Who We Are
OUR TEN POINT PLAN
Rural Australians for Refugees call on the Australian Government
to:
-
Receive all asylum seekers in accordance with our obligations under the
UN Convention on Refugees which Australia signed in 1954. After being assessed,
asylum seekers would either be accepted as genuine refugees or deported,
according to long-established criteria.
-
Grant amnesty and permanent residency in Australia to all those asylum
seekers currently in detention in Australia and in "Pacific Solution"
centres.
-
Abolish existing holding centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea and abandon
any further plans for new offshore centres including that on Christmas Island.
-
Stop military intervention against boat people. Using Australia's military
against the victims of oppression is totally inappropriate.
-
Abolish the Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs), and give the right to permanent
residence to all those assessed as refugees so that they can rebuild their
lives. TPVs leave people in limbo, denying them the possibility of secure
settlement in Australia, preventing reunion with spouses and children and
denying access to critical services.
-
Close all detention centres in their present form. Asylum seekers should
be held in detention only to establish their identity and for criminal clearance,
along the lines of the Swedish model. As in Sweden, children should only
be held in detention for a maximum of six days.
-
Take any detention facilities out of the hands of private enterprise. Such
facilities should be publicly accountable and open to scrutiny, rather than
be left to the mercy of the profit motive.
-
Recognise that there is a international humanitarian crisis of huge proportions
which Australia cannot ignore, involving the mass migration of refugees
and displaced people. Australia should lead an international search for
co-operative solutions and support a world-wide increase in aid for refugees.
-
Promote the establishment of an international conference to review the
International Conventions and revise current inadequate procedures for resettlement
of refugees.
-
Recognising how small our current quota of 12,000 refugees per year is,
Australia should double the quota to 24,000 per year.
Our main focus for 2004 are points 1, 5, 6 and 10.
Please write to your local MP and the Federal Government to urge the implementation
of these points.
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