Protests for Refugees
Sydney, 2016 to 2017
For more than 20 years, Australian governments have tried to prevent undocumented asylum seekers arriving by sea. In 2001, immigration detention centres were opened on Manus Island (Papua New Guinea) and Nauru as part of Prime Minister John Howard’s ‘Pacific Solution’.
Amnesty International described the conditions on Manus Island as ‘tantamount to torture’. Detainees have died from bashing, treatable infection and unidentified causes. Reza Barati, a 23-year-old Iranian Kurd, was murdered in 2014 by detention centre employees after protests by detainees in which he did not take part. In April 2016, the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court found detention on Manus Island unlawful, ordering the centre closed. Bashings, robberies, rapes and sexual assaults have also been documented on Nauru.
Many believe the detention centres are deliberately brutal to drive asylum seekers back to the countries they fled. By 2017, protests had taken place around Australia to pressure the government to close the camps and give asylum to the hundreds of detainees already recognised as refugees.
‘Manus Emergency Rally - Bring Them Here Now’
November 2017
#LetThemStay Rally
April 2016
Palm Sunday Rally to Welcome Refugees
March 2016
Refugee Deaths
These women protested against refugee deaths at the 2016 Sydney Palm Sunday Rally.
Rezene Engeda drowned himself when it appeared his asylum application had been rejected. He expected to have to return to Eritrea, where he believed he would be imprisoned and tortured.
Khodayar Amini, a Hazara from Afghanistan, died in 2015 after setting himself on fire. He had spent three years in detention or community release without work, study or travel rights. He reported being beaten by police and feared deportation.
Ali Rahimi, an Iranian political dissident, died in a Sydney detention centre in 2012. A doctor had recommended his release due to a history of torture and several health conditions, including post-traumatic stress and depression, that were exacerbated by detention. The Australian Human Rights Commission found his detention breached the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
