The Refugee Action Collective (RAC) held a vigil on Monday, 26 October, at 5.30pm at Federation Square to demand fair treatment of refugees risking their lives to come to Australia by boat while escaping from war-torn countries. They are also demanding that refugees be processed on the Australian mainland and provided with a safe haven when they arrive.

The vigil was supported by the Tamil Community. Currently Tamil refugees are escaping from Sri Lanka by boat to Australia due to large scale human rights abuses against Sri Lanka’s Tamil population.

RAC believes that asylum seekers are not illegal and have a right to have their claims assessed immediately. Mandatory detention is a cruel and unnecessary policy that the Australian people disagree with. The overwhelming majority of asylum seekers qualify for refugee status under international law.

For further information contact:
Marie 0409 252673, Sue 0413 377 978 or Sylvie 0409 190 738

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The Australian government seems to have dangerously sided with Sri Lankan fake Buddhist Sinhala “loyalist” immigrants against Tamil immigrants in Australia + has moved to ban any Tamil resistance in Sri Lanka as being just terrorist organizations – regardless of the human rights abuses of the land-grabbing Sri Lankan government…..

In order to justify that mistake, Australia now seeks to oppress + suppress refugees arriving from Sri Lanka by whatever means – including desperately attempting to dump them upon third nations such as Indonesia, uhh. This is a gross failure by self-serving white settler society….. but the Australian authorities are guilty of their own deceitful land-grab (the “NT Intervention” – an oppression of First Nation black Australians + a kind of mini martial law, uhh)…..

Also see http://www.tamilnation.org/refugees/index.htm

Over the next six years at least Amnesty International will work to shift the balance of power together with those who have been so far denied a say as they tell their own stories and strive to engage in the processes that determine their own future….. http://www.amnesty.org/en/demand-dignity

The billions of people who live in poverty are shut out, ignored and denied security by the actions and failures of the powerful. This is a human rights crisis….. http://thereport.amnesty.org/en/global-themes/demand-dignity

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‘The Australian’ has argued consistently for an increase in the numbers of refugees admitted to this country via the established resettlement process. In regional forums we should be pushing for other nations to increase their intakes, too, just as nations are being asked to be responsible global citizens on climate change. Those assessed as refugees should not have to languish for years….. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/ 0,25197,26290738-16741,00.html

INDONESIA is not a refugee ‘dumping ground’ – An Indonesian provincial governor refused Tuesday to allow an Australian customs vessel to unload 78 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers, saying Indonesia is not a “dumping ground” for refugees. Opposition to the arrival of the migrants came as Australia stressed it was not trying to push asylum-seekers back onto Indonesia, the main transit country for migrants hoping to reach Australia by boat…..

Indonesia agreed to take the Sri Lankans on humanitarian grounds after the Australian navy rescued them off the Indonesian island of Sumatra last week. But the governor of Riau Islands province, where the migrants are expected to be housed in a detention centre while their refugee claims are processed, said they were Australia’s problem….. http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/ASAZ-7X8CS3?OpenDocument

The United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees is an international convention that defines who is a refugee, and sets out the rights of individuals who are granted asylum and the responsibilities of nations that grant asylum….. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_Relating_to_the_Status_of_Refugees

The 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees is the key legal document in defining who is a refugee, their rights and the legal obligations of states. The 1967 Protocol removed geographical and temporal restrictions…. http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49da0e466.html

VIDEO – Behind Australian Doors – Promo Trailer http://www.vimeo.com/6328019

In Indonesia, it is common to wait two to three years to be determined as a refugee, but with little prospect of third country resettlement, the report, by Australian lawyer and refugee advocate Jessie Taylor, says.

Less than 1 per cent of the world’s refugees were resettled in third countries in 2008….. Ms Taylor visited 11 places of detention in Indonesia in July, and interviewed 250 people. ”Beatings usually occur after escapes from detention facilities, as a ‘punishment’ of remaining detainees for the escape of others,” the report continues.

Among the 2000 people held in prisons, detention centres and compounds across the country, there are refugees once granted temporary protection in Australia, the report says. http://www.theage.com.au/national/asylum-seekers-beaten-in-indonesia-20091103-hva8.html

http://www.actnow.com.au/Stories/Jessie_Taylor_wants_to_clean_up_detention_centers.aspx

Sub-Regional Operations Profile – East Asia and the Pacific – In INDONESIA, the authorities are cooperating with UNHCR in preparation for the country’s accession to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol….. http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/page?page=49e487af6

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Oceanic_Viking

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