About 100 Blue Mountains residents protested in Leura on Thursday [February 4] over a High Court decision which will see a large group of asylum seekers, including 37 babies, returned to offshore detention in Nauru.
The snap rally was one of many nationally organised by the Greens, with the support locally of the Blue Mountains Refugee Support Group [BMRSG].
The rally was organised to put pressure on the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to refuse to deport the refugees.
Hal Ginges, BMRSG chairperson said "This large turnout in the middle of a rainy working day at a few hours notice is testimony to the compassion in our community. We do not accept that 267 innocent people including 37 babies, 64 other children and their mothers are to be sent back to a hell-hole for indefinite detention.”
The asylum seekers were bought from Nauru to give birth or for medical attention including treatment for sexual assault while in detention.
Nichole Hoskin, a lawyer with a background in refugee law, advised the rally that the Labor Party and Coalition jointly passed legislation last year that was the basis of the recent High Court Ruling.
“The legislation permits indefinite detention of asylum seekers offshore where neither our laws nor constitution protect them. The legislation was retrospective to 2012 to ensure all asylum seekers awaiting processing could be sent off shore,” she said.
Greens spokeswoman Kerry Brown said the Greens were the only party that saw asylum seekers as a humanitarian rather than border security issue.
“Unlike Labor and the Coalition, the Greens oppose mandatory and indefinite detention and offshore processing once people have arrived here. Asylum seekers must be treated with dignity and compassion,” Ms Brown said.
Roger Grealy, from BMRSG, spoke of a close friend who was an Iranian Kurdish refugee. “He says he feels like a third class citizen. His visa can be revoked any time so he lives in constant fear of the government sending him back.”
Susie Van Opdorp spoke on behalf of Blue Mountains MP Trish Doyle about the contribution made by migrants to Australia. While George Winston, BMRSG president and a holocaust survivor, said, “I am grateful to Australia for taking in my father and me when we arrived after the war. But I am ashamed by the policies of our government now toward asylum seekers.”
In a statement Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said it was the first major test for the prime minister.
“PM Turnbull has it within his power to refuse to deport 267 vulnerable people, including 37 babies, back to the prison island of Nauru and the horrors of Manus Island.”
