RISE: Refugees, Survivors and Ex-detainees is alarmed by a proposal by a ?refugee advocate? Natasha Blucher and the President of the Norfolk Island chamber of commerce,John Brown to sign a deal with the Australian government to traffick refugees held hostage in Nauru and Papua New Guinea (PNG).
We condemn so-called refugee advocates, the refugee sector and other organisations who are bottom feeders constantly coming up with abusive ?solutions? that treat our people who simply arrived to this country to seek protection as a ?problem?. In 2001, John Howard came up with the ?Pacific Solution? where refugees were trapped in Nauru and PNG; in 2008 Kevin Rudd came up with the ?Indonesian Solution? and in 2012 Julia Gillard came up with the Pacific Solution Mark II and reopened the internment camps in Nauru and Manus.
The Pacific Solution Mark II was implemented after a horrific, militaristic proposal called the No-Advantage policy, made by a panel of ?experts? that included another refugee ?advocate? called Paris Aristotle. Since then, 3 refugees have died after being trafficked by the Australian government to these islands and hundreds have been abused.
It is a constant battle in RISE for us as a refugee community to decide which ?refugee advocate? or ?humanitarian? is going to throw our community in the fire with another anti-refugee proposal. Ramesh Fernandez, ex-detainee and founder of RISE said ?This proposal is evidence that the Australian Government is relying on the refugee sector to supply it with xenophobic ideas in line with border control narratives. At the end of the day we are left with the continuing torture of uncertainty. What are we waiting for? The Final Solution??
RISE requests the Norfolk Islands and its community not to fall into a trap by accepting this xenophobic proposal of mass incarceration of asylum seeker and refugees. One needs only to look at Manus and Nauru to see what the consequences would be for our people.
RISE does not support any governments or organisations that take us back to square one and continue discriminating against our community. We demand that this proposal be withdrawn and organisations that claim to support us, condemn this proposal and take steps to end it.
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