End Mandatory Detention: Protest at Maribyrnong Detention Centre

When: Sunday, May 29, 2pm

Maribyrnong Detention Centre: 53 Hampstead Road, Maidstone

Contact Benjamin on 0402 766 009 or Sue on 0413 377 978

Australia's barbaric system of mandatory detention includes detention centres offshore, in deserts, but in the suburbs of major cities as well. One of those centres is in Maribyrnong in Melbourne's West, where high security fencing surround people who are locked up for doing nothing more than seeking asylum.

These detention centres can hold people indefinitely, sometimes for years, where asylum seekers are left wondering and despairing about when they will be released - or fearing being deported back to the countries in which they fled. This breeds mental illness and has led to many suicide attempts, sometimes successful.

Recently, detainees who rioted in Villawood Detention Centre, brought to the brink by this very system of despair and mental illness, were moved to Maribyrnong Detention Centre. We defend their right to protest their inhumane conditions and condemn any punishment they're given.

Refugee Action Collective (Victoria) demands an end to mandatory detention, the release of all refugees into the community and the end to all policies of offshore processing including the Malaysian "solution."

We call on those who support refugees to come out on May 29 at 2pm to the Maribyrnong Detention Centre to protest against mandatory detention and to show solidarity with those detained inside.

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Statement of Grave Concern
Over Australia's MOU with Afghanistan

The Afghan government has recently denied this MOU says what the Australian goverment says it does. The Afghan government knows better what the consequences are for returnees, and clearly have more concern for them than the Australian government has.

If the Australian government had honoured its agreement to take 500 refugees from Indonesia this year, this tragedy might not have happened.

There are currently 5,360 people locked in detention, of whom 856 are children. These children are deprived of education and often left without toys or means of recreation. Villawood Detention Centre denied entry of a soccer ball because it was a 'security risk.'

Instead of living like ordinary children, children in detention, like all detainees, are driven to self-harm and mental illness. We think they deserve to live like any other child.

What sort of country
treats innocent people like this?

• At present over 700 refugee children are held in detention in Australia. Many are unaccompanied minors.
• Government and media doublespeak obscures their fate.
• Detainees of all kinds and ages must be brought under the protection of the law.
• Children must be released into the community as promised by successive
• governments since 2005.
• It is Labor Party policy to have no children in detention.
• There was no mandatory detention until 1992.
• Some people are detained for months, even years.
• Detention results in despair, depression, self harm, suicides.
• Long term damage includes permanent disability for some children. Professor Patrick McGorry, psychiatrist and Australian of the year describes detention centres as “factories for mental illness.”
• End mandatory detention now.

2011
8 March Hazara boys in Darwin court hearing

2010
1 December Hazara children - Refugee Review Tribunal reveals truth
22 November Graphic photos of a detention escapee
19 November Sewing lips — again — a 'desperate act' of powerlessness
18 October Children to be released from detention
11 October Former refugee wins gold medal at games
11 October Greens plan to get children out of detention
9 October Immigration jails crack down on visits
22 September Former Fijian Prime Minister's plea failed to save Josefa Rauluni
21 September Suicide detainee's pleas were 'ignored'
20 September The cruelty and indignity of mandatory detention
23 August Man dies in Curtin immigration detention
6 July The ‘Timor Sea Solution’: a tragic return to the Howard Years?
24 June Asylum delay tantamount to murder
21 June Refugee debate out of touch: Red Cross
15 June Claims of stun guns being used in Australian-funded detention centres
18 May Report damns Tamil returns
17 May Sagging in polls, government toughens stance on asylum seekers
4 May A story from inside Australia's detention regime
27 April While the UN pulls its workers out of Afghanistan to keep them alive, Australia suspends processing visas of asylum seekers on the grounds that the situation in Afghanistan is improving, without examining their individual cases as is the proper process.
22 April Labor's racist record on refugees. Essential reading for people struggling to come to grips with PM Kevin Rudd's great leap backwards.
18 March Sri Lankan journalist arrested by anti-terrorist police
16 March Afghanistan Says It Enacted Law to Pardon War Crimes
10 March Sri Lanka asylum seekers in limbo (includes video)
9 February Refugees flee to capital of Helmand to avoid huge NATO Afghan offensive
5 February Christmas Island refugees under lock-down
30 January Tamil refugee hunger strike: ‘Why do they treat us like this?’
30 January Navy neglect caused refugee deaths
16 January Canadian govt may soon set free 76 Tamils
13 January ASIO's assessments can destroy lives
13 January UN calls for safety first, as Afghan civilian casualties rise by 14% in 2009

