BY KAREN FREDERICKS
BRISBANE — The fight for refugees' rights was given a boost on January 31 when 50 people picketed a meeting attended by immigration minister Philip Ruddock at Brisbane's main immigration department offices.
Organised in 24 hours by the Refugee Action Collective, the protest demanded the closure of all refugee detention centres, an end to mandatory detention of asylum seekers and permanent residency for refugees, not temporary protection visas.
"It is our duty as a rich nation to open the borders to people seeking asylum in Australia", Resistance organiser Maria Voukelatos said. "If we can afford to go to war, we can afford to help the poor."
RAC has planned a major rally for February 16. It has also endorsed the March 2 protest outside the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) at Coolum, north of Brisbane.
The intention of refugee-rights supporters to protest at CHOGM drew a quick response from Ruddock. "If you think mandatory detention in Australia of unauthorised arrivals is going to be an issue among political leaders, I mean, think again", he was reported in the February 1 Australian as saying.
Tim Stewart, one of the CHOGM Action Alliance organisers, told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, "We want CHOGM to be remembered as an international summit where the Australian government's record of racist human rights abuses were condemned inside and outside the meeting", he said.
"Refugees are being made scapegoats of globalisation", Voukelatos said, explaining Resistance's commitment to raising pro-refugee demands at CHOGM. "The Third World is subjected to unfair trade agreements, a crippling debt burden and military conflict. People fleeing war, famine or poverty are labelled 'illegal' before their stories are even heard".
Other demands of the CHOGM protests include the cancellation of Third World Debt, an end to the "infinite" US war on the Third World and a treaty between the Australian government and Aboriginal people.
For more information on the CHOGM protests, visit or phone Resistance on 07 3831 2644.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, February 6, 2002.
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