A growing chorus of protest against Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers is building in Melbourne’s west.
Educators, grandmothers and refugee advocates descended on the office of Gellibrand MP Tim Watts last week to express dissatisfaction with both major political parties over their support for mandatory offshore detention of asylum seekers, including children.
The protest came in the wake of a High Court decision earlier this month affirming the government’s right to send asylum seekers to detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island.
Following the decision, Star Weekly reported that offshore processing was backed by both Gellibrand MP Tim Watts and federal Labor leader and Maribyrnong MP Bill Shorten.
More than 120 Victoria University staff and students signed a joint letter presented to Mr Watts on Thursday, asking him to follow Premier Daniel Andrews’ example and lobby for the 267 asylum-seeker men, women and children now in Australia, including 36 babies born here, not to be sent back to Nauru or Manus Island.
“We are extremely concerned about the physical, psychological and emotion wellbeing of this group, based on the ample evidence presented by health professionals, which clearly demonstrates that detention is very harmful,” the letter states.
“Australia’s harsh asylum seeker policy has been condemned by human rights advocates, medical professionals, educators and by international bodies as cruel and in violation of the UN Refugee Rights Charter.”
Morally unjustifiable
VU teacher and letter co-organiser letter Margarita Windisch said thousands of people have been rallying across the country calling on the federal government and the Labor opposition to ‘Let Them Stay’, culminating in the mass weekend vigil outside the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in Brisbane to prevent the deportation of ‘Baby Asha’ to Nauru.
“We, as educators and citizens, are very upset about the situation and upset about the fact our local representative Tim Watts has come out in support of offshore detention,” she said. “We think he’s out of step with community sentiment.
“We think it is morally unjustifiable to send children back to detention centres that will harm their wellbeing.”
Mr Watts said while he welcomed people’s compassion, a “regional solution” was needed to stop “a human tragedy in the seas”.
“Reasonable people of goodwill can look at the same set of facts in this complex issue and come to a different view.”
He said there must be more transparency and oversight in immigration detention centres; people’s asylum claims must be assessed more quickly and children’s rights must be protected.