2009
29 December Jakarta protests condemn 'Indonesian Solution'
24 December Kevin Rudd to blame for Tamil refugee who dies in Merak
15 December Brain imaging shows kids' PTSD symptoms linked to poor hippocampus function in Stanford/Packard study
10 December Climate change creates refugees
7 December Refugees, research and the media; Pamela Curr identifies the missing link between what the media knows about some countries, and the way people are treated when they flee
5 December Merak Tamil refugees warn of deportation threat
30 November Dire situation for Tamil refugees
13 November An article in the Australian on why Sri Lankans don't go to India
12 November Against the war of words over Sri Lankan Tamils, Pamela Curr reminds us what is not being said.
6 November Jakarta Globe: For refugees Australia should rethink the Indonesia solution
6 November Union donates cash to asylum seekers
6 November Oceanic Viking - The Finale
6 November Galang's refugee hell
5 November Maritime Union of Australia says Sri Lankan refugees are Australia's responsibility
4 November Canadian to free migrant Tamils
4 November Australian Tamil: Allow refugees in.
4 November Australian governments have form on using force against asylum seekers
4 November Questions about refugee boats that need rescuing
2 November The racism that stops a nation. Join Getup's campaign against demonisation of asylum seekers.
1 November Some facts about boats from Indonesia
1 November The Push/Pull factor. What's behind it?
30 October Now it's Labor stirring racism against refugees, by Sandra Bloodworth
30 October Let the asylum seekers into Australia, by Liam Ward.
23 October A tour of Indonesian detention centres
21 October It's hard to understand why PM Rudd persists with his brutal attitude when so many keep breaking ranks.
27 October Prime Minister Rudd's Indonesian jails are mostly worse than Woomera or Port Hedland or Baxter or Curtin.....
20 October Immigration detention and offshore processing on Christmas Island: a report by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.
14 October Pamela Curr writes, "In the busy shipping lanes of the Mediterranean, 75 Eritrean men, women and children died of thirst in an open boat.
6 October Deportation to Sri Lanka goes horribly wrong
2 October Pamela Curr discusses the recent inquiry into the asylum seeker boat fire
10 September Detention debts finally dropped
2 August Afghan flees by air and flimsy boat
25 May Christmas Island is no paradise
22 May Australia signs UN protocol to the Convention against Torture
21 May Sri Lankan Tamils: Sharman Stone kicks a political football
9 May Indonesia and Australia: trading refugees for schools and roads
7 May When it comes to being humane and responsible, individuals are much better at it than desperate governments
24 April Pamela Curr reminds us exactly where the new arrivals are coming from, with more hope these days
16 April Why do they come? A round-up of a few newspaper articles.
16 April Liberals Wrong on Refugees — an article from the national paper, the Australian
14 April Seven years jail for going to church - and this is Australia!
9 April A "must read" for people interested in a human rights charter.
6 April The latest statistics from UNHCR
3 April The asylum seeker Australia sent home to be murdered (link goes to Melbourne "Age" newspaper)
2 April Prison cost-cutter with bad industrial record likely to get new detention management contract.
17 March New arrivals from Afghanistan show the Australian system still has serious problems.
20 March 'Mental Death' is a very useful article to explain why certain long-term ex-detainees behave in certain ways.
18 March Outstanding debts for accommodation while detained — dropped at last!
31 January The story of 193 Burmese Rohingyas — and how Kevin Rudd's Labor government keeps its hands clean.
28 January The tragic drowning of probably nine people who set out in a boat trying to get to Australia.
16 January 13 Afghans drown en route to Australia.
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2008
9 December Enough, Stone and Turnbull; TPVs are in fact providing customers for people smugglers
4 December The Coalition's politics of fear
2 December Committee squanders chance to end failed mandatory detention policy
8 November Hunger strike in Villawood detention centre. We appeal to the Australian community to look beyond the constant stream of 30 second sound-bites and one paragraph press releases that are used to justify the treatment of asylum seekers.
5 November The arrival of two boatloads of asylum seekers is the first test of Labor’s new detention policy, writes Michelle Dimasi on Christmas Island.
7 October A second boat with 17 people has arrived. Let us get ahead of the dogfight.
3 October Fourteen asylum seekers arrive in a boat, and the new Opposition shifts like the sands.
16 September Four Corners screens video of brutality to lawful citizen.
25 August Rachel Evans gives a report back after a visit to Villawood Detention Centre in Sydney.
13 August Mr Ruddock Regrets. Too late now, Phil.
29 July Minister of Immigration Chris Evans announces a new direction in immigration policy.
