Refugee Action Coalition
MEDIA RELEASE
REFUGEE SUPPORTERS URGE BARNABY JOYCE TO RELEASE SYRIAN ACCOUNTANT
FROM VILLAWOOD
The Refugee Action Coalition has welcomed Deputy Prime Minister
Barnaby Joyce’s call for Australia to resettle more Syrian refugees.
The Deputy Prime Minister was quoted saying, “As an accountant myself,
when you see an accountant walking across the border into Hungary from
Syria when his life has been destroyed I feel a sense of empathy for
him.”
“Barnaby Joyce has only got to look to the Villawood detention centre
to find a Syrian accountant asylum seeker who has been in detention
over two years. I hope Barnaby Joyce’s empathy extends to him,” said
Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.
“He spent a year on Manus Island and now a year in Villawood. It is
time he was freed from detention.”
The 43 year-old asylum seeker whose house in Aleppo was destroyed in
2012 by bombs dropped by the Assad regime, is one of at least six
Syrians being held in Villawood, Manus and Nauru. His wife and four
children remain in danger in Syria.
“We are calling for the government to release all Syrians from
detention. It is sheer hypocrisy for the government to express any
concerns at all for the Syrian asylum seekers fleeing to Europe while
it condemns Syrian asylum seekers seeking protection in Australia to
indefinite detention on and off shore.”
Around two weeks ago, the Australian government removed one Syrian
asylum seeker from Manus to Syria even though IOM (which is usually
contracted to arrange asylum seeker returns) refused because Syria is
too dangerous. The Government refused to resettle the man in Australia
and also refused to consider any third country from which he could have
sought to help his family. His friends have not heard of the man since he
was returned.
“Notwithstanding Barnaby Joyce’s comments about Syrian accountants, the
hypocrisy of the Abbott government over Syrian refugees is starkly
being revealed.”
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713