buddies

Dear Supporters of A Just Australia, While the Government is gearing up for an election, it appears that they are using the same old “We will decide who comes here” strategy to punish refugees as a way of proving the Government can protect our borders from vulnerable people who seek asylum in Australia. As such, Australia has recently refused to take resettlement responsibility for 72 Sri Lankans detained on Nauru who have been proven to be refugees. Please see the article below for links to our online petition to the Minister, as well as links to an online letter you can send to the Minister. Regards, The A Just Australia team ——————– Sri Lankans in exile After six months of detention on Nauru, 72 of the 83 Sri Lankan asylum seekers intercepted off the coast of Christmas Island in February have been found to be refugees. This decision however, is bitter sweet as the Australian Goverment has refused this group resettlement in Australia. As the government has done in the past, it has stated it will detain these refugees on Nauru until a third country accepts them. This is ethically wrong as the refugees have sought asylum and protection in Australia thus as stated by the Refugee Convention, Australia has not only a moral but a legal obligation to offer asylum to the group of Tamils. Further, it has emerged that the so-called third countries with whom the Australian government is allegadely negotiating the Tamils resettlement had yet to be contacted at the date of publication. Read the SMH article We should also remember that the Burmese asyum seekers have now been waiting for over 1 year for their protection applications to be processed (the majority of that time has been spent on Nauru.) What can you do? A Just Australia is urging its supporters and members of the public to take action against the unjust decision and let your local MP or the Minister for Immigration Kevin Andrews know by letter that you will not be fooled by this election strategy. This decision goes against the very nature of the ‘Australian values’ of compassion, integrity, truth and dignity which the Liberal government is teaching Australian children. Use our online letter writing program to send a letter to Kevin Andrews, the Minister for Immigration and/or your local member Sign the petition to call for these refugees to be immediately resettled in Australia Forward the petition to as many of your friends, family and colleagues as possible. Background The Tamils are an ethnic group well known to have been persecuted in Sri Lanka and this year the human rights situation has deteriorated. For this group of Tamils to be been detained and processed on Nauru then found to be refugees and told they will not remain in Australia is a disgrace. This is not only a disgrace as Australia is breaching its so called ‘values’ but it is retraumatising people by keeping them in limbo all in the name of a pre-election stunt. The impact of the this unfair decision on the 72 Tamils (one of whom has been reported to have a piece of shrapnel lodged in his brain and another was an unaccompanied minor at the time of his arrival) will be profound as the retraumatisation of those in detention and the uncertainty of their future is well documented.