The Tampa - one year on
Rally for Refugee Rights
Anniversary of the Tampa
5pm, Friday August 30
State Library
cnr Latrobe St and Swanston St, Melbourne
Endorsed by the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria, Victorian Trades
Hall Council, and the National Union of Students.
(posters & leaflets can be picked up from Trades Hall, cnr Lygon & Victoria
Sts - please help by putting up a poster or handing out some leaflets!)
One year ago on August 30, the Tampa, a Norwegian freighter loaded with
over
400 refugees rescued by Captain Arne Rinnan from a sinking boat,
attempted
to take them to Christmas Island. The Tampa was stopped in its tracks
when
armed SAS soldiers occupied the freighter. This was the first time
Australia
had used armed forces to turn away refugees seeking asylum. The
refugees
were taken to the island nation of Nauru, which allowed the Australian
government to build two detention centres there in return for payments of
tens of millions of dollars.
The Tampa marked the beginning of the Pacific Solution, where boats of
refugees are turned away at gunpoint, or the refugees on them are taken to
detention centres on Nauru and in Papua New Guinea. This program has
cost
Australia hundreds of millions of dollars, but costs refugees even
more - their human rights. The Pacific Solution has seen the establishment
of unwelcome penal colonies on poorer nations, desperate for bribes
Howard
offered.
While some 150 of the Tampa refugees were processed in New Zealand
and live
freely there, hundreds still languish in the terrible conditions of the
camps on Nauru, and many face eventual forced deportation to the
instability
and dangers of Afghanistan.
In the aftermath of the Tampa, other harsh measures were taken against
refugees, including new temporary visas that never allow the refugees to
acquire permanent status. Refugees, having been accepted as genuine,
are
left leading lives in fear of eventual deportation. They are
separated forever from family left behind - temporary visa holders are
unable to either bring family members to Australia, or leave Australia to
visit them.
A year ago, opponents of the government's refugee polices looked on
helpless
as the Tampa scandal unfolded. This year, the Refugee Action Collective
invites you to take action to support the hundreds of refugees from the
Tampa still stranded in the Pacific hellholes.
Join us to rally and march through the streets of Melbourne to show our
opposition and our determination to end the imprisonment of asylum
seekers,
and the temporary visa system.
*
No 'Pacific Solution' - let the boats land
Abolish Temporary Protection Visas
End mandatory detention
Stop racist scapegoating
Stop deportation of asylum seekers
*
The Refugee Action Collective of Victoria meets every Tuesday at 6pm at
Trades Hall, cnr Lygon and Victoria Sts
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Phone 9659 3505
www.rac-vic.org
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