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Clearing
his desk |
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| Immigration
Minister Andrews is clearing his desk, which means that the sick, the mentally
ill and the tortured are being rounded up and removed. Doctor’s reports
are ignored. Advice that a person is not in a fit mental and physical state
are disregarded. Even requests from the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva
are cast aside as the Minister despatches the weak, terror stricken and
distraught to an uncertain fate in countries with some of the world’s
most appalling human rights records.
Last week saw two Tanzanians returned. One man had walked to South Africa and stowed away on a ship to escape threats to his life. He arrived in Australia healthy and fit, if scared. He was removed in a broken state; suicidal, depressed and going blind after five years in an Australian detention centre. He has Glaucoma which cannot be treated in Tanzania. In Australia he would retain his sight. This is the choice made by Andrews, The People Mover. A Chinese man who has been tortured is to face removal next week. Andrews has no compunction about sending people back to China in spite of its record, because there are no Human Rights agencies monitoring returns. Once they leave the plane and into the arms of the PSB, no-one will ever know. Our own personal monitoring system shows that very few people actually get back home to their families. They are never seen again. Another deft touch from the Ruddock era is the ongoing punishment of those who arrived by boat and who were locked up in the desert hellholes. Not content with detaining them in the worst conditions imaginable in the early days of detention, Ruddock has ensured that selected refugees do not get Permanent Visas. This means that they are denied family reunion. Hearts and spirits are breaking as fathers and sons are denied the chance to see or reunite with their loved ones. Imagine last seeing a child in 2000 and having to wait until 2011 to see that child because you have received another temporary visa. Why? Because, at the height of the detention horror, you escaped. Some escapees were out for as little as two hours before handing themselves in to police. Ruddock insisted they were charged two and three years later. When magistrates refused to record convictions which would affect their chances of a permanent visa, Ruddock went back to the Courts to appeal and ensured that convictions were recorded. So for two hours of freedom these men now must wait another three to five years for their permanent visas, and with it, family reunion. How is that for good old Aussie justice, Ruddock/Howard style? Then the next horror arrives. Having applied for the Permanent Visa and getting in, these people then apply for visas to get their wives and children to Australia. Then they wait and wait and wait. These visas are processed through Islamabad which is currently working on the 2005 applications, so we are looking at a two to three year wait while embassy staff s-l-o-o-w-l-y process the applications. Meanwhile children grow and their parent’s hopes and spirits shrink with the pain of separation. So while journalists and the Australian public may wish for an election to end the boredom of the Howard years, spare a thought for the refugees and asylum seekers living in dread for every day that this government endures. Every day we face people whispering the plea “Have you heard anything?” We know what they mean as we wait with them with hope - but not surety - that a change of government may end this human suffering. Pamela Curr |
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