On Palm Sunday Asylum Seekers, men, women and children on Nauru staged a two-hour long protest at the gates of the family detention compound, RPC3 chanting "Freedom" and Justice" and displaying banners detailing their plight.
The Nauru protest coincided with the Palm Sunday "Welcome Refugee" rallies around Australia that were attended by an estimated 50,000 people. These rallies and marches called for the government to let the 267 Asylum Seekers from Manus Island and Nauru, stay in Australia, and to close offshore detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru.
The Asylum Seekers on Nauru shared some photographs of their event that clearly bring a human face to those that are suffering at the hands of the Government.
The alarming numbers are that these innocent people have been held in detention for 995 days with the group comprising 4 babies, 45 children, 54 women and 46 men.
We have heard from our Prime Minister that one child is too many to be in detention yet he leads a government that has held 49 children for just under 3 years.
At a time when the Government is rightly spending significant amounts of money on The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in an effort to end child abuse in our public institutions it is inexcusable for the Government to, in effect, be sponsoring child abuse in the offshore detention centres.
995 days is 80 days longer than the term of the current government and demonstrates that both major political parties are equally culpable in this abuse. It must end with the closing of the camps on Manus and Nauru.
These are the faces the Government would prefer you not see. These are innocent children who are suffering dreadful abuse at the hands of the government.
Remember these faces at the next election and support candidates with the courage to find compassionate and humane solutions to the refugee crisis.
Close the camps on Manus and Nauru.