Category Statement

Open letter to Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong from Refugee Action Collective – Vic

Re: Urgent call to continue funding United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)

Dear Minister Penny Wong,

The recent decision to suspend aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is wrong and funding must be resumed as a priority.

We note the suspension is in relation to unproven accusations of the involvement by a small number of staff members in the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, an attack that UNRWA condemned.

This decision is both unjustified and will result in further needless suffering by the Palestinians in Gaza.

UNRWA employs approximately 30,000 people, 13,000 in Gaza alone. Why should the organisation and the people of Gaza be subjected to collective punishment because of the alleged actions of a handful of people?

UNRWA provides aid and service to millions of people, how is it expected to continue to support those who are suffering, starving and in desperate need of medical services if funding is cut?

While this decision may be popular in some quarters, it is times like this that Australia needs to show that it is there to support the vulnerable, the dispossessed and those living through a critical humanitarian crisis.

We urge you to immediately reverse the decision to suspend aid.

Regards

The Refugee Action Collective, Victoria

Why have some people in detention been released?

On 8 November 2023, the High Court of Australia held that indefinite immigration detention (i.e. where there is no end point in a person’s detention) is unlawful, and that the Australian Government cannot detain a person if they cannot be removed from Australia in certain circumstances.

As the High Court has not yet published its written reasons, it is unclear how many people in detention are impacted by the decision and must be released. We do not know when the High Court will publish its reasons, however it is unlikely to be this year.

During the High Court hearing, lawyers for the Minister indicated that 92 people in detention would likely be impacted by the decision, and possibly 340 other people may be affected.

As of 18 November 2023, at least 93 people have been released from detention.

RAC Vic welcomes the High Court decision. We have campaigned for many years for an end to the cruel policy of indefinite detention.

Many, but not all, the people who are being released from detention have committed crimes. It is important to note that they are not being released from prison. They were moved to detention after serving their sentence.

How did the government react?

On 16 November 2023, the government passed a new law that applies to people released from detention because of the High Court decision.

The law says that people released will be granted bridging R visas with additional conditions, including strict reporting requirements.

People will also be subjected to curfew requirements and electronic monitoring devices.

There is a process for people to request the Minister to remove these conditions if the Minister is satisfied that the person is not a risk to the community.

Also, if people have been convicted of certain offences, their bridging visas will have conditions that prevent them being in contact with certain people in the community.

If a person breaches these new bridging R visa conditions, it is a criminal offence, unless the person has a reasonable excuse.

If a person breaches a visa condition over more than 1 day, each day that the person is in breach of the condition will be considered as a separate offence.

The punishment for each offence is a minimum sentence of 1 year of imprisonment and the maximum penalty is up to 5 years’ imprisonment.

RAC Vic believes this is a draconian response that is inherently racist – it applies only to non-citizens.

Citizens who do jail time are released into the community once they serve their sentence, sometimes with conditions.

Non-citizens are being treated as if they are inherently more dangerous. Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil responded to the High Court decision by saying that if she had her way, all the people released would be back in detention.

Labor is pandering to racist fearmongering. This is a logical continuation of Labor’s commitment to the Coalition agenda of Operation Sovereign Borders, boat turnbacks, mandatory detention on Nauru and the continued misery for a small number of refugees in Papua New Guinea and 14,000 more in Indonesia.

RAC will continue to campaign against this agenda, for refugees to be welcomed. We will also continue to campaign for non-citizens to be treated equally with citizens in the criminal justice system.

• RAC acknowledges the use of an Asylum Seeker Resource Centre briefing document.

Father Bob Maguire was an advocate for the poor, the homeless and those who were marginalised by society.

He was also a fierce advocate for refugee rights. 

Many will have seen him at the Park Hotel/Prison last year at age 87, when he entered the cage in solidarity with the men held in the Park.

Again last year, Father Bob accepted RAC’s invitation to speak at the MITA detention centre against the incarceration of refugees and the 501s. (See photo.)

Father Bob’s connection and advocacy with RAC dates back to 2017.

On 2 September 2017, RAC called an action outside State Parliament under the slogan, LET THEM STAY-MAKE THEM WELCOME-BRING THEM HERE.

The speaking list at the event was: Aran Mylvaganam – Tamil refugee; Andrew Giles – then shadow Immigration Minister; Dr Helen Driscoll – trauma psychiatrist; Shawfikul Islam – Rohingyan refugee; and a late inclusion, Father Bob.

A message was left by Father Bob’s assistant that he couldn’t speak at the protest because he had two weddings to perform on that day.

I called back to thank the assistant for getting back to me, but to my surprise Father Bob picked up the phone, we had a long chat and he asked lots of questions about RAC. 

At the end of our chat he said he would come and speak at the protest before the weddings, but warned he would need to make a quick getaway to make it on time for the weddings.

There was a huge police presence at the protest, nothing out of the ordinary, but what was extraordinary was that l had three policemen come up to me wanting to find out whether it was true that Father Bob was going to speak. It appeared they were fans.

Needless to say, the police on the day were quite friendly.

Thank you for you love and solidarity, Father Bob. Vale.

Helen Panopoulos, on behalf of RAC