The Refugee Advocacy Network, the coalition that organised the World Refugee Day march in Melbourne on June 20, has called another mass rally and march for Sunday November 7.
The focus of the rally will be to call for an end to the policy of Mandatory Detention. There are currently over 4600 people in detention centres, places that 2010 Australian of the Year, mental health advocate Pat McGorry, described as "factories for producing mental illness".
We have a new parliament, but the old, brutal policy of mandatory detention remains. We need to raise our voices and say enough. It is time for a fundamental change in the way we treat asylum seekers.
We are organising this rally in order to demonstrate that there is strong support for refugees, and that the refugee movement is expecting humanitarian changes to refugee policy from the new parliament.
For more information or to add your endorsement email refugeeadvocacynetwork@gmail.com
Comments
Re: Justice for Refugees: End Mandatory Detention Rally
It's beyond time that politics was taken out of the asylum seeker/boat arrival issue. Australia is signatory to a raft of UN conventions eg., human rights, torture, women and children etc.
We need to get politicians of all persuasions (50% + 1) to support legislation to take the treatment of asylum seekers out of the hands of the Minister of the day and the bureaucrats to prevent the politicisation of refugees. Let's treat it as a human rights issue.