Refugee rights supporters gathered outside the Park Hotel prison again to demand the detainees be released and for all detention centres to be closed down. Chloe DS reports.
TPVs
The release of refugees from detention has given activists hope that there will be a change in policy. But, as Chloe DS writes, they won't stop organising until all refugees are released and given permanent protection.
A newly-formed refugee and asylum seeker-led organisation — Justice for Refugees — coordinated national protests on September 14 to demand an end to the discrimination they face under Australia's onshore asylum seeker policy.
The Sydney Refugee Action Coalition released the statement below on September 10.
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Refugee advocates have rejected immigration minister Scott Morrison’s latest push to introduce temporary protection visas.
“The Minister is holding asylum seeker children hostage to the introduction of temporary protection visas,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.
"We are calling on all parliamentarians to reject the minister’s blackmail attempt and vote against the reintroduction of TPVs.
Immigration minister Scott Morrison has circumvented the Senate block of Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs) by making use of a different type of visa — Temporary Humanitarian Concern visas (subclass 786) (THC).
Labor and the Greens blocked Morrison’s attempt to reintroduce TPVs in December when they voted it down in the Senate. Morrison initially tried to cap permanent protection visas in response, but was later forced to lift the cap.
