Tens of thousands of people gathered at vigils around Australia over the weekend of February 22 to 23 to protest the brutal killing of asylum seeker Reza Berati inside the Manus Island detention camp in Papua New Guinea.
Refugee and Immigrant Rights
Forty-eight hours to send newly arrived refugees back the way they came and a plan to conceal when boats are “turned around” at sea, were among immigration minister Scott Morrison's statements at his first weekly briefing under “Operation Sovereign Borders” on September 23.
A Third World country suffering rising violence, rapes, political corruption and plagued by endemic diseases such as cholera and malaria will be the new dumping ground for Australia's refugee arrivals.
The federal government said on February 23 it would introduce several changes to the 457 temporary visa program, to take effect from July. The proposals were applauded by the Australian Council of Trade Unions and criticised by big business.
Women who wear the hijab, niqab or burqa are bearing the brunt of the rise of racism against people of Muslim faith or those from a Middle Eastern background since the terrorist attacks in the US on September 1, 2001.
End the Liberal and Labor bipartisan policy of keeping refugees out of under the guise of attacking “people smuggling” and “border security”. Free all the refugees from detention centres in Australia and from offshore detention centres that the Australian government sub-contracts out.