refugees

The 'Pacific Solution' didn't work, and now Australia is trying the 'Malaysian Solution'. Under the Malaysian Solution, signed on 25th July 2011, Australia is once again out-sourcing its obligation to aid and help people seeking asylum. The agreementmeans that the next 800 asylum-seekers arriving in Australia by boat will, within 72 hours of their arrival, have their bio-metric data recorded and be flown to Malaysia. In return, Australia will allow 4000 people, who have already had their application for refugee status approved by the UNHCR, to move to Australia over the next four years.

A few days after the Malaysian Bar Association issued a statement opposing the recently-announced refugee swap between the Malaysian and Australian governments (“Asylum seekers and refugees are not commodities to be traded” – full text given below), the Refugee Action Collective in Melbourne called a protest at the GPO in Bourke Street, followed by a march down to the steps of Flinders Street Station.

The Human Rights Alliance
Media Release:

Urgent Action Required to Stop Detention Centre Deaths in Custody and the rise of mental illnesses. DETENTION CENTRES AT CRISIS POINT. Violence on the horizon.

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship has continued its criminality in its unlawful establishment under the instruction of the Australian government of Mandatory Detention Centres, such as the unlawful establishment that is the Curtin Detention Centre.

Hunger strikers, sit ins, petitions by brutalised souls cannot inspire the Government, DIAC and Serco to allow their visitors to meet them. The culture of secrecy and silence is unbelievable. The layers of racism in Australia continue unabated.