Media release – Amnesty International (Tasmania), Refugee Rights Action Group, 18 July 2023

It’s 10 Years Too Bloody Long

19 July this year marks 10 long years since PM Kevin Rudd announced: “As of today, asylum seekers who come here by boat without a visa will never be settled in Australia.”

Around 80 of the asylum seekers who came by boat – because that was the only form of escape available – are still in PNG. Around 1200 people are here in the community, but still in limbo because the Labor Government is denying them the right to safe resettlement as refugees in Australia.

They have lost a decade of their lives. They are still unable to physically connect with family members and are denied access to education and safety net supports if they cannot work to support themselves.

“This is a system designed to break people, and it is working.” (Rebecca Eckard, Refugee Council of Australia, Asylum Insight May 2023)

“It is unbelievable that this tragedy is still going on after ten years with people stuck in Port Moresby. Many lives have been damaged, many families separated, but Australia is pretending that it has solved the problem. Nothing has been achieved. Nothing but the creation of a tragedy and the mental and physical damage to hundreds of people. Humanitarian and democratic values have been undermined.” (Behrouz Boochani, former detainee, Iranian journalist, prizewinning author and New Zealand citizen)

“A year after winning office, it is inexcusable that anyone should still be in offshore detention. It is inexcusable that the people on Nauru and in Papua New Guinea were not immediately brought to Australia. It is inexcusable that they were not given settlement for what they now are: refugees fleeing Australia’s system of torture.” (UNHCR, quoted in The Saturday Paper, 20–26 May 2023)

This is why so many people all over the country will once again take to the streets for marches, vigils, delegations and demonstrations in their bid to bring this inhumane system to an end.

We are joining the call for a resolution to this shameful chapter in our nation’s history. We are asking for a fair process, permanent visas and a safe resettlement for refugees, including those still detained in PNG.

“We expected so much more from our new Government but sadly very little has changed.” (Elaine Miller, co-convenor of Tasmania’s Refugee Rights Action Group)

Details of Hobart Action

Hobart: Friday 21 July 2023

The Tasmanian Refugee Rights Action Group and the Tassie Nannas will gather outside Senator Carol Brown’s office at 136 Davey Street at 1 pm on Friday 21 July.

A letter asking for the refugees from PNG to be brought to Australia will be delivered to Senator Brown’s office.

Letters will also be delivered to Senator Catryna Bilyk in Kingston and the Minister for Housing and the Homeless Julie Collins MP.