RISE eX-detainees are aware that there are more than 50 refugees being held hostage within the city of Darebin, in Mantra Bell City hotel which is part of the French owned ACCOR group. RISE eX-detainees condemn the detention torture of these Refugees on the premises of this hotel. Every one of them has been evacuated to Australia for Medical treatment after being held hostage by the Australian government for almost a decade in PNG and Nauru. We demand that every Refugee detained in Mantra Bell City hotel be freed into the community and given permanent settlement immediately.They should also be given adequate long and short term support.
RISE eX-detainees also urge all those groups who say they are advocating for Refugees to demand nothing less than this. We question why Refugees held for 7+ years in PNG and Nauru need to fill paperwork and seek doctors and lawyers to prove through the medical system that they need to be evacuated to Australia for medical reasons. In 2010 Professor of Psychiatry, Patrick McGorry, stated that detention centers are factories of mental illness, while report after report have confirmed that detention is injurious and sustains irrevocable injuries, both psychological and physical. Yet in 2020, self installed Refugee advocates are still talking about this without taking concrete steps to abolish all forms of Refugee detention, including community detention, and provide permanent safeguards against this criminal abuse.
Hundreds of Refugees trafficked by the Australian government to Nauru and Manus are now living in limbo in on and offshore detention centres, community detention or on restrictive Australian bridging visas waiting indefinitely for the New Zealand deal or resettlement in the US and other piecemeal solutions with no end in sight. They should ALL be given permanent settlement by the Australian government without further delay.
We eX-detainees want freedom and sanctuary for our peers, not short term solutions that only lead to further discrimination and restrictions on our freedom and right to live.
Nothing About Us Without Us
RISE eX-detainees Team
Read eX-detainees TEN demands. These ten demands represent ex-detainee RISE members campaign to address urgent issues affecting asylum seekers and refugees seeking protection from persecution. The demands identify the systemic changes that need to occur, in order to dismantle unjust laws and institutions that engage in and promote the abuse and criminalisation of our members. riserefugee.org/topic/ex-detainees-demands