By Mikayla van Loon
On international human rights day, grandmothers and fathers from all over the Yarra Ranges gathered at the office of Tony Smith in Chirnside Park to protest the detention of refugees both onshore and offshore.
Casey Grandmothers for Refugees coordinator Virginia Schnieders hand delivered a letter to Tony Smith’s office on Friday 10 December urging the Federal government to reconsider its position of people seeking asylum.
“[We’re protesting] specifically because of the human rights abuse by the current government, towards refugees in detention,” she said.
Ms Schnieders said the protest was particularly about the men who were medevaced from Nauru and Manus Island, with 40 now locked in at the Park Hotel in Carlton.
“They’ve committed no crime. So it’s a clear breach of human rights that they’ve been detained in this way,” she said.
The group wanted to highlight the number of other issues surrounding refugees in detention and those that are not given any clarity on their fate in Australia like Tharnicaa Murugappan and her family.
“There are so many other instances where people are left waiting to have their claims processed over so many years and 32,000 people are waiting. They don’t know what the future is. That’s a horrible position for anyone to be in,” Ms Schneiders said.
“Australia has been pulled up again and again by the UN for breaches of human rights. It’s ongoing and constant and it’s considerably worse under this government. That’s why we’re here at Tony Smith’s office.”
Casey MP Tony Smith said Australia has always been one of the most generous refugee resettlement countries in the world.
“Each year, we offer 13,750 places under our refugee Humanitarian Program. In response to events in Afghanistan earlier this year, we’ve allocated an initial 3000 places to Afghan refugees,” he said.
“The Government wants humanitarian entrants to have the best possible opportunities to succeed in Australia, including finding a job, learning English and integrating into the Australian community.”
After Afghanistan fell to the Taliban again, Australia evacuated over 4,160 people from Kabul but of the 3000 that came to Australia, Ms Schnieders said many haven’t had the three month visa renewed.
“There are 1000s of candidates who don’t have permanent protection and could be forced back to that country. They need visas,” she said.
“It’s Grandmothers’ strategy to try and advocate for parliamentarians about the issues and at the same time to do everything we possibly can to inform the public because a lot of people don’t know about it.”
