As Australians, we can no longer stand for the lives of asylum seekers being used as a political bargaining chip.
The Australian Human Rights Commission President Gillian Triggs has returned from Christmas Island and described the depressing state that asylum seekers, some of whom are children, are subject to in detention.
It’s apparent that these people cannot and should not continue to live in these conditions.
As Australians, we should no longer stand for an endless rhetoric of ‘Stop the Boats’ that de-humanises the individuals affected.
Church leaders, part of the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce, have been very critical in the recently released Protecting the Lonely Children report.
Some have gone as far as to label the policies as state sanctioned child abuse.
It lists the Convention of the Rights of the Child, the Refugee Convention, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights as all potentially being breached under the current policy.
During the violence that broke out on Manus Island last year, the United Nations also found Australia guilty of almost 150 violations of international law.
Despite these facts the treatment of asylum seekers is often not thought of in human terms.
Instead it is treated as a political statistic; a bullet-point on a poster: ‘Zero boats landing on Australian shores.’
It’s a number that can be waved in public as an example of successful implementation of effective policy.
It doesn’t, however, take into account the lives of those caught in the crossfire.
It’s a very simple answer to complicated questions involving people smugglers and Australia’s international responsibility to the global community.
Despite this, it’s promising to see local governments supporting refugees in their community and providing quality services to those who do settle as new residents on our shores.
