News from ChilOut is that the government has just announced the release of 62% of the children into community-based detention. The government is to be congratulated on their more humane stance but that still leaves more than 300 children in locked detention. While I am glad to hear that many children are now in community-based detention, the children not yet released are important too.
I truly feel both the government and the opposition have been losing their way completely with all the hysteria about refugees and asylum seekers. Having been overseas recently (Africa, India and Europe) and having family living overseas, I’ve seen how they cope with far greater numbers there, I am so ashamed at the way we treat refugees here. Surely the hysteria here is partly fuelled by the fact that refugees are locked away so people don’t get to see or meet them and so it is so much easier to portray them as some kind of aliens. Good on Dr Michael Dudley, Rosie Scott, Ngareta Rossell, ChilOut and others for putting so much time and effort into doing something against the odds.
If you feel you can support them please check this out
“Here is not for children” Rosie Scott_10x10_010711
Rosie Scott is one of our award winning and treasured Australian authors and gives her own time and money to supporting refugees and trying to raise the level of consciousness and debate through advocacy, direct action and her writing. She is one of the Australian authors who contributed to ‘Fear Factor Terror Incognito”, a collection of stories from India and Australia published by Picador Australia and Picador India, which I co-edited with Meenakshi Bharat.
Trust Me, I'm a Storyteller 