004/610/610p7c.htm>.]
From Green Left Weekly, December 15, 2004.
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