GOVT MUST LISTEN TO CALLS FOR MORATORIUM ON TRANSFERS TO NAURU, MANUS DETENTION

The ASRC supports the call for a moratorium on the transfer of asylum seekers back to detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island where their safety is at risk.

Around 200 asylum seekers from these centres are currently in Australia for critical medical treatment that isn’t available on Manus or Nauru.

They are living in fear of being returned to the hellish detention conditions on Manus and Nauru, where their health and safety cannot be guaranteed.

The Government’s own investigation found evidence of physical and sexual abuse against women and children on Nauru.

One five-year-old girl currently in Australia is suffering post-traumatic stress disorder and has severe anxiety at the thought of being returned to Nauru.  She has exhibited inappropriate sexual behaviour because of what she has seen or experienced there and talks about hurting herself.

Women in Nauru detention wet the bed at night rather than run the gauntlet of the guards to go to the toilet.  Disease is rife, water is scarce despite the unbearable heat and people live in mouldy tents.

Parents are unable to protect or care for their own children.

Men, women and children alike are suffering serious mental illnesses because of their experiences.

These Australian-run facilities are no place for children, no place for families.

The Government, in all good conscience, cannot knowingly return people to an environment where they are not safe.

It is a cruel irony that, as the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse uncovers shocking evidence of churches, schools and government agencies turning a blind eye to horrific child abuse over many decades, our Government is prepared to send children with severe mental health disorders back to the place that has caused their illness in the first place.

Australians need to ask the question: if the Government is prepared to treat people fleeing harm and persecution with such little humanity or decency, who else are they prepared to throw under the bus for their own political ends?

People cannot be returned to these detention hell-holes.  They must be closed immediately and people brought to Australia for their own safety.

Kon Karapanagiotidis, CEO

Media inquiries: Mary Fall 0407 683 664