General

Australian doctors are increasingly concerned for the medical conditions of refugees and people seeking asylum on Manus and Nauru.;

The Australian Border Force (ABF) has been blocking or delaying medical transfers for people to access urgent medical treatment for complex and serious conditions like heart attacks, kidney stones, breast lumps, diabetes and neurological damage. One recent case involved Samuel who was refused medical assistance and transport to IHMS for heart pain on November 12.

ABC 7:30 Report and Buzzfeed exposed a senior doctor and whistle blower’s story on Australian officials exerting political influence to deny or delay doctor’s decisions on treatment for people on Nauru.

ABF is repeatedly ignoring prescriptions, diagnosis and recommendations of treatment by doctors and medical specialists. The health of those on Manus and Nauru deteriorate the longer they are kept in prolonged physical and mental pain and distress.

Our indefinite mandatory detention system continues to traumatise vulnerable people and abuse their human right to medical care.

Read more on Khan’s story on Nauru or listen to the ABC Radio National Breakfast report.

PNG and Australian government have begun removing fenches and destroying the men’s shelters and water collection devices.

The men are peacefully protesting their indefinite mandatory detention at the hands of the Australian government for over four years, and don’t want to move to another prison where they are not safe.

The men have been without water, food, power, mental and physical health services and daily medication for 10 days.

The UN has repeatedly stated the refugees and people seeking asylum remain our responsibility and that Australia should evacuate them now to Australia.

Amir’s story

Last Thursday, refugee and Manus detainee Amir Teghinia escaped from PNG to start a new life in Canada, and the Australian government cooperated with the Canadian government to let him go.

Watch the story on ABC 7:30 report and The Project.

We are calling on the government to evacuate now everyone in our abusive offshore detention regime and clear the way for third country resettlement options now.

A ninth person has died in offshore detention. With Australian service providers leaving in 30 days, more people will die if we do not #EvacuateNow and #BringThemHere

54 people have left Manus Island and Nauru for the US including mainly single women and a small number of families who are together, thankfully.

Two thousand people remain: 169 children and 1783 people are already assessed to be refugees, with no hope or prospects of resettlement, anywhere.

Those left behind include some families with immediate family members who are permanent residents of Australia and we must keep them together and #BringThemHere

As a community we cannot turn away and ignore the deplorable situation our government has created. It is time to end the system of abuse and bring people to safety in our community.

The Australian Government has been avoiding facing the reality of its own policy failure. Now, we, as a community, must show them the way forward.

Our movement shows that more people than ever support people seeking asylum.

Close the camps. End the abuse. #BringThemHere

Contact Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Hon Bill Shorten MP for the immediate evacuation of Manus & Nauru and take a stand to reunite families.

• Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull:
  • Malcolm Turnbull’s Office: 02 9327 3988
  • Parliament House Office: 02 6277 7700
  • Email Contact Form

• Hon Bill Shorten
  • Bill Shorten’s Office: 03 9326 1300
  • Parliament House Office: 02 6277 4022
  • Email: bill.shorten.mp@aph.gov.au
  • Ask him to make statement in the media and take a stand to reunite family, as is Labor’s policy.

Join our movement to put our country back on the #RightTrack for a fair and decent process

On July 19 2013, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that ‘any asylum seeker who arrives in Australia by boat will have no chance of being settled in Australia as refugees’ and would be sent to Papua New Guinea for processing and resettlement. Since the announcement, successive governments have failed in their duty of care for the men, women and children who have suffered in abusive conditions offshore with no hope of a safe future.

For 4 years, successive Australian governments have forced people seeking safety to suffer in offshore detention under harmful and abusive conditions. We have illustrated a timeline highlighting some of the many failures of the Australian government in providing a duty of care that values fairness and respect to refugees and people seeking asylum. View the timeline here.

Read the report, Four Years Too Many by the Human Right Law Centre and GetUp!, featuring the stories of seven of the men still held on Manus.

On July 19 2017, four years after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s announcement of Australia’s offshore processing, we came together in a nationwide vigil to demand that every woman, man and child is brought to safety and to #EvacuateNow.

On July 24 2017, the UNHCR revealed they were mislead by the Australian government by refusing to keep refugee families together as part of the US resettlement deal.

This means, for example, that some with serious medical conditions, or who have undergone traumatic experiences, including sexual violence, cannot receive the support of their close family members residing in Australia. Fathers on Manus and mothers on Nauru will continue to be separated from their families and consequently forcibly torn apart.

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) echoes the urgent call from UNHCR for Australia to end the government’s harmful practice of offshore processing immediately.  The only safe and humane option for the men, women and children in our care on Nauru and Manus Island is to evacuate them now. For more information, click here.