The new Labor -Greens - Independents government has blood on its hands following the suicide of Fijian detainee at Villawood detention centre. The incident caused wide spread protest among detainees who declared hunger strike and few of them staged protest on the rooftop. They are demanding immediate release from detention and review of their cases by either totally independent body or the court.
“The detainees’ desperate action came after their hopes were dashed following the formation of the minority government. The asylum seekers hoped that the Greens will negotiate with the Labor to demand immediate end of inhumane treatment. They apparently swallowed the empty rhetoric of the Greens on supporting the refugees’ rights during the election campaign”.
“Many asylum seekers had expressed to us that they are prepared now to go to the end with their desperate actions after all hopes in the new government was evaporated with the new minister’s comments threatening to deport all asylum seekers whose applications were rejected by his department. The smaller partner of the government, the Greens, was silence on such cruel comments”
Today’s tragic loss of innocent young life is a clear evidence of parliamentary political parties dealing with this highly humanitarian issue as political football for electoral gains only.
The Social Justice Network was right to declare that the new government would be more conservative than the previous one. The network declared rightly that the role of the Greens in this government would not be more than opportunistic voice to get more exposure by spreading more empty rhetoric, with no actual actions.
The network believes that the Greens could play more constructive role in enforcing the government to retreat of its harsh treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. The Greens has proved with no doubt that it prefers to issue media releases and give media talks than take any practical steps to enforce the government to end its brutal treatment of detainees
While the network holds the government responsible for the blood spelt today inside the detention centre, it holds all partners (Labor, Greens and Independents) the same share of responsibility.
The network will continue to expose the true face of political forces, especially the ones that claim to be “progressive”. Progressiveness means for us not only a set of code words, but practical steps to achieve better society.
The SJN vows to take actions to expose the hypocrisy of the Greens and the inhumanity of Labor. We demand that Labor – Greens – independents government release all asylum seekers to community until their claims finalised.
For more information, you can contact Jamal Daoud on 0404 447 272.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
SJN condemns the new government’s move to expand Curtin and other detention centres
The new Labor – Greens – Independents government’s announcement of expanding detention facilities, including the notorious Curtin DC, is a clear indication of the direction this government will take on the issues of asylum seekers arriving by boats. This announcement should be condemned by all Australians who believe in human rights.
“The announcement exposes the hypocrisy of the Greens party, the partner of this government that campaigned very hard on more humane treatment of refugees and asylum seekers during the last August election” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson of SJN. “The announcement proves that all what the Greens were campaigning on were no more than empty rhetoric to win votes from progressive Australians”
“The Greens complete silence on this issue during their negotiation with Labor to form minority government is clear evidence that the Greens is using the suffering of these vulnerable people as political football to win more progressive votes, only”
“The Greens could demand during the negotiation that Labor honour its previous commitments to reform immigration detention system into more humane one”
“The Greens interest during the negotiation was focussed on Carbon Tax and Climate change legislation. While we understand that these issues are highly important, the Greens could use their numbers in parliament and senate to include the issues of asylum seekers “rotten” in detention centres in any agreement with Labor”
“We witnessed how Julia Gillard vowed to seriously consider Carbon Tax in the next few months. She could be enforced to make commitment towards asylum seekers too.”
“The Greens never had any interest to take actions on asylum seekers issues. So far and during the last 2 decades of mistreatment of refugees and asylum seekers, the Greens did not take any practical actions to force the government of the day to change its inhumane treatment of refugees. The Greens are very skilful in issuing media releases about this issue.”
“Today’s announcement is bringing Australia back to dark days of Howard’s era. Even during Howard’s era, Iraqi and Afghani asylum seekers were never forcefully deported back to their homeland”
The SJN vows to take actions to expose the hypocrisy of the Greens and the inhumanity of Labor. We demand that Labor – Greens – independents government release all asylum seekers to community until their claims finalised.
For more information, you can contact Jamal Daoud on 0404 447 272.
“The announcement exposes the hypocrisy of the Greens party, the partner of this government that campaigned very hard on more humane treatment of refugees and asylum seekers during the last August election” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson of SJN. “The announcement proves that all what the Greens were campaigning on were no more than empty rhetoric to win votes from progressive Australians”
“The Greens complete silence on this issue during their negotiation with Labor to form minority government is clear evidence that the Greens is using the suffering of these vulnerable people as political football to win more progressive votes, only”
“The Greens could demand during the negotiation that Labor honour its previous commitments to reform immigration detention system into more humane one”
“The Greens interest during the negotiation was focussed on Carbon Tax and Climate change legislation. While we understand that these issues are highly important, the Greens could use their numbers in parliament and senate to include the issues of asylum seekers “rotten” in detention centres in any agreement with Labor”
“We witnessed how Julia Gillard vowed to seriously consider Carbon Tax in the next few months. She could be enforced to make commitment towards asylum seekers too.”
