From: ASAP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 15:39:46 +1000
Dear refugee rights supporter,
Following is a call from Free the Refugees Campaign in Sydney to turn
Tampa Day, August 26, into a shame John Howard day and to call again for
an end to mandatory detention.
It's designed to take advantage of the expected heightened media focus
around the anniversary of the MV Tampa crisis.
It's a campaign which can be run in a very decentralised way, but which
can also go hand in hand with other actions already being planned to
mark this important date.
It could be used to set up refugee groups on more schools, work places,
campuses and neighbourhoods, and in so doing create an even bigger
network of people prepared to campaign for the humane treatment of
refugees and asylum seekers.
Free the Refugees Campaign in Sydney will be popularising Tampa Day by
urging refugee rights supporters to buy and wear black armbands (and
earn some much needed cash for the campaign!).
If your group thinks it may like to do the same, we'd love to hear from
you. If you'd like to endorse the campaign please email
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or ring Lisa Macdonald on 0413
031 108 or myself on 0412 139 968.
Please publicise this call in whatever way you can. The more groups
taking action around Tampa Day the greater our collective strength to
force Howard to back down.
Thank-you,
Pip Hinman
----------------------------------------------------------------
August 26: Tampa Day
Shame on Howard! End Mandatory Detention! No deportations!
August 26 is the first anniversary of the Tampa crisis when the Howard
government refused to allow the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa to deliver
to Christmas Island those asylum seekers it had rescued, and it marks a
year of the misnamed "Pacific Solution".
If not for Captain Arne Rinnan's determination to ensure the well-being
of 438 Afghan, Iraqi and Palestinian refugees, the MV Tampa may have
become just another blip in the litany of Canberra's human rights abuses
of asylum seekers.
It was Captain Rinnan's humanitarian approach to those in need and his
refusal to ignore the law of the sea which prompted the Pacific
Solution, a mechanism to coerce Australia's poor, Pacific neighbours to
take responsibility for asylum seekers intercepted by Australian navel
vessels in Australian territorial waters.
Last year some $500 million was allocated to the Pacific Solution. This
year, some $3 billion has been devoted to "border protection" keeping
out the miserable few thousand people who manage to make it to
Australia's shores.
Recently another survivor of the vessel which sank off Indonesia last
October, repeated the claim that Australian naval vessels were sighted
nearby. The Australian navy did not assist, and 353 people drowned.
Thousands of refugees, including children, remain detained without trial
in remote detention centres at Woomera and Port Hedland and in the
off-shore detention centres in Nauru and PNG.
The government's attempts to forcibly repatriate Afghans who do not
accept the bribe to return to the war-ravaged country is further cause
for concern.
Enough is enough. Already this year, tens of thousands of Australians
have stood up for refugees' rights and against mandatory detention in
February in solidarity with the Woomera hunger strikers; on Palm Sunday
all around the country; at Woomera and Villawood over Easter; and most
recently to mark World Refugee Day on June 22-23.
One year after the Tampa provides an opportunity to declare our shame at
Australia's treatment of refugees and asylum seekers.
On August 26, Tampa Day, wear a black arm-band to show your opposition
to the inhumanity of the government's refugee policies.
End mandatory detention! Full rights, not temporary visas! No
deportations! Money for resettlement, not the Pacific solution!
Initiated by Free the Refugees Campaign, Sydney
Endorsed by: Professor Margaret Reynolds (United Nations Association of
Australia); Susan Connolly (Mary MacKillop Institute for East Timorese
Studies); Karol Florek (Fortians for Refugees); Andrew Hall (Public
Servants for Refugees, ACT); Susan Varga (Rural Australians for
Refugees); Eva Sallis (Australians Against Racism); Nicola Gates
(ChilOut, Children out of Detention); Riz Wakil (Progressive Young
Hazaras)
--
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