Activists Call for Mass Medical Evacuation from Manus, Nauru
Media Release
It is worrying that the latest death on Nauru and the circumstances relating to this event have not been broadcast by the ABC*. Have these events become too commonplace or is the national broadcaster underfunded? Perhaps parts of the ABC (and all its editors) have already been sold.
The ABC was informed of the death as details came to hand.
Iranian asylum seeker begged for help: ‘I am suffering intensely’
It is true that the rate of extreme mental health breakdown and suicide in offshore transferees is exceptionally high. Many more of those assessed to be of “negative” refugee status after 5 years have become simply too hopeless and numb to function. Refugee advocates are deeply anxious and horrified by the failure of Government to act when lives are in the balance.
Both PNG and Nauru are quite fragile or failed states. Nauru will not admit journalists. There is no appellant court in Nauru these days. Violence is commonplace. There are curfews for men on Manus for their own safety.
Australia itself has horse-traded hostages for money in a corrupt environment where $1b has gone astray. Australian and overseas contractors have even retained and rehired Australian guards known to be rapists or racist thugs.
Most of the 1100 refugees held offshore are too unwell to be safe. Medical whistleblowers have repeatedly stated that most if not all need to be brought here on physical and/or mental health grounds.
Fariborz Karami’s deteriorating condition was known to #IHMS staff on #Nauru
Refugee activists appeal to both Shorten and Turnbull to act bilaterally on this: and swiftly.
Indefinite “detention” of asylum seekers is proving lethal and illegal. Offshore isolation on impoverished islands is irresponsible. Refoulement has its own dangers. Edmund Rice Centre says 13 Afghanis including Hazaras have been killed since being forced back to Afghanistan by Australian Immigration. They came to us for safety after decades of war.
Australia needs to increase our refugee intake and airlift those waiting in Indonesia and Malaysia. Boat-stopping and deterring drownings is a smokescreen. Boats still arrive and are turned back (whether seaworthy or not).
Our overall annual economic migrant intake (nearly 150k pa) may have to be lowered in favour of refugees for a year or two. This seems doable. Many people with the wit to flee war are in fact wealthy, highly skilled and enterprising. We need such people in our country and the cultural diversity they offer. Steadying the numbers should address some of the fears of Aussies who fear “inundation”.
Sheer wealth should not be the only selection criteria that matters, given that Australia participates in relevant wars.
The land of the “fair go” needs to give these asylum seekers, our hostages, a chance at recovery, a balanced and peaceful life.
*The Guardian’s Katharine Murphy mentioned issue briefly on ABC Insiders 17/06/18.
8 comments
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New England Cocky
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helvityni
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DrakeN
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Jon Chesterson
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Terence Mills
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Stephen Brailey
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Cedric
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Yvonne Robertson
Return to home pagePerhaps the ultimate solution is to dispatch the Abbott Morriscum Dutton Turdball LNP misgovernment to Manus without communication devices of any kind and let them experience the concentration camp conditions that legal refugees suffer without trial or conviction.
There is little difference between the refugee policies of the Nlp misgovernment and those of the Nazi German government in the 1930s with gypsies, retarded persons, political prisoners and Jews.
Then Australia could save BILLIONS by closing Manus and Nauru and re-directing this expenditure away from foreign owned, mainly US multinational jail corporations and into community support for new refugee settlers, including intensive English language training. Then just watch the former refugees make a success of their lives for the benefit of the whole Australian community … just as the Jewish refugees after WWII have done.
“Our overall annual economic migrant intake (nearly 150k pa) may have to be lowered in favour of refugees for a year or two. This seems doable.”
I have been saying this for years; let the countries who educated and skilled their citizens keep them and benefit from them; we in Oz can do the same and there will be no need for skilled migration…
Instead we can take more asylum seekers; the first generation will be willing to do the jobs, Aussies don’t want, the second generation will most likely catch up with the educational levels of the locals and maybe perform even better…..
I was most impressed with the female black lawyer, a refugee from one of the African countries( ?) on the Drum…
( ABC might keep mum on many issues in the future, for the sake of funding…
@helvityni
Great proposals there, but can you see just how much that would destabilise the ‘born-to-rule’ status quo?
Educated masses are an anathema to them.
As for educating brown skinned, freeloading “boat people”, the very concept would create serious heartburn in the throats of many of our Honourable(?) members of Parliament and their xenophobic acolytes.
It would be almost as bad as giving the traditional owners of this country a decent chance at life.
Tragic consequence of rampant demons and bastard government.
For the record, the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea has already ruled that the detention of people on Manus who have not committed any crime, have not been sentenced by any court, is unconstitutional and that these people must be released : Peter Dutton has thumbed his nose at the PNG Supreme Court and merely moved the detainees to another part of the island and now tells us that they are not detained.
In the meantime, you may recall that the Supreme Court of Victoria approved a settlement of $70 million to 1905 Manus detainees for false and illegal detention.
Papua New Guinea have no intention of settling these people or granting them citizenship, they are still detainees and they remain the responsibility of the Australian government.
If Nauru had an effective judicial system their constitution would undoubtedly show that the people detained on that island are also held illegally.
A stain on Australia’s history courtesy of the Abbott/Turnbull governments and Minister Peter Dutton.
Sad…
Are the people currently in detention entitled to aspire for a better life?
No Cedric – that comes under LNP sub clause 122(b) where they’re in the position that they’re in because they’re an inferior person and therefore it’s their own fault, They don’t deserve anything better or they’d have it like well heeled members of the LNP. Of course let’s not forget 122(c) where they should have just been born to better parents and then they wouldn’t be in this fix.