The Melbourne University Refugee Action Collective presents a panel discussion on campus with:
> Professor Patrick McGorry, 2010 Australian of the Year
Patrick McGorry is a psychiatrist and the Professor of Youth Mental Health at Melbourne University. Since being awarded the 2010 Australian of the Year for his services to youth mental health, McGorry has been an outspoken advocate of refugee rights. He has described immigration de...tention centers as "factories for producing mental illness and mental disorder". McGorry will be speaking on the horrenous conditions for refugees languishing in Australian detention centers.
> Abdul Baig, a political refugee from Pakistan
Abdul was witness to protests inside Maribyrnong Detention Center in the early 2000s. The recent refugee protests in Villawood and Christmas Island have shown that far from faceless victims, refugees have the will to assert their humanity. Abdul will be speaking about the human stories of refugees held in detention.
> Naomi Farmer, from Refugee Action Collective Victoria
Australian nationalist mythology tells us that we live in the lucky country, the land of the "fair go". Yet politicians of both major parties have, in their race to the bottom on refugee rights, demonstrated more compassion for cattle than the lives of refugees traded as political footballs under the Malaysia Solution. Over 5000 refugees remain locked up in detention centres, the conditions of which have been likened by Professor Patrick McGorry to "factories of mental illness", for committing no crime whatsoever. As the SBS series Go Back to Where you Came From vividly highlights, the human casualties of war and persecution should not be criminalised for seeking asylum. Come along to this special panel discussion to hear 2010 Australian of the Year Patrick McGorry and former Maribyrnong detainee Abdul Baig speak out for a more humane refugee policy.
MURAC is a diverse coalition of students united in our opposition to the inhumane treatment asylum seekers receive at the hands of the Australian government. We meet weekly on the second floor of Union House, 1pm every Tuesday.
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