8 Years of incarceration

19 July: the anniversary of the start of the policy of diverting all refugee boats away from Australian territory.  

PNG Bishops mark 8 years of Canberra's diversion policy with call to welcome Manus and Nauru asylum seekers by Giorgio Licini *

An open letter from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Papua New Guinea to the Australian Parliament: 19 July is the anniversary of the start of the policy of diverting all refugee boats away from Australian territory.  

Figures from the Refugee Council of Australia: 132 refugees still held in Australian prisons; 233 forcibly confined in Papua New Guinea and Nauru; 14 dead. "'End colonial behaviour that denies people dignity'.

* Read the full article Bishops urge Australia to rethink policy on asylum seekers: Papua New Guinea bishops say the indefinite detention of asylum seekers is 'totally unjustifiable and unacceptable'  by Giorgio Licini 

Below is the text of the open letter from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, signed by the secretary general Fr Giorgio Licini, a PIME missionary, and addressed to the president of the Australian Senate Scott Ryan and the speaker of the House of Representatives Tony Smith.

Today is eight years since the Australian parliament has legislated on the mandatory offshore detention for asylum seekers arriving by boat after 19 July 2013 and the prohibition on them of ever settling in Australia.

The people transferred in 2013 - 14 to Manus and Nauru, and some detained offshore or onshore till now, have served a crucial Australian interest. Their detention has effectively achieved the purpose of stopping the boats, thus allowing Australia to cordon off its maritime borders.

In truth, the Australian policy of indefinite detention of asylum seekers and refugees (or anybody else not convicted by the courts) sounds totally unjustifiable and unacceptable to us.

In any case, we firmly believe it should not apply to those who have served a paramount Australian national interest at the price of great personal sacrifice.

It is on this basis that, on this 19th of July 2021, we strongly urge the Australian parliament to legislate for the freedom and a home in Australia at least for those who have been detained in Manus and Nauru at any stage after 19 July 2013 and have no way, now and in the future, to be resettled to a third country.

We know that the remaining asylum seekers and refugees still in Papua New Guinea (127 of them according to the UNHCR) enjoy better freedom of movement than those transferred to detention facilities and “alternative places of detention” in Australia.

But you cannot think of keeping any of them here forever.

Under the current legislation, they have no right to be resettled in Australia. But they have no duty to live in Papua New Guinea either, unless that is their free choice. Australia forcing them to stay indefinitely on PNG soil against the wish of anybody here, contradicts the spirit of PNG self-determination. We believe it is time for Australia to erase any trace of past colonial demand and fully implement a new style of compassionate and participative leadership in the Pacific.

I can assure you that here in Port Moresby, not only us, but all those more involved in assisting the men affected by the current policy (particularly the PNG Immigration and the Australian High Commission) are all exhausted by the prolonged effort.

Please, close the Manus and Nauru chapter as soon as possible by allowing people who have sacrificed so much for your country, and whose acute suffering we see every day, to access a reasonable and acceptable level of freedom and dignity in Australia; specifically, those who have been in Manus and Nauru after 19 July 2013 and have no option for a third country of resettlement and, as we all well know, can’t return to their home country.

AND ALSO...

July 20, 2021 Catholic religious urge Government to reform refugee and asylum seeker policies

Catholic Religious Australia (CRA) has written to the Government highlighting where its refugee and asylum seeker policies do not uphold Australia’s international human rights obligations, contrary to the Government’s insistence otherwise. The United Nations Human Rights Council has reached the same conclusions in its recent Universal Periodic Review (UPR)....

CRA's Br Carroll and Ms Walker have urged the government to embrace the 2021 National Refugee Week theme,  unity – the way forward, to enrich Australian society through the diverse cultures and traditions, skills, talents and friendships that refugees and asylum seekers will bring.  

Click here to read CRA’s letters to the Prime Minister, to  Minister Alex Hawke and Minister Karen Andrews and to Labour Leader, Minister Anthony Albanese.

Download the PDF of  the CRA media statement. 

Further reading  

The Guardian:

Three countries, eight years: one refugee’s nightmare odyssey through Australia’s detention system