The Gillard Labor government promised last year that all children would be released from detention by June, and then Bowen announced that all children would be released from detention by the end of June. Now it is clear that the government isn’t fulfilling their promise. They now say half will be out by the end of June.
The Refugee Action Collective (Victoria) is urging refugee supporters to protest outside Broadmeadows Detention... Centre to hold Labor to account for not releasing all children from detention. No child should be locked behind fences for the ‘crime’ of seeking asylum.
We oppose mandatory detention of all asylum seekers, but detaining children is especially abhorrent. These detention centres in deserts, offshore on Islands and other countries, but cities as well, breed mental illness, drive people to self-harm and commit suicide due to not only the conditions in which they are kept, but the sheer despair of not knowing when you’ll get out, if you’ll get a visa or if you’ll be deported back to the place you fled from.
We need as many people to come out on July the 9th from 2pm outside the Broadmeadows Detention Centre. Meet in the Kmart carpark on the corner of Camp and Sydney Road before we march to the detention centre.
We need to publically oppose locking children up and send a message to the Labor government that we’re not going to be silent whilst they commit the real crime, locking up refugees.