28 July "Minister's changes don't go far enough," from Ian Rintoul
28 July "Minister's changes don't go far enough" Media release from Ian Rintoul, RAC-NSW
12 July Four academics in Western Australia look at the role of the Australian community, in both allowing the hard-line treatment of asylum seekers by the Howard government, and in turning it around.
16 June Chinese dissident commits suicide after forcible deportation
11 June Pamela Curr lists as many of the inquiries into detention that she can remember since 1997
10 June Government launches inquiry into detention
30 May Gates of Hell up for auction
14 May Major changes to the Immigration Act, but still no end to mandatory detention.
8 May Asylum Seeker Resource Centre media release. Watch out, Rudd. We're going to be back on the streets soon.
7 May Back to Square One. Massive community protest has returned no change whatsoever. Surprised? Not us.
22 April Read David Sparkes's report back written after RAC's public meeting, Open The Gate!
22 April Prominent lawyer says Labor's "Indian Ocean Solution" replaces former "Pacific Solution."
18 April The party's over! The figures are in, and the new government is not looking that good after all.
18 March Four whole months after the new government was elected, asylum seekers with no access to any kind of government support are still asking for the right to work so they can support themselves.
11 March Time to end privatisation of immigration detention centres.
1 February Who would ever think this day would come?
9 February Damaged souls caught in third wave of suffering.
26 January A little thing called citizenship.
25 January Message from Lombok, Indonesia, where the husbands and fathers have been taken away to force these families into "voluntarily" return to Afghanistan.
23 January Bad Australian example spreads around the world.
13 January Pamela Curr reports on another death in Villawood detention centre.
9 January HREOC release - good news, but still a lot of work to be done.
Dec 07 - Jan 08 Sri Lankans still stuck on Nauru
7 January The tiny little island of Nauru is in economic trouble and a lot of the blame must go to Australia
1 January John Winston Howard, former PM, some background
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2007
24 November Federal election and a new government is elected. Should we hope for a more humane regime for all of us, not just asylum seekers?
3 November ASIO ordered to release documents used to decide three men were dangers to national security.
29 October Sri Lankans still on Nauru, with nowhere to go, despite being recognised as refugees by Australian government.
4 October Saved by a Razor Blade. All too often, dangerous measures are required to avoid deportation.
2 October Facing an imminent election, and desperate to hold on to power, the Australian government pulls out The Race Card again, this time attacking Sudanese immigrants.
October Erecting a memorial to the people who drowned trying to seek asylum in Australia.
28 September Last week saw two Tanzanians returned. A Chinese man who has been tortured is to face removal next week.
27 September Confessions of a people smuggler. Australian diplomat Bruce Haigh tells of people smuggling in another era.
July The detention of Dr Haneef. once more highlights the seemingly limitless power of the Immigration Act.
June World's fastest growing refugee crisis. Read an article in Socialist Alternative magazine.
12 June Nauru still being used by Australia to dump unwated asylum seekers. Read these articles from The Age newspaper.
May Economic Management. The financial cost of detention centres.
April New life for Baxter detention centre? It looks like this concentration camp will soon hold soldiers.
Refugee swapping Was this set up by the sinister Ruddock?
April Terror stalks Chinese asylum seekers in Australian camps .
19 April Australia no help to Iraqi refugees - fleeing war caused by Australia.
22 March 07 Malaysia to do Australia's dirty work. Article in Age, with intro by Pamela Curr.
and continuing Despite Kevin Rudd's promise to make Australia "a more humane place" nothing much has filtered down to the refugees.
Christmas Island Detention Centre "A gulag" 30 March article, Green Left Weekly.
3 March The Howard government is in trouble - so here comes that Race Card again.
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2006
6 August Attempted Suicide in Baxter Detention Centre.
5 August Abandoned. How Australia treats child asylum seekers who arrive unaccompanied.
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2005
December "Dumped at the Gate; From Detention to Despair, Recommendations for minimum standards for the Post-Detention settlement of Asylum seekers." Published by The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (PDF 583Kb)
28 October Speech by ‘Ali’ an asylum seeker on Lombok, read at GPO, Melbourne.
Open letter to the Prime Minister of Australia, the Hon John Howard MP, drafted by a National Committee convened by Labor for Refugees.
Palmer Report RAC(Vic) hopes the Rt Hon John W. Howard PM's chickens are coming home to roost at last. The detention of two Australian citizens, and even the deportation of one of them, have opened up the cracks.
