ALERT: REFUGEE PROTEST AT MINISTER'S OFFICE

from Ian Rintoul included below]

MEDIA RELEASE

Refugee activists bring in the New Year with protest at Chris Bowen's office

Neither Malaysia nor Nauru; Lift the refugee quota, without conditions

Tuesday 10 January, 1.00-2.30pm

398 Hamilton Rd, Fairfield West

Speakers include: Ian Rintoul (RAC), Jenny Haines (Labor for
Refugees), Senator Lee Rhiannon (Greens, NSW), Hadi Hosseini and Iraj
Moghadam (recently arrived refugees)

The refugee rights movement is appalled that Immigration Minister
Chris Bowen responded to the most recent boat tragedy that saw 200
people drown by escalating his relentless push for the failed policy
of offshore processing.

"Not only is Mr Bowen continuing to flog the Gillard government's
'Malaysia Solution' dead horse, he is bending over backwards to win
the Liberals' support in parliament for offshore processing", said
Mark Goudkamp from the Refugee Action Coalition.

"Yet even Labor's offer to re-open detention centres on Nauru and
Manus Island—hallmarks of John Howard's 'Pacific Solution' which
caused so much needless misery and suffering for people eventually
found to be refugees—has been rejected by Tony Abbott. In the lead up
to the re-opening of Parliament, one wonders how much lower Bowen can
go in seeking the Liberals' support for offshore processing.

"It's incredible that Nauru is still being considered. The Nauruan
government says that one of the former detention centres is now a
primary school. Neither Abbott, nor now it seems Bowen, are perturbed
by uprooting these Nauruan kids in so that Australia can again dump
asylum seekers there.

"Julia Gillard should recall what she, as Shadow Immigration Minister,
said in 2002: 'The Pacific Solution is an expensive failure…Stay tuned
for the removal of the multi-million-dollar a day naval blockade of
asylum-seekers and the closure of the multi-million-dollar a day camps
on Nauru and Manus Island.'

Ian Rintoul from RAC said: "It is completely mistaken to think that
you can ultimately uphold the rights of refugees by systematically
undermining them by sending asylum seekers to Malaysia or Nauru.

"During the years of John Howard's Pacific Solution, asylum seekers
still took boats to to Australia. The UNHCR estimates that around 1600
asylum seekers tried to get to Australia but were diverted to
Nauru—plus another unknown number on boats were turned around or towed
back.

"There has always been a humanitarian policy option, but Gillard and
Abbott are too concerned with domestic politicking at refugees'
expense. A number of refugee advocacy groups, including the Refugee
Action Coalition and Labor for Refugees and The Greens have advocated
processing asylum seekers in Indonesia and guaranteeing refugee
re-settlement from there. If this happened far fewer people would need
to get on a boat.

"And if people-smuggling was decriminalised, boats could be prepared
in the open. They could be equipped with life-jackets. They could
inform the authorities when they were ready to sail, so they could be
tracked or even escorted."

But the Australian government has turned its back on refugees in
Indonesia. Shamefully, despite promises of resettlement, 40 Tamil
refugees stranded in Indonesia since October 2009 have been rejected
by Australia and will be holding a protest in Medan next week.
"We are calling on the Minister to make good the Labor government's
promises to the Merak Tamils and bring them to Australia," said
Rintoul.

For more information, call Ian Rintoul 0417275713 or Mark Goudkamp 0422078376