Just been writing to some Labor Politicians who reckon they care about refugees. I wonder how they then stay in the Labor party. This is what I said..... Sent: Wednesday, 28 May 2014 8:07 PM To: Landsberry, Kathryn (Sen J. Faulkner) Subject: RE: Please vote in caucus to oppose offshore detention. Dear Senator Thank you for your reply email. I see your cited speeches refer to the UN Convention on Refugees. I wonder then, if you support uholding the intent of the Refugee Convention, how you reconcile remaining a representative of the Labor Party who, when in government, and now in opposition, continues to support the arbitrary and indefinite detention of asylum seekers and bone fide refugees, and subjecting people (including children) to conditions which put their physical and mental health at risk, in order to persuade them to return to their homelands, and deter further people from seeking asylum in Australia. As I am sure you are aware, such actions constiture breaches the following international human rights conventions: • The United Nations Refugee Convention and Protocol • The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights • Convention on the Rights of the Child • The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Further to this, it appears to constitute a crime against humanity contrary to section 268.12 of the Criminal Code (Commonwealth): 268.12 Crime against humanity – imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty (1) A person (the perpetrator) commits an offence if: (a) the perpetrator imprisons one or more persons or otherwise severely deprives one or more persons of physical liberty; and (b) the perpetrator’s conduct violates article 9, 14 or 15 of the Covenant; and (c) the perpetrator’s conduct is committed intentionally or knowingly as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population. Penalty: Imprisonment for 17 years. Article 9 of the Covenant prohibits arbitrary detention, yet people sent to Nauru and Manus Island, by Australia at Australia’s expense, are being arbitrarily detained in disturbing conditions. The refugees without ASIO security clearances are also being arbitrarily detained. This then constitutes a crime against humanity, according to the Criminal Code in section 268.12. Your Party has participated in all these things in demonising asylum seekers over the past years. I urge you to take a bold and courageous personal stand on this issue. It s something that cannot be compromised on. Your party, Labor, introduced No work Rights. The No advantage policy. Ceased processing claims of arrivals. Reopened Manus and Nauru and continued the propaganda war against refugees in the past three years – calling them illegal when they are not, calling them economic migrants when around 90% are determined to be legitimate refugees in need of our protection. Nothing is in place to stop a repeat of the horrific events in February on Manus. The people in that facility live in fear every day. May I ask at what point you decide enough is enough on such a huge human rights issue and leave your morally corrupt party. Yours sincerely Andrea Callaghan From: Landsberry, Kathryn (Sen J. Faulkner) [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, 27 May 2014 8:11 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Please vote in caucus to oppose offshore detention. Dear Andrea, Thank you for your email concerning the motion to be considered by the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party Caucus on the issue of current asylum seeker policy and offshore detention. While it has never been my practice to canvass Caucus votes in the public arena, I do acknowledge your concern about this very important issue. I have made a number of speeches in the Senate restating my commitment to the fair and humane treatment of asylum seekers and refugees to Australia. I have included links below to some of these speeches for your reference. Regardless of the policies of the present Australian government, asylum seekers will continue to seek refuge here, and Australia has obligations under various international treaties to ensure that their basic human rights are respected and protected. We also have a moral obligation to ensure that asylum seekers to Australia find compassion, dignity and respect within our borders, as well as protection from persecution. Once again, thank you for writing to me to express your views on this issue, which I have certainly read and noted. With best wishes. Yours sincerely, JOHN FAULKNER 26 May 2014 Matters of Public Importance - Asylum Seekers Adjournment speech - The United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees Adjournment speech - The United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (Part 2) From: Andrea Callaghan [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, 26 May 2014 11:17 PM To: Andrea Callaghan Subject: Please vote in caucus to oppose offshore detention. Dear Senator I write to urge you to vote in favour of Melissa Parke and Anna Burke’s motion to the Labor caucus to oppose offshore detention. I work with Refugees on a daily basis and have done so for the past 3 years. During an average day at work I might overhear a colleague talk of a Tamil Refugee she works with who witnessed his mother – 8 months pregnant - being shot and murdered in front of him, and his siblings being brutally killed and hung from the rafters. This person might have been waiting for his visa to be processed for 4.5 years in Australia with still no final outcome. His family were murdered and he seeks asylum because of his ethnic group. From birth to death. Nothing he can do to disguise his ethnicity. So it s a life sentence to horror and persecution. So he comes here seeking protection. This person, waiting for 4.5 for protection and not knowing if he is safe yet...still... is a very very high suicide risk and when asked if he is planning to kill himself he says If I was I would not tell you... ... just another day at the office.... Someone else I working with has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from his life experiences due to his ethnicity too. He is also a Tamil person. His PTSD manifests through things like: in his minds eye, seeing dead bodies and body pieces hanging on trees when he looks at the droopy eucalyptus leaves during summer... he does not eat red meat as when raw, it reminds him of bloodied bodies after shellings he has witnessed during his peoples struggles... and if he hears a loud motorbike or a similar loud noise, he has flashbacks and re-lives the overhead bombing raids that killed his entire family in one foul swoop 10 years ago. He has been raped repeatedly as a prisoner as part of his torture. These are the very same people locked up in jails here (aka immigration detention centres) and these are the people our Government does everything in its power to deter and to mentally break. They are incredibly resilient people, and incredibly likeable. Gracious. Generous. Kind. But when they are breaking, the government and its people are pleased because it wants to deter them at any cost through the most inhumane policies in the history of Australia. And if they eventually give up and try to kill themselves – as is happening in detention centres all over Australian and on Manus and Nauru, the Government and its people don t mind at all. After all – the whole purpose of detention and Offshore processing and not giving legal assistance and not allowing work rights and not allowing family sponsorship is to break them. Labor played this game. A race to the bottom of humanity. It s a racist game being played with peoples lives. If the people seeking asylum coming here by boat were white Christians it would not be this way. I am sure of this. Let us not forget there has been NO ACTION on Reza Berati’s Murder on Manus and the massacring of many others. No visa processing of about 20 000 people here on the mainland for about 2 years. We need a more militant refugee human rights movement. Again I ask that you to vote in favour of Melissa Parke and Anna Burke’s motion to the Labor caucus to oppose offshore detention. There are so many reports that now document the abuses that asylum seekers are enduring in the offshore detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island.[1] Asylum seekers are living in terrible fear on Manus Island in the wake of Reza Berati’s violent death and the serious injuries perpetrated against other asylum seekers detained there. This is in addition to the alarming levels of despair evident on both Manus Island and Nauru as asylum seekers continue to wait for many months to find out their fate. It is clear that Australia cannot ensure the physical safety of the asylum seekers it has sent offshore and it is causing immense psychological harm. Research over the last decade shows the negative psychological impact of mandatory detention, including in offshore locations. Mandatory detention leads to an increased risk of depression, suicidal thoughts and self-harm for asylum seekers. Such is the level of despair, some asylum seekers have taken their own lives in immigration detention centres. Detention is a dehumanising experience that leads to mounting hopelessness and demoralisation.[2] Offshore detention centres are also extremely expensive. According to the Report of the National Commission of Audit, it costs more than $400,000 per asylum seeker per year to detain an asylum seeker in offshore detention. In contrast, it costs less than $100,000 a year to hold an asylum seeker in community detention and less than $50,000 to hold them on a bridging visa.[3] Sending asylum seekers who come to Australia by boat to offshore detention centres can no longer be supported. This policy punishes an already vulnerable population and does nothing to address the reasons why people flee persecution in their own countries. Neither does it address the needs of asylum seekers to find a durable solution elsewhere. More humane and effective measures are available, including increasing Australia’s Humanitarian intake and resettling more refugees from Indonesia and Malaysia, and processing the claims of asylum seekers in Australia, by prioritising community-based alternatives to detention. I urge the Australian Labor Party to show leadership on this issue and focus on protection policies to provide durable solutions for asylum seekers and refugees in the region. Yours sincerely Andrea Callaghan
Posted on: Wed, 28 May 2014 13:08:47 +0000
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