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| download petition 26 Kb Word doc |
| RAC myth-buster countering the latest list of political porkies |
When Kevin Rudd took power in 2007, many were hopeful that the dark days of Howard’s racism were behind us – the days of kids in detention, refugees dying at sea trying to make it Australia, and the Tampa.
Unfortunately Labor’s policies are not so different from the Liberals. More than 1,200 men, women and children are currently locked up in a maximum security detention centre on Christmas Island, while hundreds more are on boats in Indonesian harbours being used as pawns in a deadly game of diplomacy between Australia and Indonesia.
Once again it’s time to stand up and be counted, to stand up to the racist lies about asylum seekers, and to stand up for basic human rights.
Myth: The Tamil asylum seekers from Sri Lanka are economic migrants, terrorists or else should just go to India. Fact: The Sri Lankan government has been waging a civil war against the Tamil people for 25 years which had its bloody end earlier this year. They have detained 300,000 Tamil civilians in concentration camps in the north of the country where violent abuse, rape and disease is common. This is what the people escaping on leaky boats are running from. The narrow strait between Sri Lanka and India is heavily patrolled by both navies and there are more than 100 checkpoints on the coast of Tamil Nadu in India specifically to turn back refugees from Sri Lanka. India is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention.
Myth: Asylum seekers who attempt to come to Australia could have stopped off at another country on the way such as Indonesia.
Fact: Indonesia is not a signatory to the Refugee Convention and asylum seekers who end up there can be detained in appalling conditions for years on end. Even when organisations such as the UN refugee agency have determined that they are refugees, they have no rights in Indonesia to work, send their kids to school or reunite their families. Many of the people on the Oceanic Viking Australian customs ship were found to be refugees by the UN as many as five years ago but have still not been resettled
in a safe country – hence their desperate flight to Australia.
Myth: Asylum seekers who arrive by boat are “queue jumpers”.
Fact: There is no “queue” when you are running in fear for your life. There is not even an Australian diplomatic mission in Afghanistan, for example, at which to apply for asylum. In Sri Lanka, attempting to reach Colombo (the capital city) is a journey which involves the risk of imprisonment or torture for Tamils coming from the north of the country. Whatever the method of arrival (and 90% of refugee claims in Australia are made by people who arrived by plane anyway), the Immigration Department is required to assess them on their merits.
Once again decent, desperate people seeking refuge from persecution are being treated like criminals by the Australian government. Their most basic human rights are being abused in the name of "border security".
| Socialist Party national organiser Anthony Main visited the Tamil refugee boat in Merak, Indonesia. His eyewitness report and photos are available here. |
It is time to take a stand – demand Human Rights for All
Show your support for refugees – be part of this protest on Saturday, 5 December.
A number of speakers from refugee communities, and refugee advocates will speak at the rally.
Be there and spread the word widely through your networks.
Organised by Refugee Action Collective (Vic) and other refugee advocates, and endorsed by: Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Victorian Trades Hall Council, Australian Tamil Congress, Justice and Freedom for Tamils, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, Maritime Union of Australia, Electrical Trades Union, Construction, Forestry Mining & Energy Union-construction, Islamic Council, Australian Education Union, Liberty Victoria, The Greens, Friends of the Earth, Community Radio 3CR, South West Trades and Labour Council, Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective, Socialist Alliance, Researchers for Asylum Seekers, Socialist Alternative, Eelamurasu (Tamil community paper), Communist Party of Sudan (Melbourne), Merethan Vision, North East Refugee Organisation (NERO), Solidarity, National Tertiary Education Union, Socialist Party, Jewish Labour Bund, Australian Jewish Democratic Society, FMLN (Melbourne El Salvadorans, refugees from the 80s and 90s), Australia West Papua Association, Melbourne West Papua Community, Eritrean People's Movement (Melbourne), Australian Nursing Federation, RISE.
