Human Rights

The agreement between Australia and the US to swap genuine refugees with each other represents a new lowpoint in Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers. 

It signifies our governments contempt for the Refugee Convention and our failure to abide by the spirit and intent of the Refugee Convention. It shows both our countries governments simply continuing to use asylum seekers as political pawns for their own self interest. 

This is ballot box politics at their worst, each country thumping its chest proclaiming they are tough on refugees and border control and all it shows is what heartless and inhumane governments we have and far we have lost our way when it comes to human rights in our countries.

Whats that old saying? A measure of a society is how it treats it most vulnerable people, if this is still so then our governments should be ashamed of themselves for betraying the very fabric of our democracies.

We are appalled at John Howard’s assertion that ‘HIV-positive people should be denied entry to Australia as migrants and refugees’ (The Age, April 13).

It does not make sense to have a refugee program and exclude people with HIV. How can Australia have a ‘Women at Risk’ program, welcoming single women and mothers from refugee camps, many who have been sexually abused, and turn away women with HIV? Sexual assault is a weapon of war, and in many countries experiencing conflict people become infected through rape, often in refugee camps, in Africa, at the Thai Burma border, or in countries receiving Iraqi and Afghani people fleeing the conflicts in their regions. How can we deny them refugee status? Being a refugee is about the strength of one’s refugee claim, not about one’s health. How can we stigmatise people even more than we already do?

Two months ago, Pauline Hanson attempted a political comeback suggesting that South Africans with HIV were allowed into Australia and infecting our population. It is interesting to see how little time it has taken for this ludicrous allegation to be embraced by the Federal government.

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre has finally found a new home to move to (our current building is being demolished to build townhouses!).  Its just 100 metres from where we are now and it’s the biggest and best building we have ever had.  A great chance to make it the best centre possible for people seeking asylum.  We will be having an official launch on the 24th of June 2007, more details coming soon.