By Jane Salmon

Refugee Events In Canberra 19-20 November 2024

Tuesday, 19/11/24, 7.30am
Signs held in silence
Melbourne Avenue – State Circle intersection

Tuesday, 19/11/24, 9.30am
Soph Singh
Zoe Daniel MP
Senator David Shoebridge
Neil Para

Tuesday, 19/11/24, 10.45am
Children Meeting Mehreen Faruqi inside APH
Additional meetings at times to be advised

Tuesday, 19/11/24, 11am to 12.30am
Refugee panel and interviews on the lawns

Wednesday, 20/11/24, 7.30am
Signs held in silence
Melbourne Avenue – State Circle intersection

Wednesday 20/11/24, 7.45am
Children meet with David Pocock at Senate soccer oval

Wednesday, 20/11/24, 9.15am
Childrens’ speeches and walk from Senate Rose Garden at Old Parliament House
Pamela Dunn to lead.

Wednesday, 20/11/24, 10am to 12.30am
At front of Federal Parliament AAA area

Speeches by Refugees and Advocates.

Children meet with Ged Kearney.

Refugees from many countries are again converging in Canberra this week: protesting Immigration’s Insistence they be treated as a perpetual underclass.

The “Fast Track” cohort are determined to obtain permanent visas. Many have waited over 12 years for a chance to settle here permanently in peace and safety. These asylum seekers have worked and paid tax while living peaceful lives in the community.

Many have participated in circular, inconclusive, inconsistent, pointless and expensive legal tests instigated by the Coalition. Labelled the “Fast Track process”, there was no track. Nor was it fast. It was a slow, painful and costly goat path to nowhere. Their children completed secondary schooling here but cannot access affordable tertiary study.

The “Fast Track” caseload have been conducting continuous outdoor 24/7 vigils in cities around the nation. Despite sleeping outside government offices from July onwards, they are again pulling together for interstate travel to represent their plight to federal politicians, voters and media. Sydney and Melbourne vigils have each passed 100 days.

The refugees will hold signs conveying the issues to politicians along the Melbourne Avenue / State Circle entrances of the federal parliamentary precinct from 7.30 am on Tuesday 19th and Wednesday 20th November.

From 9am on Tuesday they will assemble in front of parliament house to hear political supporters and to share their own stories. One of the attendees is Neil Para, whose own case was resolved by Ministerial Intervention in October 2023. The resolution for Neil’s family and their compatriots, the Biloela family indicates that the Federal Government has been inconsistent in how it treats particular refugees.

Proceedings in Canberra will feature affected young people. Some of the foreign-born offspring of asylum seekers who were wholly educated within Australia and who cannot put their great marks to good use at a tertiary level will attend the rally. They have to pay international fees to study or learn a trade unless they and their parents are granted permanency. Many have worked multiple jobs to do so. (Any siblings born here are already free to study. Such inequity can be painful).

These “overlooked children” will bring flowers to politicians who recognise their struggle: one for each year of waiting. Zoe Daniel, David Shoebridge, Ged Kearney and Mehreen Faruqi are among representatives who have agreed to meet with them.

Narges Shaterian, a loving parent who has been part of the continuous vigils and an organiser of this rally, says:

“After 12 years, all refugees who have been left behind and ignored by the government, regardless of the country that they fled, have suffered a limbo situation which has impacted their mental and physical health. They are eligible for permanent visas. It is time to grant to them permanent visas by a clear pathway, because every single day you delay the permanent visa process, is another day of torture for this vulnerable group. Please, Mr Albanese and Cabinet, open your eyes and heart.”

Narges has worked multiple front line jobs such as pathology nurse during Covid. Her daughter paid international student fees to get her Masters in radiography and sonography while also contributing tax for two minimum wage jobs. The youngest son has shifts at McDonalds to help meet the cost of fees for Engineering. Nooshad, her son with IT qualifications, has no support for living with cerebral palsy. Life was not meant to be this hard or for so long. Where is Labor’s compassion?

Next, an imminent Deportation and Surveillance Bill threatens to bring back several measures rejected by the Senate in March … and worse. The stubborn persistence of a racist and globally discredited Immigration Department culture is startling. Its hold over Labor Minister Tony Burke is depressing.

The proposed bill reinforces the legality of offshore detention and trafficking refugees to third countries. The Bill is a further insult to the survivors of offshore abuse from 2013 to 2022.

Such measures also make all immigrants awaiting citizenship a underclass that can be punished twice for breaking minor laws. As such they can be jailed, rejected, detained, surveilled, traded, informed against and deported. The proposed legislation embodies the spirit of bogans shouting “Go Back Where You Came From”. (It seems that red dye is running from Labor Party t-shirts up and all over their necks).

This Government does not openly welcome the next generation of industrious contributors hoping to build Australia’s economy and better lives.

This country seems determined to traffic these people offshore and to deny them any respect here. We risk rejecting ten Einsteins for the right to reject one possibly challenging individual.

Medevac survivors of offshore here are still being punished. Talented contributors like Farhad, Moz, Behrouz, Thanush and Joy could be caught in this punitive legislative dragnet 12 years after they sought refuge here.

Meanwhile, Iranian protesters from the “Women Life Freedom” movement are due to be executed by hanging. Iraq has lowered the age of consent to 9 years old. Afghan women are denied education. Racial, religious and sexual discrimination is rife in countries riven by war. There is no going back.