Gillard uses her tin ear on ASIO hunger strikers

Monday, 15 April 2013 

Melbourne, Monday – As ASIO-rejected refugees entered the eighth day of a hunger strike, the Prime Minister Julia Gillard, has used her “tin ear” to listen to their pleas for justice.

Former Labor opposition leader and now backbencher Simon Crean said last week that Gillard has a “tin ear” for sound political strategy and it was on show today when she was asked about the hell her Government is inflicting upon refugees who are being held in indefinite detention.

Asked by Fran Kelly, of ABC’s Radio National, whether there was a better way than locking up people indefinitely and giving them no avenue to challenge their situation, Gillard  refused to budge.

She said only that the Government did “proper assessments” and had “duties and obligations” to the nation. (see below for the interview).

Meanwhile the hunger strikers spent another night in the open, in cold, wet Melbourne, determined to keep up their protest. “No-one in power seems to care about us. They just want us to suffer,” said one of the hunger strikers. “But we are determined to stay strong  and keep up our protest. We will keep doing it until there is a resolution one way or the other.

The hunger strike by 27 ASIO-rejected refugees – 25 Tamils and two Burmese Rohingyas --began last Monday at 2 a.m. Although they have all been judged genuine refugees by the  Australian government, adverse ASIO assessments mean that they are being held in indefinite detention. Most have been held for between three and four years.

The hunger strikers said they were buoyed by the massive support that has come from around Australia and the world. Messages have been pouring in to refugee advocacy networks and a strong presence is being maintained at a vigil outside MITA detention centre in Broadmeadows.

Here is the Prime Minister’s interview on Radio National this morning:

Fran Kelly: For one week 27 Sri Lankan men have been refusing any food. Most of these people have been locked up for three years or more. Is it beyond us as a nation to find a  better way to manage this other than locking refugees up indefinitely without a chance to defend themselves ?

Julia Gillard: First and foremost, Fran, we have proper assessments to see who has a genuine refugee claim and who does not....

Kelly: And these people have been assessed as genuine refugees.

Gillard: And we have proper assessments on security grounds, too. Both of them need to be done, both of them need to be abided by. And you do not change your circumstance as an asylum-seeker or a refugee with an adverse security assessment through hunger-striking.

Kelly: But these people have been locked up for three years.

Gillard: And, Fran, we have got duties and obligations to the nation here, in terms of properly assessing who’s a refugee and making appropriate security assessments.

Kelly: So will we find a way to manage this and allow these people outside eventually of the detention centre?

Gillard: Well, Fran, I’ve said to you how we’ve got to balance these things and weigh them for the nation and of course making sure that people are genuinely refugees and that we’ve got a proper security assessment process that is right for the nation. That’s what we do. And it is not changed, no-one changes it through personal conduct like going on a hunger strike.

Tamil Refugee Council spokesman, Aran Mylvaganam described the situation of the ASIOrejected refugees as Australia’s Guantanamo Bay. “How can such a thing be happening here? It is a shameful episode in Australia’s history,” he said.

Australians, Canadians and Palestinians have rallied behind the hunger-strikers.

“It is so sad to hear about this. I wish people all over the world would start to think of human rights as something that is very important,” said Gaza-based Shahd Abusalama, who represents the Palestinian prisoners detained indefinitely in Israeli jails, and who have bravely endured many hunger strikes, some to the death, in support of their struggle.

The Canadian Peace Alliance, Canada's largest peace network, has called on the Australian government to immediately end the indefinite detention of the refugees. In a letter to Prime Minister Gillard, it says: “Their continued detention goes against all standards of justice and the rule of law.”

For further information contact Trevor Grant 0400 597 351