“The Greens never had any interest to take actions on asylum seekers issues. So far and during the last 2 decades of mistreatment of refugees and asylum seekers, the Greens did not take any practical actions to force the government of the day to change its inhumane treatment of refugees. The Greens are very skilful in issuing media releases about this issue.”
“Today’s announcement is bringing Australia back to dark days of Howard’s era. Even during Howard’s era, Iraqi and Afghani asylum seekers were never forcefully deported back to their homeland”
The SJN vows to take actions to expose the hypocrisy of the Greens and the inhumanity of Labor. We demand that Labor – Greens – independents government release all asylum seekers to community until their claims finalised.
For more information, you can contact Jamal Daoud on 0404 447 272.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
SJN announces its official participant in Viva Palestina 5 convoy bounds to Gaza soon
Social Justice Network is proudly announcing that Mr Omer Quiader will be its official representative on Viva Palestina 5, the international aid convoy that aims to break the illegal and inhumane siege of Gaza. Mr Quiader, a very active member of the network since its formation, will leave on 14 September to London to join the gigantic aid convoy. The convoy then bounds to Gaza form London on 18 September.
“The SJN participation is the first Australian participation in these courageous convoys bound to Gaza to highlight the inhumanity and barbarity of Gaza blockade” said Jamal Daoud, SJN spokesperson and coordinator of the campaign. “We are proud that we will be the first Australian organization that will participate in these convoys”.
“We also proud that our campaign in Australia to fundraise enough money to enable us to participate had drawn attention to the devastating consequences of the 4 years illegal blockade of the strip”
“The network is proud also that its campaign had urged other organizations to start discussing their participation in this convoy and future ones. While we are proud to initiate this process, we are welcoming any move in this direction”
The network had hoped from this campaign to bring the debate about Israeli barbaric actions against Palestinians under its occupation back to the Australian political arena. It is very clear that our participation and other organizations following our suit are good moves in this direction.
The network had raised around $8,800 for this mission in very short time. The network has transferred the amount of $6,500 to Viva Palestina organization to pay for half truck full with medical and food supplies. The other money will be used to pay for logistical expenses of sending our activist to deliver aid to Gaza strip.
The network had published the names of major donors on its website of www.socialjustice.net.au
Our team is very happy and proud of their active role in achieving this goal. They are proud to be first Australians to participate in such moves aiming to break the siege of Gaza. While this is the first participation of our organization in these overseas missions, but we are determined not to be the last.
For more information or to arrange media interviews with our representative, you can call Jamal Daoud on 0404 447 272.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Federal election results: clear message of dissatisfaction of current political system
There is no doubt that the recent federal election’s result was a political earthquake that will have deep consequences on Australian politics for decades to come. So far the media and parliamentary parties are engaged in extensive talk about two issues. The first is the inability to form government for days or weeks. The other one is the rise of the Greens and its holding of balance of power.
“The results of the federal election, which produced the first post World War hung parliament, came with positive outcomes in addition to the negative ones” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson for the Social Justice Network. “Away from quick superficial analysis, any deep look at the outcomes would find deep changes of voters’ attitudes and voting patterns”
“Growing numbers of voters could finally cross the psychological barrier of fear from consequences of fundamentally changing voting patterns. This include voting informally in large numbers, especially in areas with high ethnic and religious minorities”
“We believe that all indications so far are pointing to the direction that the message of the SJN is getting through growing numbers of voters, especially Non English speaking and Muslims voters”
“Since the NSW 2007 state election, the network was asking voters to vote away from the three mainstream political parties (Labor, Liberals and the Greens), even if this means to vote informally when there is no strong independent”
Taking into account that the network is active mainly in NSW, we came to the above mentioned conclusions when taking into account the federal election result, where:
1- NSW had the highest informal votes among all other states.
2- The Greens got the least votes in NSW, comparing to Greens voting in all other states.
3- The high multicultural and high Muslims seats scored the highest informal votes in the state. Blaxland, Watson and Fowler (where Muslims presence is very high), scored informal votes between 13 – 15%. In the same seats, the swing towards the Greens was minimal.
