By Margaret Edwards*
The annual Palm Sunday rally, Justice for Refugees, was held in Melbourne on Sunday 2 April.
Twelve members and friends of Casey Cardinia for Refugees, a local refugee activist group, attended along with members of many faith communities, schools, unions, teachers, political parties and other refugee groups such as Grandmothers for Refugees, and Refugee Action Collective.
The huge crowd gathered outside the State Library to hear speeches from leaders of a range of faith communities as well as people with the lived experience as a refugee.
Independent MP Dr Monique Ryan, who ousted Josh Frydenberg from his safe Liberal seat of Kooyong at the last election, promised us to keep working at the parliamentary level to achieve positive changes in policies toward refugees.
We heard first hand how harrowing it is for refugees to have no certainty about their future and to be separated from their loved ones by cruel and inexplicable policies.
As the crowd marched along Swanston Street and up Bourke Street spreading several hundreds of metres, they chanted, ‘Ten years too long, refugees have done no wrong; say it loud say it clear, refugees are welcome here’, along with other refrains.
The huge city crowds watched on with interest.
Some of the key demands from the Palm Sunday rally to our politicians are:
* Permanent visas and family reunion for all refugees.
* Fair and timely assessment of all claims for refugee status.
* Healthcare, work rights, home support and access to education for all those seeking asylum.
* Releasing all refugees from detention.
Refugee activist groups remain disappointed with the Albanese Government for neglecting its ‘tough on borders without being tough on humanity’ election promise.
Instead they have sided with the Liberals and One Nation to turn down a bill introduced by Greens Senator Nick McKim in March, calling to evacuate all refugees remaining in detention on Nauru and Papua New Guinea (PNG) to safety in Australia.
When tabling the bill, Nick McKim said, “After ten long years of offshore detention, it is abhorrent that about 150 people remain exiled in PNG and Nauru”.
This legislation would have provided an end to the dark history of suffering and punishment by our governments on Nauru, Manus Island, Christmas Island and PNG since 2012.
These cruelties are well documented in a recently released book, Freedom only Freedom, in which Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani, together with others, write in harrowing detail about their struggles to survive on Manus Island as detainees.
Labor and Liberal parties are still playing politics with the lives of refugees after all these years.
The election promise is hollow. Our Australian Governments for over the past two decades have gradually increased the harshness of their refugee and asylum seeker policies until we have reached the point where ours are among the harshest and most cruel in the world.
The recent announcement of 19,000 permanent visas is an encouraging step forward by the Labor Government, but there remain another 12,000 people living here on temporary visas whose lives are in limbo, 14,000 refugees in Indonesia in terrible conditions who need to be brought to safety here and others still held in cruel on shore detention centres.
There is so much needing to be repaired and rebuilt of our broken and shambolic policies dealing with refugees and asylum seekers.
As a Labor politician told our group recently, “we inherited a house that was burnt to the ground and we have to completely rebuild it”.
We look forward to seeing this happen as quickly as possible!
Casey Cardinia for Refugees will continue to hold their weekly vigils in Berwick on Saturday mornings 10am to 11am to raise awareness of these questions of humanity. We welcome anyone to join us.
* Margaret Edwards is a member of Casey Cardinia For Refugees.
