Shac Refugee Program

Migration Amendment Bill in Parliament TODAY!!! ACT NOW!

Hey Australians,

Tuesday 8 August is the day when the Howard government will reintroduce measures to ensure that no asylum seeker arriving by boat will EVER be able to gain refugee status in Australia ever again.

Please believe me when I tell you these laws are the worst thing I've ever seen. If they pass, it is a DISASTER for our country. And it's not too late to do something.

Just type out a 100 word email encompassing a couple of the following points:

- children shouldn't be detained under ANY circumstances, especially not on the desert island of Nauru.

- with the massive error margin made by the Department of Immigration (about 40% average - but around 90% for iraqis and afghanis!) it's FAR too dangerous to remove people to nauru where they can have no independent review of their rejections. **it has recently surfaced that a large number of people who have been sent home to afghanistan from nauru have been KILLED by the taliban - exactly what they told their case officers would happen. mistakes like that are just TOO costly.

- the mental illness caused by long-term indefinite detention is massively exacerbated by distance and lack of access to lawyers, media, visitors, doctors, psychiatrists and other supports.

- at $2000 per person per day, keeping people on nauru is spectacularly expensive. especially when you consider that a well managed bail system (which still ensures people are around to be interviewed and removed if necessary) costs around $6 per head per day.

- we are completely turning away from our self-assumed obligations under international law - the Universal declaration of human rights, the UN convention on refugees, the Convention on the Rights of Children and all sorts of others.


THIS IS A SHOCKER. Please act.
Send your emails to:

senator.fielding@aph.gov.au
senator.joyce@aph.gov.au
senator.payne@aph.gov.au
senator.troeth@aph.gov.au
senator.brandis@aph.gov.au
senator.trood@aph.gov.au
senator.mason@aph.gov.au

If you want to know more, please visit www.thejusticeproject.com.au and / or http://asylumseekernews.blogspot.com

If you have questions, email me and I will answer you.

PLEASE act now - I never had an opinion on this stuff until I started meeting people in detention. What our country does to innocent people fleeing certain death is insupportable. This Bill would be the end of any illusion of Australia as a country that respects human rights.

Cheers and thanks for your contribution.

Jessie

posted by Jessie @ 1:23 PM