Refugee Action Collective Qld Media Alert
LET THEM STAY Brisbane refugee protest
OPPOSE PETER DUTTON'S THREAT TO SEND 72 CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES BACK TO NAURU.
The Very Reverend Dr Peter Catt, the Anglican Dean of Brisbane will be speaking at the protest to support refugee rights tomorrow at 12pm.
The protest will be at 12pm Friday 5th February outside the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, 299 Adelaide Street, Brisbane.
The protest will demand that the asylum seekers and refugees attached to the M68 High Court case not be returned to Nauru. Dr Peter Catt will be speaking on why he is offering families fearing return to Nauru sanctuary.
Some of the children being threatened with return (including children in the Brisbane detention centre) have been in detention for over two years. Child Psychiatrist Helen Driscoll has examined many and describes them as "extremely traumatised".
They have been exposed to self-harm, sexual assaults, unsanitary conditions, lack of appropriate medical care and inadequate educational services.
In 2010 Professor Patrick McGorry described detention centres as "factories for producing mental illness". The government knows the harm they are doing to innocent people but still they are locking people up for increasingly longer times.
"Peter Dutton claims he is saving lives" said Mark Gillespie from the Refugee Action Collective "but Nauru and Manus are hellholes that are slowly destroying the lives of thousands".
For comment contact Frederika Steen on 0458 875 732 or Mark Gillespie on 04390 561 196