Samantha Ratnam: Free the Park Hotel prisoners, bring the Murugappan family #HomeToBilo
Samantha Ratnam, Leader of the Victorian Greens, marks Refugee Week in Parliament by highlighting Australia’s horrific treatment of people seeking asylum and refuge and calling on governments to do better.
Transcript:
Dr RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (13:09): Sunday was World Refugee Day and the start of Refugee Week. The theme this year is ‘Unity—the way forward’. We mark this year’s Refugee Week in the grim context of Australia’s horrific treatment of people seeking asylum and refuge. Over the last few weeks we have seen a four-year-old child punished to the point of hospitalisation because the federal government wants to look tough on borders. This cruel bravado has been aided and abetted through bipartisanship with the Labor Party. Put together they have made our treatment of people seeking asylum a political football and an example held up by the global community as the pinnacle of inhumanity. The federal government wants to make Priya, Nades, Kopika and Tharnicaa Murugappan an example to others who may be fleeing persecution and war: ‘Don’t come here’, they say, ‘or you too will be locked up on prison islands and punished for years on end’. But what both the Liberal and Labor parties do not seem to get is that you cannot deter people trying to save their own lives and the lives of their families; humans do not work that way.
While we watched with horror as Tharnicaa had to be evacuated for medical treatment there were more tragedies unfolding. There are 14 people being detained in the Park Hotel in Melbourne for no other reason than seeking a safe and peaceful life. Fourteen men also brought to the mainland for medical treatment but now detained in the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation centre have begun a hunger strike, with two being hospitalised in the last 48 hours. All the while the beautiful community of Biloela and refugee advocates provide a lifeline of hope with their daily protests and unwavering efforts to set these people free, reminding us that some unity still remains amongst the despair.
The content above from the originating party/author(s) may be of a point-in-time nature and edited for style and length. The views and opinions expressed are those of the original author(s). View original.
AusPol.co Disclaimer