Needless, indefinite detention of refugees must end
As the Federal Government faces further protests outside a makeshift detention centre in Brisbane, the Human Rights Law Centre has called for the Morrison Government to bring an end to its needless punitive detention of refugees.
Across Australia the Government is detaining refugees transferred from Nauru and Papua New Guinea in private hotels as well as detention centres. The people held in hotels in Brisbane and Melbourne are among approximately 200 people who were brought to Australia for urgent medical treatment under the Medevac legislation. After suffering six years in Nauru and PNG, many have now spent more than twelve months locked up in Australia with no end in sight.
In addition to the hundreds held in Australia, the Morrison Government continues to hold more than 370 people offshore in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Next month marks seven years since the then Rudd Government announced that people arriving by boat seeking safety would never set foot in Australia and instead be warehoused indefinitely in detention on remote islands in the Pacific.
David Burke, Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre, said the Morrison Government needed to put an end to this cruel policy of offshore detention.
“For almost seven years the Australian Government has played politics with the lives of innocent people in our care.There is no justification for the Minister continuing to hold people offshore, or for detaining them in Australia.
“The Government has intentionally ripped apart families. Hundreds of children suffered for years offshore and were denied safe childhoods. People who were simply asking for help have lost some of the best years of their lives. Thirteen men have died. Yet the Morrison Government is still locking these people up here and overseas.
“After so much suffering, the Morrison Government needs to end this dark chapter in Australia’s history and allow these people to rebuild their lives in safety.”
Media contact:
Michelle Bennett, Communications Director, Human Rights Law Centre, 0419 100 519
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Acknowledgement of Country
The Human Rights Law Centre acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the lands across Australia, including the lands of the Wurundjeri, Boon Wurrung, Gadigal, Ngunnawal, Cammeraygal, Darug, Wadawurrung, Turrbal and Jagera people where we work from.
We pay our respect to Elders past and present. This land always was, and always will be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land. Sovereignty has never been ceded.
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