“On the other hand and where there was no campaign similar to the network’s one, the Greens success in Melbourne seat was backboned on Muslim votes. The Muslims did not have the real picture and true information about the reality of the Greens regressive policies and stances. We believe that should the network have campaigned in Melbourne seat, the results there would have changed fundamentally”
“While we are in discussion with many organisations and individuals of possibility to campaign in the state seat of Melbourne in the coming Victorian election, the network will try to prove this fact when the voters go to the polls in March NSW state election”.
“The highly encouraging comments and offer of help from voters in different NSW seats, is another evidence of the growing support for the network’s vision”
“The network believes that all three mainstream parties have more in common than in difference on important issues. One of the most important issues for the voters is the growing Islamophobia and attacks on Multiculturalism”
While the network decided not to run candidates in the federal election for many reasons, we are most likely to run few candidates in the next NSW state election, March 2010.
One of the positive outcomes of the election was the emerging of Muslims and Non – English speaking votes as decisive ones in the Australian politics. But so far, all mainstream parties were successful in deceiving these voters by making more promises, with no real action to empower the community to participate in decision making process.
The network will continue its campaign on the issue of empowering these communities, by all means.
It is interesting also to note that the balance of power became double as a result of this election. The major balance of power was shifted from the Senate to the House of Representatives. This will have great impact on the stability of the government for the next few months/years. It would be interesting to see how the government would act under such circumstances.
For media interviews, Jamal Daoud can be contacted on 0404 447 272
“The results of the federal election, which produced the first post World War hung parliament, came with positive outcomes in addition to the negative ones” said Jamal Daoud, spokesperson for the Social Justice Network. “Away from quick superficial analysis, any deep look at the outcomes would find deep changes of voters’ attitudes and voting patterns”
“Growing numbers of voters could finally cross the psychological barrier of fear from consequences of fundamentally changing voting patterns. This include voting informally in large numbers, especially in areas with high ethnic and religious minorities”
“We believe that all indications so far are pointing to the direction that the message of the SJN is getting through growing numbers of voters, especially Non English speaking and Muslims voters”
“Since the NSW 2007 state election, the network was asking voters to vote away from the three mainstream political parties (Labor, Liberals and the Greens), even if this means to vote informally when there is no strong independent”
Taking into account that the network is active mainly in NSW, we came to the above mentioned conclusions when taking into account the federal election result, where:
1- NSW had the highest informal votes among all other states.
2- The Greens got the least votes in NSW, comparing to Greens voting in all other states.
3- The high multicultural and high Muslims seats scored the highest informal votes in the state. Blaxland, Watson and Fowler (where Muslims presence is very high), scored informal votes between 13 – 15%. In the same seats, the swing towards the Greens was minimal.
“On the other hand and where there was no campaign similar to the network’s one, the Greens success in Melbourne seat was backboned on Muslim votes. The Muslims did not have the real picture and true information about the reality of the Greens regressive policies and stances. We believe that should the network have campaigned in Melbourne seat, the results there would have changed fundamentally”
“While we are in discussion with many organisations and individuals of possibility to campaign in the state seat of Melbourne in the coming Victorian election, the network will try to prove this fact when the voters go to the polls in March NSW state election”.
“The highly encouraging comments and offer of help from voters in different NSW seats, is another evidence of the growing support for the network’s vision”
“The network believes that all three mainstream parties have more in common than in difference on important issues. One of the most important issues for the voters is the growing Islamophobia and attacks on Multiculturalism”
While the network decided not to run candidates in the federal election for many reasons, we are most likely to run few candidates in the next NSW state election, March 2010.
One of the positive outcomes of the election was the emerging of Muslims and Non – English speaking votes as decisive ones in the Australian politics. But so far, all mainstream parties were successful in deceiving these voters by making more promises, with no real action to empower the community to participate in decision making process.
The network will continue its campaign on the issue of empowering these communities, by all means.
It is interesting also to note that the balance of power became double as a result of this election. The major balance of power was shifted from the Senate to the House of Representatives. This will have great impact on the stability of the government for the next few months/years. It would be interesting to see how the government would act under such circumstances.
For media interviews, Jamal Daoud can be contacted on 0404 447 272
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Gaza people need your help: help us participate in Viva Palistina 5 convoy to Gaza
Dear Sir / Madam
The Social Justice Network in cooperation with many other community organizations is intending to participate in the Viva Palistina 5, a convoy of humanitarian aid to Gaza. This convoy also seeks to highlight the brutality of this inhumane siege.
To be able to participate in this convoy, Social Justice Group is seeking your kind support to fund this noble mission.
