Government step to release children from detention: too little too late to correct cruel practices!

Government step to release children from detention: too little too late to correct cruel practices!

The Social Justice Network (SJN) welcomes the Federal government’s announcement of new policy to start releasing children and their families from detention centres. But it considers the step to be too little too late. The government should start defuse the crisis by releasing all detainees who were in detention for more than 90 days, as per Labor’s official policy on mandatory detention centre.

“While the SJN campaigns to dismantle the mandatory detention system altogether, but the today’s announcement is a positive small step in the right direction” said Jamal Daoud, the SJN spokesperson. “The step will inevitably followed soon by further steps to release more detainees after the clear failure of the mandatory detention system”

“In this instance we notice the cheap way the Greens leaked the new announcement, to claim exclusive credit for the change. The Greens claimed that their demand of children release from detention was the main and only factor that brought this positive change. This is total false and misleading claim that caused deep shock and disappointment among human rights activists who campaigned for years to achieve this change”

The Greens misleading claims is both an assault on our intelligence and an assault on the feelings of thousands of activists and tens of organizations that worked very hard to change the heart of the government on this issue.

The claim is totally false and misleading as the Greens and all Australians know very well that the racist Liberal party demanded the release of children and their families from detention long before the Greens senators woke up and started to make demands on this issue.

The Greens party could claim credit for this change if they at least included this demand in the agreement with the Labor party to form a minority government. In that agreement and during the whole period of negotiation with the Labor party, the Greens did not even mention the issue of children in detention.

Any detailed analysis of the reasons of these changes would mention that the real reasons were:
1- The Labor tough treatment of the “boat people” proved to be a failed election strategy that cost the Labor a lot of votes.
2- The tough treatment attracted criticism from even Labor bases, where the Unions and many sections of Labor members and MPs were critical of such tough treatment.
3- The criticism also was tense from human rights organizations and public figures.
4- The situation inside the detentions centres had reached the crisis point with no horizon of easing under current practices. On the contrary. The situation proved to be very volatile and could explode very soon if the government does not change its attitude and practices.
5- The election is over and the Labor government that thinks that it will serve full term has enough time to clean the mess, even with criticism from racist opposition.
Taking into account the Greens cheap tactic of leaking changes and claiming credit, the Greens tactic is very simple, but very cheap. The Greens tactic is to claim any credit of changes to current situation, but to blame the Labor for all misachievments. We saw this when the Greens claimed credit for government promises to discuss introducing carbon tax. It also claimed credit for starting debate over future Australian commitments in Afghanistan. The Greens were very quick to claim credit, even before achieving any real change or achievement.

But the Greens is not taking any blame for indifference on issues of aliening public services, mandatory detention system, growing racism and Islamophobia, deteriorating life style and the situation of indigenous people. On this instance we note that the Greens are part of the government, as according to their agreement with labor to form minority government.

The Greens cheap claims of credit over the changes are both regrettable and highly condemned. The Greens should be ashamed from themselves for not using their numbers in both houses to enforce wide spread changes to highly inhumane mandatory system. The Greens has nothing to be proud of in this regard and on this issue.

The same senator who made these shameful claims failed to support the many desperate asylum seekers who protested outside the Federal parliament in the last few years. The senator could not leave her public-funded air-conditioned office in the parliament house to approach Bseem Mohamed, Aminovs family or Musher Saleh to know why they were protesting there. The Greens senators, including Ms Sarah Hanson, showed no humanity to show interest in helping desperate people protesting against their deportation to unknown fate.

The Greens has nothing to claim credit on the issue of migration and refugees.

The network will continue its campaign to expose the inhumane and brutal nature of the mandatory detention system. And the network will not hesitate to expose the hypocrite forces that want to trade the suffering of thousands of vulnerable people for more votes. This is why the network is not participating nor urging decent Australians to participate in rallies designed to fool Australians. Such rallies and protests that invite the Greens politicians to be the only political speakers, in an attempt to win them more votes. Such rallies that does not serve any noble cause, but to deceive Australians and give them false impressions on who really supports the refugees’ rights. If the Greens genuinely support the refugees’ rights, they should have taken practical steps to relieve the asylum seekers. In this instance we note that the Greens politicians’ pilgrimage to detention centres starts only before elections.

The network vows to continue its campaign until all detainees are released and mandatory detention dismantled.

For more information, you can contact Jamal Daoud on 0404 447 272.