eX-detainees’ Media Release 02/08/2021; eX-detainees urge Royal Women’s Hospital to divest from the detention industry and sever all financial ties with Wilson Security
eX-detainees from RISE wrote to the Royal Women’s Hospital Board of Directors on the 13th of July 2021, outlining eX-detainees’ concerns about their financial ties and ongoing contractual relationship with detention centre security company Wilson Security. Wilson Security runs Australia’s detention centres, and is accused of multiple human rights violations against detained refugees.
So far we have not even received an acknowledgement of receipt by the Royal Women’s Hospital Board of Directors of our letter. We find this to be utterly disrespectful and dismissive of eX-detainees who have survived rape, abuse and mental and physical torture in detention centres.
Any relationship with Wilson Security should be antithetical to the values of Royal Women’s Hospital. Refugee detainees and eX-detainees alike need powerful institutions like the Royal Women’s Hospital, who have made policy commitments to equal opportunity and social welfare, to stand with us.
We call on doctors, nurses, medical and nursing students to stand with refugee detainees and eX-detainees. We ask that you start by looking at your place of work and study, particularly in terms of the financial relationships these institutions might have with companies who drive the detention industry.
We also urge the public that if you know anyone working at the Royal Women’s Hospital to share eX-detainees’ open letter to the Royal Women’s Hospital. We continue to urge the Royal Women’s Hospital to stand with us and divest from their relationship with Wilson Security on humanitarian grounds.
For those who say “hospitals are busy during the COVID-19”, just remember rape, torture, murder and abuse in your camps doesn’t STOP during the COVID-19.
By not responding to us or refusing to rescind their endorsement of Wilson Security, the Royal Women’s Hospital is directly complicit in supporting those security companies running detention centres.
Link to the eX-detainee Survivors Open Letter To The Royal Women’s Hospital : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qw3Y04ugXCvkoYnMFkdUC236RVtoW01D/view
Yours Sincerely
On behalf of RISE: Refugees, Survivors and eX-detainees
eX-detainee Board Members and the Committee