A crisis point for refugees

Posted Feb  8, 2017 in News

The Uniting Church in Australia has joined other organisations in calling for asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru to be brought to Australia immediately. An open statement from the Refugee Council of Australia was released in the wake of the uncertainty created by Donald’s Trump’s avowed disgust over a deal to resettle 1,250 refugees in the United States.

The open statement, which has garnered support from churches and organisations across Australia, says the situation of asylum seekers being detained on Manus and Nauru islands “has reached crisis point, and immediate action must be taken”.

The statement was released on Friday 3 February, in part as a response to President Trump’s reluctance to commit to the refugee resettlement deal negotiated under the previous Obama administration.

Trump communicated his dissatisfaction with the deal in his preferred manner – via Twitter. In a tweet that was posted shortly after a widely publicised tense phone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Trump wrote that it was a “dumb deal” that he “would study carefully”.

He later expanded on this in his address at the US National Prayer Breakfast:

“For whatever reason Obama said that they were going to take probably well over a thousand illegal immigrants who were in prisons and they were going to bring them and take them into this country and I said ‘why?’… I said ‘why, why are we doing this? What is the purpose?’ So we will see what happens.”

Despite Trump’s words, officials within the Trump administration have said the deal will go ahead, but that the refugees will be subject to “extreme vetting”.

“As Moderator, I was appalled to hear of President Trump's response to the refugees on Manus Island and Nauru. Our humanity, let alone our Christianity, demands that the people detained there require compassion not condemnation,” says Uniting Church SA Moderator Rev Sue Ellis. 

“I can hardly imagine the additional stress this is causing them in their desperation to find a safe place to live and heal.”

The current uncertainty surrounding the resettlement deal is one of the key points made in the Refugee Council’s statement.

“With the US resettlement deal in serious doubt, the most obvious and humane solution is to clear the camps and bring these people to Australia until a safe, long-term, appropriate outcome for them can be guaranteed,” the statement reads (see full text below).

“This is a crisis. We are calling on both major parties to form a bipartisan commitment to immediately evacuate the camps and bring these people to safety.”

For more information about the Uniting Church in Australia’s stance on refugee and asylum seeker policy, please see the “Shelter from the Storm” statement, which was adopted at the 2015 meeting of the 14^th Assembly.

Pictured: Members of the Uniting Church SA and the wider community have previously joined protests relating to refugee and asylum seeker policy, particularly when the public action related to children being held in offshore detention.

The Refugee Council of Australia’s open statement:

We, as a coalition of organisations and community groups from around Australia, are writing to express our concern regarding the humanitarian crisis that Australia has created.

Successive Australian governments have managed and funded offshore detention camps on Manus Island and Nauru. The people detained there are clearly Australia’s responsibility. This situation has reached crisis point, and immediate action must be taken.

Beyond the reports of physical and sexual abuse, including of children; inadequate medical attention; suicides and attempted suicides; even a murder; the extinguishment of hope has pushed people to the edge.

Many of these people have been recognised as refugees. We owe them protection and safety now.

Meanwhile, politicians are spending years engaged in lengthy negotiations as to the fate of these men, women and children. With the US resettlement deal in serious doubt, the most obvious and humane solution is to clear the camps and bring these people to Australia until a safe long term, appropriate outcome for them can be guaranteed.

We do not have years. Australia cannot allow another person to die or suffer because of our actions.

This is a crisis. We are calling on both major parties to form a bipartisan commitment to immediately evacuate the camps and bring these people to safety.

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