Published: 1 August 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
AN ALLIANCE OF PROGRESSIVE Australian Jewish advocacy groups has called on the government to “take immediate and effective action to resettle ‘boat people’ safely and give them some hope again in what remains of their interrupted and damaged lives”.
A statement released last week by 19 groups, titled Australian Jewish organisations demand end to cruel treatment of ‘boat people’, said it had been seven years since the then Australian government announced that all people seeking asylum who arrived on unauthorised boats would be processed offshore and that none would ever be resettled in Australia, a policy that has been continued by all Australian governments since.
The alliance responsible for the statement includes groups from the political, social justice, environmental, gender equality and youth spheres.
The statement cited a report published in July by the Refugee Council of Australia which detailed the suffering thus caused for thousands of despairing men, women and children, including self-harm, 12 deaths offshore, by suicide or for want of medical care, and other deaths while in limbo in Australia.
“Seven years have now passed since the then Australian government announced that all people seeking asylum who arrived on unauthorised boats would be processed offshore and that none would ever be resettled in Australia, a policy that has been continued by all Australian governments since,” the statement said.
“Despite the passage of seven long years and expenditure of $7.6 billion of taxpayers’ money, hundreds of people still remain trapped in Papua New Guinea or Nauru or, having been brought to Australia for proper medical care, are in detention and not receiving it.”
Robin Margo, one of the co-ordinators behind the statement, said: “Regrettably, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) did not accept our invitation to uphold its refugee and asylum seekers policy by heading the list of signatories.
“That policy called on the Australian Government to implement Australia’s legal and moral obligations with respect to refugees and people seeking asylum in good faith and with humanity, which it has repeatedly failed to do.”
READ STATEMENT AND SIGNATORIES IN FULL
Any individuals who support the Jewish groups’ statement are invited by the signatories to like it on Facebook
Photo: SBS
