“Refugee Week” or “Refugee Day” is an occasional, symbolic celebration that is for the purpose of placating some non-refugees; but we live every day as refugees throughout the year with irrevocable trauma, especially those detained and abused by successive Australian Governments in detention centres. RISE eX-detainees considers “Refugee Week” or “Refugee Day” a meaningless gesture that fails to honestly engage with the refugee experience in so-called Australia, particularly those of eX-detainees. For us, there is nothing to celebrate about this experience, which is so often marked by trauma and incarceration. We will not participate on this basis.
RISE eX-detainees : the eX-detainee self-determined, led and governed, advocacy and welfare organisation in Australia calls for a boycott of “Refugee Week”, and “World Refugee Day” for the sixteenth year in a row. “Refugee Week” or “Refugee Day,” was originally initiated by UNHCR, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, a set up, controlled and led by mostly non-refugee entities. During Refugee Week, support organisations act like marketing PR machines, real estate agents, or salespeople, raising funds for non-refugee careers rather than sustaining our lives. Do we still want to be part of the “Refugee Week” and “Refugee Day” circus, to entertain you more?”.
At present, there are over 122 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, with over 43 million refugees among them. Over 1.9 million children were born as refugees. Global military expenditure in 2024 jumped to a record high of US$2718bn.
Australian detention centres are torture factories and have caused irrevocable harm to detention survivors. Let’s not forget all refugee detainees who have come by boat and have been held in concentration camps are people of colour. Those who are indefinitely and mandatorily detained in Australian detention centres are selected because of specifically racist policies. Has “celebrating” world refugee week or world refugee day changed any of this?
“We feel like global entertainers, being watched with a bowl of popcorn, as people see us suffering, being tortured, or our lands and homes being bombed every day. Nothing is moving in our direction for long-term sustainability; everything is projected or programmed to cover up war, corporate greed, and political advancement”. RISE eX-detainees founder, Ramesh Fernandez
We will not paper over our pain for your comfort and celebration.
“Australia” is a fictitious Land that resides in the minds of white supremacists, thanks to your Labor, Liberal, and Greens mandatory detention refugee policy. We have nothing left in this country except generational trauma and community damage.
Just recently, Iranians were trapped in limbo in Australia, facing the fear of their family members being killed or ambushed; this experience is replicated for Palestinians, for South Sudanese people. These are not isolated tragedies. They are the direct consequences of a border system that criminalises those fleeing wars and persecution to Australia by boat. This has happened to countless other refugees who arrived by boat from countries such as Myanmar, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Palestine, and beyond. The list of victims continues to grow. These refugees were given no choice no protection, no solutions only the devastating reality of watching their loved ones be killed, disappear, or become victims of genocide while they were incarcerated and criminalised for seeking refuge on Australian shores.
“Australia did not simply trap refugees in detention centres, it gave us no options to save family members trapped in war zones. Instead, the border regime not only imprisoned people in Australian run detention centres but also permanently severed us from their loved ones, many of whom were killed in conflict zones while waiting for help that never came. This is a routine crime against humanity.” RISE eX-detainees founder, Ramesh Fernandez
Our freedom and safety have been sabotaged and questioned, lives are crushed and permanently disabled, and we are systematically discriminated against. Now you want us to join your saviour-complex get-together as a cover for systemic detention torture, occupation, genocide and war. No, thank you.
What you can do instead of joining this circus
1. Centre and amplify eX-detainee voices, not just to hear their stories but to be directed by eX-detainees particularly voices within platforms self-determined by eX-detainees themselves
2. Donate or Become a $5/month supporter : https://www.givenow.com.au/riserefugee
3. Get involved in refugee eX-detainee-led campaign to end the Australian Government’s white supremacist refugee policy for torturing and abusing refugees in detention centres, the #SanctionAustralia Campaign: http://riserefugee.org/topic/sanction-australia
4. Share RISE eX-detainees 10 demands: http://riserefugee.org/topic/ex-detainees-demands
5. How many people have supported eX-detainees’ Day on the 14th of September, a day that is not run by the UN or UNHCR, a privileged organisation headed and run mostly by non-eX-detainees? http://riserefugee.org/topic/ex-detainees-day
6. Help refugee eX-detainees establish, manage, and run a farm: https://www.givenow.com.au/ex-detaineesfarm
RISE eX-detainees