The protest will march to the Melbourne Immigration Detention Centre
FREE THE REFUGEES
END MANDATORY DETENTION
NO DEPORTATIONS TO DANGER
NO OFFSHORE PROCESSING/DUMPING
Speakers TBC. The protest will fly freedom kites, have a floating banner and a phone hook up to other refugee protests around the country.
With over 4,500 refugees in detention including over 500 children, the Immigration Ministers promises look more false than ever. Bowen promised to get all refugee children out of detention by June last year. Furthermore, Broadmeadows Detention Centre (MITA) was supposed to be converted to a low-security hostel facility for families. Instead, the start of 2012 has seen MITA converted into a high-security detention with up to 100 refugees languishing behind razor wire. One of the newest additions has been a family whose youngest child is 18 months.
Inside MITA, despair has reached new levels. Refugees have been on hunger strike, have sewn their lips, attempted suicide and many refugees recognised as such have not been given visas due to the long and unjustifiable wait for ASIO security checks. Worse still, some refugees will languish in indefinite limbo due to receiving negative security checks that are utterly opaque, secretive and without avenues for legal appeal. The one glimmer of hope, bridging visas, has fallen far short of the promised 100 detainees released a month.
On Easter Monday, join Refugee Action Collective Victoria in protesting outside MITA to demand that it and all other detention centres be shut down and the refugees inside released into the community where they can receive the protection and support that they need.
This protest is part of a weekend of action to draw attention to the horrors of mandatory detention. There will be a national convergence on Darwin and a protest outside the notorious Villawood detention centre in Sydney. http://refugee-rights.net/darwin-2012/
Public transport tip: Take a train to Gowrie Station (Upfield line). Then walk up the Hume Hwy for 15 minutes to Hungary Jacks.
For more info
www.rac-vic.org