Social Justice Network has taken many practical steps in the past to promote human rights in the society and abroad. The most important human right is equality between people regardless of race, nationality, sex …etc.
You can check our previous campaigns on our facebook
www.facebook.com/pages/SOCIAL-JUSTICE-PARTY/103934736320714
Our ambition is to raise enough money to purchase trucks full of medical and food supplies. Each truck would cost around $17,000 (with its full load of medial and food supplies). The money will also insure our physical participation in the convoy by sending 2 Australian activists with each truck purchased, to accompany the convoy to Gaza. This would be the first Australian participation in such noble missions. This would be very important to insure that the issue of Israeli illegal occupation of Palestine and the inhumane blockade of 1.5 million Gazans become prominent item in our political and public debate.
You can donate by writing a cheque and send it to our address mentioned above. Or you can direct deposit into our account. You also can donate at our website at www.socialjustice.net.au by clicking donate button on the right. We will provide you with official receipt for your donations. We will also provide you with regular updates on the progress of the campaign.
Thanks for your support and hope that the time when there are injustices in the world become something from the past.
Our banking details:
Bank: Commonwealth
Name: Social Justice Network Incorporated
BSB: 06 2133
ACC: 10871919
The Social Justice Network in cooperation with many other community organizations is intending to participate in the Viva Palistina 5, a convoy of humanitarian aid to Gaza. This convoy also seeks to highlight the brutality of this inhumane siege.
To be able to participate in this convoy, Social Justice Group is seeking your kind support to fund this noble mission.
Social Justice Network has taken many practical steps in the past to promote human rights in the society and abroad. The most important human right is equality between people regardless of race, nationality, sex …etc.
You can check our previous campaigns on our facebook
www.facebook.com/pages/SOCIAL-JUSTICE-PARTY/103934736320714
Our ambition is to raise enough money to purchase trucks full of medical and food supplies. Each truck would cost around $17,000 (with its full load of medial and food supplies). The money will also insure our physical participation in the convoy by sending 2 Australian activists with each truck purchased, to accompany the convoy to Gaza. This would be the first Australian participation in such noble missions. This would be very important to insure that the issue of Israeli illegal occupation of Palestine and the inhumane blockade of 1.5 million Gazans become prominent item in our political and public debate.
You can donate by writing a cheque and send it to our address mentioned above. Or you can direct deposit into our account. You also can donate at our website at www.socialjustice.net.au by clicking donate button on the right. We will provide you with official receipt for your donations. We will also provide you with regular updates on the progress of the campaign.
Thanks for your support and hope that the time when there are injustices in the world become something from the past.
Our banking details:
Bank: Commonwealth
Name: Social Justice Network Incorporated
BSB: 06 2133
ACC: 10871919
Monday, July 12, 2010
6 July 2010
Labor government’s new asylum seekers policy: nice rhetoric with big disappointing conclusions!
After promising start of her policy delivery, PM Julia Gillard, greatly disappoint asylum seekers and the human rights supporters in the country. After Ms Gillard started her policy with outlines that dismiss Liberal opposition racist myths and slogans about unauthorized asylum seekers “problem”, she ended up with similar conclusions and slogans.
It was great to see Ms Gillard dismisses that Australia is facing “unauthorized arrivals problem”, by confirming that the numbers of these are greatly insignificant and constitute no trouble to security or economy. But then when she started to outline her party’s policy, she just did the opposite.
It was also great to see Ms Gillard emphasizing that the racist and inhumane treatment of asylum seekers is damaging the Australian chance to play significant role in international relations and politics, then she resorted to adopt much of Howard’s extreme racist and inhumane policies that undermined the Australian status and influence.
The Social Justice group believes that the policy outlined by Ms Gillard today not only won’t work to solve any issue. But we believe that this policy is just design to win Labor another term in office.
We deeply believe that Ms Gillard’s “East Timor solution” (which is a replica of Howard’s inhumane Nauru solution), will produce (if will go ahead) the same inhumane damages the Nauru’s did. In this instance, we would like to ask our PM how she would insure the humane administration of these “regional centres”? If the government does not control what is happening inside detention cetnres inside Australia, where we are witnessing increasing mental health problems and many self harm attempts, how it could control what is happening outside Australia?
