Paris Aristotle visits refugee hunger strikers
Sunday, 14 April 2013 
Melbourne,Saturday – The Government’s adviser on asylum seekers, Paris Aristotle, has visited hunger strikers at Melbourne’s Broadmeadows detention centre.
According to media sources, Aristotle and an officer from the Immigration Department yesterday spent several hours talking to the *26 ASIO-rejected refugees who have now entered the sixth day of a hunger strike and are being supported by an on-going vigil by concerned Melbourne citizens.
For the second night in a row, a hardy band of supporters held candles and chanted their support to the protesters, who returned with their own chants of defiance.
“It was very emotional to take part in this inter-action. It is a symbol of the world letting these wrongfully jailed people know that while the government may be trying to forget they exist, the millions of humane people of this world will never let that happen,” said one of the refugee supporters, Aran Mylvanagam.
There are 55 people being held in indefinite detention in Australia. All of them have been granted refugee status to stay here but the Government is refusing to release them because ASIO has declared them a threat to national security – charges they can’t challenge because they remain secret under ASIO laws.
The 26 in Melbourne – 24 Tamils and two Burmese Rohingyas-- began a hunger strike last Monday at 2a.m.
Despite their weakening condition, the protesters yesterday put their grievances to Aristotle, who, it is believed, told them he would pass them on to the Minister for Immigration, Brendan O’Connor, one of which is to be released into the community immediately.
He also warned the hunger strikers that they should not talk to the media about his visit. He emphasized he was making a private visit and told them if they alerted the media, he would not be able to help them.
Aristotle, a long-time refugee advocate, is viewed these days by some refugee advocates as a man more interested in pushing government policy than the welfare and future of refugees, since he joined the Gillard Government’s panel and produced recommendations that has allowed the government to pursue its cruel and inhumane treatment of asylum seekers and refugees.
Three of the hunger strikers were hospitalized earlier in the week, suffering dangerously-low blood sugar levels. Initially the group was taking no water as well as no food. But they decided to drink fluids after they began to lose consciousness and strength very quickly.
“We do not have a lot of strength in our bodies but we are not going to give up until we get a resolution one way or the other,” one detainee said.
The detainee said the protesters were buoyed to see on social media the massive support from around Australia and the world, as well as pictures of the vigil, which includes a symbolic cage of confinement. center.
Some advocates and detainees saw Aristotle’s visit as a way to try to talk the hunger-strikers out of their protest and back into the invisibility of non-persons; people with no face, no voice and no hope. But if that was his aim, he would have failed miserably, for the hunger-strikers said they were determined to carry on.
“We have no intention of stopping, no matter what people might say to us,” a detainee said. We came to Australia to live because Sri Lanka was death to us. We do not want to die here but we have no life locked away in this place,” he said.
“We know Australians are kind people and do not want to see people like us suffer. We are very happy to see the people supporting us outside this jail.”
The Canadian Peace Alliance has backed the refugees, with a letter to Prime Minister Julia Gillard, demanding their release.
Rallies were held yesterday in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide to highlight the cruel, inhumane policy of indefinite detention of refugees.
The Canadian Peace Alliance, Canada's largest peace network, called on the Australian government to immediately end the indefinite detention of the refugees.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, it says: “All of those who have been detained have met the requirements to be considered “genuine” refugees. Their continued detention goes against all standards of justice and the rule of law.”
Canada’s huge Tamil diaspora has also sent a letter to the Prime Minister, reminding her of Australia’s obligations under international law.
We remind your government that asylum seekers are not precluded from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: it is a right under international law to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution,” said Krisna Saravanamuttu, spokesperson for the National Council of Canadian Tamils.
“Of the 55 refugees held indefinitely because of negative ASIO reviews, the vast ajority of them are fleeing persecution based on nationality in Sri Lanka—a country accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide,” he said.”Even after the end of the conflict, Tamils are not safe in the island with human rights groups alleging continued rape, torture and extrajudicial killings of Tamils.
“We urge your government to immediately release the refugees as per their rights under international law. Your treatment of these refugees on hunger strike will serve as a test for how the Australian government enforces its own obligations under international covenants and the doctrine of the presumption of innocence.”
A Tamil Refugee Council spokesperson, Trevor Grant, said the Immigration Minister Brendan O’Connor should not allow his Government’s fear of being labelled soft on terrorism in an election year to destroy the mental and physical health of these people .
“He should use his power to release all refugees indefinitely detained because of so-called negative ASIO reports, not succumb to the racist, anti-refugee dog-whistlers in the parliament and the electorate ” he said.
*(There are 26 in the group – 24 Tamils and two Burmese Rohingyas. A Kuwaiti man who was part of the original 27 hunger-strikers has a serious medical condition and was persuaded to drop out after a couple of days because of his illness.)
For further information contact Trevor Grant 0400 597 351
