LOCAL refugee advocates have vowed to maintain pressure on politicians to change Australian’s “horrific policies” that damn asylum seekers to years of detention.
Forty-eight candles burning at a vigil at Kerang on Wednesday night represented the number of months that asylum seekers have languished in detention centres at Manus Island and Nauru.
The Gannawarra Refugee Support Group vigil was one of over 50 around Australia marking four years of offshore detention. More than 2000 refugees, including 169 children, remain incarcerated.
Nine people gathered in silence to remember six people who have died in detention and a candle was lit symbolising hope that Australia’s “draconian” offshore processing regime, introduced by Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and maintained by the Coalition, will be terminated.
Local support group member, Jacqueline Hibbert, who has worked in the Middle East and Cyprus during times of conflict, said that she was confident that “people power” will eventually lead to a more humane asylum seeker policy.
“Parliamentary inquiries and international investigations have repeatedly established that these camps are sites of gross physical, sexual and psychological abuse. They are simply unsafe and harmful to people,” she said.
“The US resettlement deal was announced eight months ago, yet not a single person has been resettled and it is likely the deal will not provide safety for all.”
Glenis O’Connell, who visits refugees regularly, said, “I have seen the suffering, the hardship, the pain.”
Refugee action groups across Australia continue to call on both major political parties to form a bipartisan commitment to immediately evacuate the camps and bring these people to safety.
