All refugees in detention are political prisoners
Dear Prime Minister,
The John Butler Trio opened the Amphitheatre at this year's Woodford folk festival. Across the big stage, in view of tens of thousands of people, was the banner 'All refugees in detention are political prisoners.'
https://www.facebook.com/JohnButlerTrio/photos/a.10154687312600838.1073741835.6265405837/10155251555670838/?type=3&theater
In her letter to The Age, Anne Walker writes that:
“It was galling to watch and hear the Prime Minister ask us all to be mindful of the welfare of others in this, the “most successful multicultural nation on earth” while we have had people locked up on Manus and Nauru for years in torment and despair.”
And on one of those places of despair, Manus Island, the torment by Australia continues. Forty Australian guards, formerly employed by Wilson Security at the now-closed Manus RPC, have been re-employed by the new 'security provider', Paladin, at the three refugee centres of ELTC, Hillside and West Haus. Many of these guards have been accused of violence towards the refugees and participated in the destruction of food, water and property in November. It is now more than four weeks since the refugees were forcibly moved from Lombrun to Lorengau, yet the buildings at Hillside and West Haus are still not complete and there is no reliable access to fresh water, food, services, allowances, medicine, medical care or support services.
Who are the 'others' whose welfare you ask us to be mindful of? Only others like us? Or the most vulnerable, who continue to suffer the most, on Manus and Nauru.