When & where:
5pm, Friday 29th April, at King George Square, Brisbane.
Over the past couple of days so much has happened to demonstrate the immorality of the offshore processing policy of both major parties, and also the unsustainability, the impossibility, of keeping them going on a long term basis. But the government seems not yet to understand this.
What has happened?
1. The Papua New Guinea courts have ruled that the Manus Island detention centre is illegal in PNG law. PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has stated that the Manus Island detention centre will be closed down quickly. Yet the Australian government has responded defiantly saying its policies are unchanged. Not a word about what will happen to the 850 detainees on Manus Island.
2. Three detainees at Brisbane's local detention centre, the BITA, were dragged out of their beds at 3 in the morning a couple of days ago and put on a plane to Nauru, possibly with a view to deporting them back to the horrors from which they originally fled. The anti-deportation group set up a while ago had a presence outside the BITA on Wednesday night, to make sure no further deportations took place. None did on that night.
3. There is a detainee from Nauru who was so distressed that he attempted suicide by setting fire to himself. He has now been sent by plane to medical treatment in (we think) Brisbane somewhere. Minister Dutton has stated he is in a very bad state. Perhaps this means the man is dying. As usual we do not know.
4. Two detainee women have gone missing on Nauru. They cannot be found. Some think they have committed suicide by drowning themselves. But nobody knows.
The above facts point to a policy that is in a state of crisis. We in the refugee rights campaign have known from the start that these policies are not only immoral and vicious, but unsustainable in the long term. What the two major parties are attempting to achieve with these wicked, oppressive policies, is ultimately "undoeable". We have known this for years. When will these fools who rule us understand things as they are?
Come and join us on Friday afternoon.
Further info:
Paul - phone: 3392 3843 or Email:vandrewpaulmac42@gmail.com
Margarett - phone: 0410 337 884 or Email: margarett_mcpherson@yahoo.com.au