While we believe that Ms Gillard’s policy announcement could win her back vital votes in marginal seats and could deliver her a win in the next election, but we think that Labor government had wasted golden opportunity in the last 3 years to fix this issue for good. We wrote to previous PM few letters advising him about more appropriate humane steps to end the racist debate about the asylum seekers issue. Few of these points were:
1- Talk more frequently about the facts in this regards. Such facts like: the real numbers of asylum seekers around the world, the numbers of asylum seekers arriving to other developed countries and the humane treatment they are given there.
2- Increase the quota of refugees accepted under migration program.
3- Participate in advocating for peaceful solution to armed conflicts that produce high numbers of refugees and asylum seekers.
Ms Gillard mentioned how Australian governments (before Howard’s government) dealt with unauthorized arrivals. We thought that Ms Gillard would propose adopting “Fraser’s solution” to ease the racist debate mounted during 70’s in the face of Vietnamese unauthorized arrivals. Unfortunately, she just mentioned the name of Former PM Fraser, but adopted Howard’s policies.
While we believe that policy announcement today will not fix any problems, but will somehow neutralize the issue of asylum seekers debate in the next election. This will leave us with huge job to continue fighting for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. Such fight that would not be won only by empty rhetoric exercised by opportunist politicians and political parties. Such parties, especially the Greens, can spread all empty rhetoric they can before the next election. Their empty rhetoric of announcing big promises will not fix the problem. Such issue could be more easily tackled by increasing representation of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in their membership, hierarchy and candidates for high-profile seats. Their continued refusal to give these communities a voice, is a stark evidence that the campaign they lead is not more than an election campaign of empty rhetoric that will vanish immediately on the next day election night concludes.
Ms Gillard’s today announcement is a clear indication of the total failure of the Australian current policy in dealing with global refugees’ crisis. Instead of taking proactive steps to face the crisis, the Australian government is still lagging behind its Western democracies counterpart.
The group will continue its campaign to lobby the government to change its approach to this issue fundamentally.
For more information, you can contact Jamal Daoud on 0404 447 272
After promising start of her policy delivery, PM Julia Gillard, greatly disappoint asylum seekers and the human rights supporters in the country. After Ms Gillard started her policy with outlines that dismiss Liberal opposition racist myths and slogans about unauthorized asylum seekers “problem”, she ended up with similar conclusions and slogans.
It was great to see Ms Gillard dismisses that Australia is facing “unauthorized arrivals problem”, by confirming that the numbers of these are greatly insignificant and constitute no trouble to security or economy. But then when she started to outline her party’s policy, she just did the opposite.
It was also great to see Ms Gillard emphasizing that the racist and inhumane treatment of asylum seekers is damaging the Australian chance to play significant role in international relations and politics, then she resorted to adopt much of Howard’s extreme racist and inhumane policies that undermined the Australian status and influence.
The Social Justice group believes that the policy outlined by Ms Gillard today not only won’t work to solve any issue. But we believe that this policy is just design to win Labor another term in office.
We deeply believe that Ms Gillard’s “East Timor solution” (which is a replica of Howard’s inhumane Nauru solution), will produce (if will go ahead) the same inhumane damages the Nauru’s did. In this instance, we would like to ask our PM how she would insure the humane administration of these “regional centres”? If the government does not control what is happening inside detention cetnres inside Australia, where we are witnessing increasing mental health problems and many self harm attempts, how it could control what is happening outside Australia?
While we believe that Ms Gillard’s policy announcement could win her back vital votes in marginal seats and could deliver her a win in the next election, but we think that Labor government had wasted golden opportunity in the last 3 years to fix this issue for good. We wrote to previous PM few letters advising him about more appropriate humane steps to end the racist debate about the asylum seekers issue. Few of these points were:
1- Talk more frequently about the facts in this regards. Such facts like: the real numbers of asylum seekers around the world, the numbers of asylum seekers arriving to other developed countries and the humane treatment they are given there.
2- Increase the quota of refugees accepted under migration program.
3- Participate in advocating for peaceful solution to armed conflicts that produce high numbers of refugees and asylum seekers.
Ms Gillard mentioned how Australian governments (before Howard’s government) dealt with unauthorized arrivals. We thought that Ms Gillard would propose adopting “Fraser’s solution” to ease the racist debate mounted during 70’s in the face of Vietnamese unauthorized arrivals. Unfortunately, she just mentioned the name of Former PM Fraser, but adopted Howard’s policies.
