A group has been formed to co-ordinate visits to people in the two detention centres in Melbourne. Bring food! Bring your friends! Bring a guitar! Bring a soccer ball! Make it a fun group activity!
"The ongoing protests by the young, broke and often illiterate Indonesian "smuggling mules" who earned as little as $50 for sailing a group of refugees to the Indonesian islanders' age-old fishing grounds of Ashmore Reef needs close, thorough and complete scrutiny and a full review under the next Federal Parliament," according to WA Human Rights group Project SafeCom after the recent protest at Darwin Dentention Centre.
Media Release - Monday August 30, 2010
"The arrival of his morning's asylum boat with 59 passengers off Christmas Island is by all accounts the 500th vessel arriving on our shores for the purpose of seeking protection under the terms of the UN Refugee Convention since April 1976," WA Human Rights group Project SafeCom said this morning...
NZ Green Party MP Keith Locke was one of those who addressed a 500-600 strong gathering outside the Melbourne Town Hall last night at the end of a rally called by the Refugee Action Collective under the banner "Stand Up For Refugees".
That was the question put by students from Kilbreda College, Mentone, today in an action organised by the Refugee Action Network on the steps of the old GPO in Bourke Street. They mimed the arrival of a boatload of asylum seekers, followed by their reception, processing and eventual fate. At the same time, volunteers from the ASRC and others handed out fact sheets to passers-by, and Pamela Curr went on to recount some recent case histories and set out some facts to counter the current widespread misinformation in the community.
Juice media have produced an excellent 10 minutes documentary on the May Day 2010 asylum seeker solidarity action that saw members of Melbourne indigenous community offer passports to asylum seekers stuck in Indonesia and Christmas Island.
Previous indymedia article on the action here.
In a cynical and disgusting act, the ALP has stirred up a âdebateâ on asylum seekers within days of capitulating to the major mining corporations. Once again the rich and powerful seek to scapegoat the weak and vulnerable to disguise their misdeeds. The mainstream media has jumped to the cue, no-longer discussing the âold newsâ of how multi-national mining companies have successfully avoided paying billions of dollars in tax and helped engineer the overthrow of sitting PM in the process.
After a series of sudden and drastic moved initiated by a handful of people within some fractions of the Australia Labor Party on Wednesday evening, Australians woke up the next morning (24 June 2010) watching their elected Prime Minister (Kevin Rudd) cried in front of the TV screen after he was told by the dozens of his colleagues he was finished as prime minister. (Herald Sun, 25 June 2010)
Over the next few weeks hundreds of Afghan Hazaras in Darwin, Christmas Island and Villawood detention centres, are going to be refused visas on the grounds that Afghanistan is "evolving" and that it is safe to return. The evidence of persecution and the stories of fear of return have not changed in the past month.
The Hazaras were being granted refugee visas at the rate of 100% until now. What has changed are politics in Australia and the looming election.
Melbourne action day 2010. All over Melbourne diverse acitons took place on this traditional day of protest. From BBQs, rallies, placing banners to zombie shuffles Melbourne buzzed with activity.
