Media Release 14/05/2021
FREE ALL THE MEDEVAC REFUGEES
Refugee rights advocates will protest outside the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation at Pinkenba this Saturday, 15 May, 11.00am.
Speakers at the protest include Queensland Greens Senator Larissa Waters, Jeremy Fernando, vice president of External Australian Medical Students Association (bio below), and Christine Cooper, Assistant Federal Secretary of the Independent Education Union.
Protesters are demanding that all the Medevac refugees be released from detention. There are now about 35 Medevac refugees in the Park Hotel in Melbourne, 4 in the Adelaide Immigration Transit Accommodation (AITA), four in the Villawood detention centre in Sydney, 22 in the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation (MITA) and about 35 at the Brisbane Detention centre. One of the detainees in the Brisbane detention centre will speak at the protest via phone.
“They should ALL be immediately freed,” said Mark Gillespie from the Refugee Action Collective. “They were brought to Australia for medical care but have been detained in hotels and detention centres for up to two years. Before that they were detained on Nauru and Manus Island for six years, it’s time to end the torture and set them free.”
Time: 11am Saturday 15th May
Place: Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation, 100 Sugar Mill Road, Pinkenba.
For more information call Mark Gillespie on 0439561196
Jeremy Fernando is a final year medical student at the University of Queensland and Vice President of the Australian Medical Students' Association (AMSA). AMSA is the peak representative body of Australia's 17000+ medical students and engages in advocacy issues important to Australia's future medical workforce.