Baxter News Inspirationally, while incarcerated, a group of Baxter detainees managed to compile, publish and distribute a regular newsletter. Prior to the Easter convergence RAC obtained a copy of the latest issue, which included the results of a survey among detainees about the prospect of loss of privilege during the forthcoming protest.
Cornelia Rau Asylum seekers give their opinion about sharing their accommodation with an Australian person.
18 October Christine Rau speaks about her sister's experiences in Baxter detention centre.
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2004
Chemical Restraint If someone is likely to physically struggle against deportation, it is common for the Department of Immigration to forcibly jab them with a syringe full of muscle relaxant. Read this transcript of an interview on Melbourne's community radio station, 3CR, between former ACM nurse Barbara Rogalla and human rights worker Charandev Singh.
Voices on the line While trying to get through on the phone to refugee friends locked up in Baxter detention centre, activist Tanya McConvell kept a record of her thoughts. Read her eloquent piece here. A warning to delicate people: "The magic word" makes frequent appearances.
War creates refugees Read this interesting article about why RAC opposes the occupation of Iraq.
16 November Stand up for refugees; statement by RAC.
September "Deported to Danger." 40 asylum seekers rejected and deported by the Australian government were followed to their destinations by Edmund Rice Centre for Justice & Community Education, who published their findings with the School of Education, Australian Catholic University. (PDF 747Kb)
Sydney RAC Activists recently organised a protest at Ruddock's house. Read this first hand report.
April "Tall Tales, But True" Almost every refugee activist has read, if not bought, this very well backgrounded book by David Maher and Marianne Wilkinson. Read this review. Then buy the book.
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2003
December What was really behind the fires in the camps? Download this comprehensive background article.
December Report of the rooftop protest and crackdown at Port Hedland Detention centre.
April "Assaults." Refugee activist Pamela Curr records every detail in her attempt to get police to investigate brutality in Baxter detention.
Shame, Australia, Shame An article by Jane Keogh
15 April Independent Monitors required. Greens Spokesperson for Refugees, Pamela Curr, calls for independent monitoring of Baxter detention centre.
"Genuine" vs "Non-Genuine" from the point of view of one ethnic Hazara from Afghanistan. To get an insight into the problems Hazara face, both in Afghanistan and in their quest to come to Australia, read this interesting article. Requires Acrobat Reader which is a free program.
The Pacific Solution The government is trying to export Australia's refugees to surrounding Pacific nations. Taking the policy to task is this fact sheet.
Forced deportations RAC organised a campaign against forced deportations. As we built up an emergency phone network to stop the deportations we produced a leaflet from which this text is taken.
Launceston's pro-refugee campaign were an inspiration to all of us when they united in support of the Sawari family who subsequently had their TPV status reinstated.
1700 East Timorese are in Australia, some of whom have been here for 10 years. Now they face forced deportation! This interview with Fivo Freitas, a 28 year old East Timorese asylum seeker is an introduction to this crucial issue. Also included is an article by refugee advocate Gillian Davey who argues that giving residency to 300 East Timorese asylum seekers is not enough!
What are Australia's refugee numbers? Are refugees terrorists? What sort of accomodation do detention centres offer? View this article from the Edmund Rice centre for more information.
Iranian country info This report was compiled by RAC Canberra and looks at what Iranian refugees face if succesfully deported.
TPV holders are effective second class citizens in Australia, constantly in a state of limbo.
The Fall Guy Refugee activists believe the Mayor of Port Augusta was set up by the Prime Monster, John Howard.
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2002
September In far north Western Australia Curtin Detention Centre, under the psychopathic management of Greg Wallis, was even worse than Woomera.
Late A visit to Baxter. Mullumbimby activist Sara Saint-Saens visited Baxter, and wrote about her impressions.
3 June Woomera Nurse speaks out. Nurse Noira-Jane couldn't stand it any more.
18 May Are the USA and Australia playing 'Swapsies' with refugees?
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2001
There should be stacks from 2001 and 2002. God knows where it all is.
Do you have anything on your PC that you would like to share with us?
If so, please send it to refugeeaction@hotmail.com

2000
November 2000 Deportation to death; describing the rejection of an asylum seeker and his deportation to Algeria, ultimately leading to his death. This is an old but nevertheless highly relevant article from the Age.