While we believe that policy announcement today will not fix any problems, but will somehow neutralize the issue of asylum seekers debate in the next election. This will leave us with huge job to continue fighting for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. Such fight that would not be won only by empty rhetoric exercised by opportunist politicians and political parties. Such parties, especially the Greens, can spread all empty rhetoric they can before the next election. Their empty rhetoric of announcing big promises will not fix the problem. Such issue could be more easily tackled by increasing representation of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in their membership, hierarchy and candidates for high-profile seats. Their continued refusal to give these communities a voice, is a stark evidence that the campaign they lead is not more than an election campaign of empty rhetoric that will vanish immediately on the next day election night concludes.
Ms Gillard’s today announcement is a clear indication of the total failure of the Australian current policy in dealing with global refugees’ crisis. Instead of taking proactive steps to face the crisis, the Australian government is still lagging behind its Western democracies counterpart.
The group will continue its campaign to lobby the government to change its approach to this issue fundamentally.
For more information, you can contact Jamal Daoud on 0404 447 272
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Community support for the lunch with Villawood detainees: strong message of refusal to mandatory detention system.
21 June 2010
This year, Social Justice group has decided to celebrate its annual World refugee Day celebration inside the detention centre. The community lunch with detainees would send practical message to politicians not to turn the plight of highly vulnerable people into election bazaar.
“The group’s decision to take such practical step was highly welcomed by community leaders, active members and even business owners” said Jamal Daoud spokesperson of the group. “Many community leaders are participating in this lunch. The list of participants includes: Rev. David Smith, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, Dr Fida Al Majzoub, Sheikh Younis Al Muzafer, Emad Ashour and many others”.
“The businesses we approached showed high sympathy with the asylum seekers plight and donated generously for the community lunch”
“On recent previous occasions, community members donated generously when we approached them to donate electrical appliances”.
All this is as clear sign that our politicians in Canberra do not represent their constituents. Indeed, it sends strong message that community members are expecting a lot of their politicians to help these vulnerable people, not to detain them or return them to their death.
The group decided to celebrate the occasion in very practical way away from empty rhetoric and more electoral promises from different political parties. The group believes that actions are usually louder than talks.
This year’s celebration of WRD is a good opportunity for the group to assure its commitment to continue fighting until we see the mandatory detention system abolished altogether. The group is also advocating for Australia to increase significantly the quota of refugees it accept annually. This would reduce the numbers of boat people arriving to our shores.
“The inhumane treatment of asylum seekers proved to be not the solution. On the contrary. It created more troubles for Australia and Australians”.
The community leaders and active members will take multicultural food to participate it with the detainees. But in fact, they will participate with the detainees their hopes that their plight will finish soon.
The community leaders and active members will gather outside Villawood detention centre main gate at 15 Birmingham Ave – Villawood at 1 pm. Then they will take food and soft drinks to the inside of the detention where they will enjoy lunch with detainees from different backgrounds.
For more information, you can contact Jamal Daoud on 0404 447 272
This year, Social Justice group has decided to celebrate its annual World refugee Day celebration inside the detention centre. The community lunch with detainees would send practical message to politicians not to turn the plight of highly vulnerable people into election bazaar.
“The group’s decision to take such practical step was highly welcomed by community leaders, active members and even business owners” said Jamal Daoud spokesperson of the group. “Many community leaders are participating in this lunch. The list of participants includes: Rev. David Smith, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, Dr Fida Al Majzoub, Sheikh Younis Al Muzafer, Emad Ashour and many others”.
“The businesses we approached showed high sympathy with the asylum seekers plight and donated generously for the community lunch”
“On recent previous occasions, community members donated generously when we approached them to donate electrical appliances”.
All this is as clear sign that our politicians in Canberra do not represent their constituents. Indeed, it sends strong message that community members are expecting a lot of their politicians to help these vulnerable people, not to detain them or return them to their death.
The group decided to celebrate the occasion in very practical way away from empty rhetoric and more electoral promises from different political parties. The group believes that actions are usually louder than talks.
This year’s celebration of WRD is a good opportunity for the group to assure its commitment to continue fighting until we see the mandatory detention system abolished altogether. The group is also advocating for Australia to increase significantly the quota of refugees it accept annually. This would reduce the numbers of boat people arriving to our shores.
“The inhumane treatment of asylum seekers proved to be not the solution. On the contrary. It created more troubles for Australia and Australians”.
The community leaders and active members will take multicultural food to participate it with the detainees. But in fact, they will participate with the detainees their hopes that their plight will finish soon.
The community leaders and active members will gather outside Villawood detention centre main gate at 15 Birmingham Ave – Villawood at 1 pm. Then they will take food and soft drinks to the inside of the detention where they will enjoy lunch with detainees from different backgrounds.
For more information, you can contact Jamal Daoud on 0404 447 272
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