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Australians march for justice for asylum seekers

Melbourne sees 15,000 people call for asylum seekers’ release from detention centers on Nauru and Manus islands.

29.03.2015 - Update : 29.03.2015
Australians march for justice for asylum seekers

By Jill Fraser

MELBOURNE, Australia

An estimated 15,000 people rallied in Melbourne on Sunday, walking for compassion and justice for asylum seekers and demanding an end to offshore processing.

People in 19 cities spanning six continents joined the ‘Australians (and Allies) Overseas Against Mandatory Detention’ rallies in solidarity with the Palm Sunday marches in Australia, calling for asylum seekers’ release from the detention centers on Nauru and Manus islands.

Marches were held simultaneously across Australia, with the largest gathering taking place in Melbourne.

Chris Breen, a Refugee Action Coalition spokesman and the march’s co-chair, told The Anadolu Agency, "this offshore processing regime is brutal and unsustainable and it has to change."

Stressing that "seeking asylum by boat or plane is not illegal" but a human right, Breen said the march was a "coalition of about 30 different groups -- churches, unions, amnesty, refugee advocates, religious groups, community groups -- all who came together to say, enough is enough."

The marches were designed to add to pressure on the Abbott government following a report commissioned by the Immigration Department that uncovered both human rights violations and sexual abuse against asylum seekers.

The Moss Report is among others that have revealed violations -- including against women and children -- at detention centers in recent months.

While the Australian Human Rights Commission’s "The Forgotten Children" report found disturbing evidence of psychological and physical harm being inflicted on minors on Nauru, the United Nations concluded that Australia's treatment of asylum seekers breaches international anti-torture laws.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has referred to the commission report on children in detention as a "political stitch-up," while also hitting out at the U.N.'s special rapporteur on torture by saying Australians are "sick of being lectured to by the United Nations."

People of all ages and faith participated in the Palm Sunday Walk for Justice for Refugees -- an interfaith, cross-political event held for the first time last year.

For Breen, one the most moving moments from the event was listening to a speaker, a former worker on Nauru, challenge Immigration Minister Peter Dutton’s statement last week that hospital facilities on the island are better than some in Australia while schools are of the same standard.

"The hospital on Nauru is asbestos ridden and partly burnt, and has no doctors that would meet Australian standards," the ex-Nauru worker told the crowd. "School buildings look like they should be demolished. Teachers are mostly past retirement age."

Earlier this week, Pamela Curr of Melbourne’s Asylum Seeker Resource Centre told AA of the reports of abuse out of Nauru, including that of children being hit by guards and yelled at by their Australian teachers.

"Australia tries to distance itself from the running of the camps but these are our rules, our people and this is going on right now and the government is trying to wash its hands," she said.

She explained that while those who sought asylum had known what to expect from the areas they had fled, whether it be the Taliban in Afghanistan or militias in Iraq, "they did not expect to be treated like this in Australia."

This year’s Palm Sunday rally drew 5,000 more people than last year's event.

"The message from thousands who turned up was, we are not going away. We are building a movement and we are determined that we won't be silenced. We are taking on the lies that are being spread about asylum seekers," Breen said.

"There are crocodile tears shed over deaths at sea. It would be so much more humane and cost effective to process them in the community than it is to send them to far flung islands."

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