11 Years Too Long – ENOUGH is ENOUGH

19 July Actions –  marking 11 Years of Trauma – 11 Years Too Long   

Demands – 11 Years Too Long       Resources for 11 Years Too Long actions    List of actions     Refugees Off PNG campaign   Background – Offshore detention since 2012

On Friday 19th July 2024, it will be 11 long years since former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that anyone seeking asylum who arrived by boat would be ‘never allowed to settle in Australia’ and would be subject to offshore detention.  This has resulted in the regime of cruelty under which thousands of men, women and children suffered years in appalling conditions in detention on Nauru and Manus Island.

Sadly, there are still people trapped in PNG, waiting for a pathway to safety and secure future.  There are more than 100 people now on Nauru, many in detention, who arrived by boat since late 2023.  Around 1,000 people are here in Australia, brought from PNG and Nauru for medical treatment years ago, who have no pathway to a permanent visa, even though most are recognised as refugees.

See further Background – Offshore detention since 2012

Demands: End 11 Years of Trauma: Enough is Enough

• Remove the ban on resettlement in Australia: permanent visas NOW
• Evacuate refugees abandoned in PNG
• Refugees off Nauru
• End the secrecy about Australia’s cruel offshore detention
• End offshore processing

 

Take Action: 

• Attend an action – see listing here below
• Organise an action- create a placard display or other action at the office of your local MP or Senator.   To add your event to the listing below send details to austrefugeenetwork@gmail.com
• See resources below including poster, placard, leaflet, proforma media release
• Send a message to politicians (see below: sample letters, postcards or emails)

 

Resources to support your local 11 Years Too Long action

• Poster template in colour.  Two designs to choose from.  Add the details of your event or action
  Poster Design option 1      Poster Design option 2

• Placard template in colour to display at your event
  Placard Design option 1 (word)     Placard Design option 2 (word)

Placard Design option 1 (PDF)     Placard Design option 2 (PDF)

• Double sided leaflet for promoting your event – print as A5 or A4.  You can add details of your event
  Leaflet Design option 1 (word)     Leaflet Design Option 2 (word)

Leaflet Design option 1 (PDF)     Leaflet Design Option 2 (PDF)

• Postcards to get signed at your local event (Postcard pdf version  and Postcard word version)
• Sample media release – for your local media

 

Send a message to your local MP and relevant Ministers

Tell them no one should have to live in limbo for 11 years.  All refugees still offshore and those in Australia need a pathway to permanent resettlement – they need a safe and secure future. People seeking asylum need a fair and timely assessment process – not 11 years of trauma. People still held in PNG need the option of being brought here.

Letters, postcards & emails – send to your local MP, the Prime Minister,  Minister for Immigration,  Minister for Home Affairs,  Minister for Foreign Affairs

• ARAN letter kit – 11 Years Too Long
• Refugees Off PNG & Nauru campaign – letter writing July
• Print and send a postcard to politicians  (Postcard pdf version  and Postcard word version)
• See email format for postcard (Email format postcard)
• Find your local federal MP here  See contact details for MPs and Senator here 
• See tips for writing to MPs here

 

Listing of ACTIONS & EVENTS –  11 Years Too Long Events   ( 17 – 23 July)   

Online forum:   11 Years Too Long:  Campaigning to get Refugees Off PNG & Nauru – Weds 17 July 2024, 7pm AEST

We hope you can join us at this forum hosted by the Refugees Off PNG & Nauru Campaign Group and supported by ARAN.  Presenters:

• Prof Philomena Murray, University of Melbourne – Externalisation as a rationale for  ‘offshore’ policies
• Sr Jane Keogh, Manus Lives Matter – the current crisis in PNG
• Jana Favero, Director Advocacy and Campaigns, ASRC – advocacy opportunities
• Keven Sweeney, Convenor, Refugees Off PNG & Nauru Campaign Group – the current campaign – how you can be involved

Register to get the zoom link:     Register HERE for Refugees Off PNG & Nauru online forum 17 July.

If you are interested in some background reading see Prof Murray’s article https://externalizingasylum.info/the-externalization-of-refugee-policies-some-considerations/

 

ACT  

• Canberra:

NSW

• Sydney:

• Newcastle:  Friday 19 July,  4.30 to 5.30pm
  cnr King and Auckland St Newcastle
  End 11 Years of Trauma: Enough is Enough
  Australia is a crocodile……. that swallowed innocent asylum seekers in its PNG ‘belly’
  ELEVEN years they have been in there. Let’s clamour and call out Enough!
  Bring pots, pans, anything to clamour and sing to demand: END this horror!
  Organised by Hunter Asylum Seeker Advocacy
  See further info : https://www.facebook.com/share/o7mSCaYHjb7z9gob/
  Or email:  lekaniko@gmail.com

VICTORIA

• Melbourne:  Friday 19 July,  5pm
  corner of the Bourke Street mall and Swanston Street.
  Speak out:   End 11 Years of Trauma: Permanent Visas Now
  Eleven years on we are gathering to speak out against this racist cruelty and demand of Albanese’s Labor government:
  * End mandatory detention and shut the Nauru detention centre
  * Permanent visas for all those caught up in this horror, including victims of the flawed Fast Track process and Medevac refugees
  * Allow refugees trapped in Indonesia to come to Australia.
  Organised by Refugee Action Collective Victoria  (RACVic)
  See further info:  https://www.facebook.com/share/Fi6emq3bRXUNGvx8/
  More information: David Glanz, 0438 547 723, or refugeeactioncollective@gmail.com

• Ballarat:     Monday 15 July 2024 at 11am
  Outside the Office of Catherine King MP, corner Lydiard Street Ballarat
  Bring the Refugees in PNG here – End offshore processing – End mandatory detention
  Organised by Ballarat Rural Australians for Refugees
  Further detail:  rarballarat@gmail.com | www.facebook.com/BallaratRAR

QUEENSLAND

• Brisbane:

 

TASMANIA

• Hobart:

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

• Adelaide:     Friday 19 July, 4.00 – 6.15 pm
  11 YEARS OF HARM: PROTEST OFFSHORE DETENTION – 19 JULY 2013 – 2024
  Join our weekly Vigil in Rundle Mall, a little east of Gawler Place intersection, on this most regrettable anniversary of Australian Offshore Immigration Detention.
  Adelaide Vigil for Manus and Nauru calls for an end to 11 years of trauma, and urgent, safe resettlement for each one of the remaining hostages to Australian politics.
  *Bring refugees from PNG to safety
  *Permanent visas for ALL refugees
  *Replace the broken ‘Fast Track’ system
  *End Offshore Processing
  No crime; why the time?   It must end.
  https://facebook.com/events/s/11-years-of-offshored-refugee-/768514048640251/

 

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

• Perth:

 

NORTHERN TERRITORY

 

 

Refugees Off PNG campaign

Background – Offshore detention since 2012