This is the season of hope, but for so many refugees it’s a time of despair.
This year, the Government and Tony Abbott’s Coalition got together to re-introduce the worst elements of John Howard’s Pacific Solution even though we’ve known for a long time that cruel policies to punish refugees will not save their lives.
As the year comes to an end, many of us reflect on the type of society we want to live in. Wouldn’t we do whatever we could to seek safety and freedom for our families if we faced war and brutality?
Click here to write a message of hope to refugees in detention.
Locking up refugees will never stop the boats, because we can never match the horrors people are fleeing. Nor should we try to.
Our first priority must be saving lives, and we can only do that by providing safer pathways, not by punishing desperate people. Refugees make the dangerous journey to Australia because they are fleeing war zones in which applying for a visa through normal channels is not possible.
The Greens have been working hard to create safer pathways for refugees. We have urged Parliament to take immediate action to save lives and bring compassion and respect for human rights into Australia’s immigration system.
As you spend time with family and friends during the holiday season, please take a moment to consider the refugee families who are locked up, indefinitely in some cases, in immigration detention.
Click here to join us in sending a message of hope to refugees.
Yours sincerely,
Sarah
P.S. Labor has just quietly decided to cut around $400 million from our foreign aid budget and use it to pay for their failed and inhumane detention network. This is unacceptable. Please join our call to Minister Carr to spend our foreign aid on alleviating poverty, not on propping up their Pacific Solution.
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