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Blog: Dear Prime Minister

On July 30 2016 I started writing letters to the Prime Minister of Australia to protest against the imprisonment and torture of the asylum seekers in the offshore detention centres of Manus Island and Nauru. I started with the intention of writing a letter a day for every person in detention until they are all freed. There are more than 1800 asylum seekers in off shore detention. These are those letters and any response from Mr Turnbull.

Silence and violence

Dear Prime Minister,

On Friday December 1, one week after the violent clearing of the Manus Island RPC by PNG officials under the instruction of Australian Border Force employees, Behrouz Boochani wrote an account titled 'There was our silence and their violence as Manus camp was evacuated.' His account is substantiated by numerous photos and videos taken by the refugees during their ordeal. 

After the former RPC was destroyed and the men were forced into the already overcrowded East Lorengau Transit Centre, or the muddy building sites of West Haus and Hillside, or left abandoned on a roadside, Behrouz Boochani continued to witness and report on the conditions in these camps:

I visited a man, semi-naked and with bare feet, sitting in the dirt. His face was bloody. I spoke with him, but he was completely silent. Others told me that police had beaten him, he had lost his personal belongings, and they killed his dog that had been living with him. Witnessing this man’s story was too much to bear.
— Behrouz Boochani

Yet your government proclaimed this was a 'voluntary and peaceful transfer.' This violent event will forever be associated with your Prime Ministership. Now is the time to fix your reputation and give an immediate amnesty to all offshore detainees.

Ruth HalbertComment