#StudentWalkOut Media Release : 04/05/2021 – Students who support human rights everywhere should join the call of eX-detainees to End Detention Centres and End Mandatory Detention Policy
RISE eX-detainees are calling for students across Australia to take action against successive Australian governments for the continued human rights abuses against refugees in Australian-run onshore and offshore mandatory detention centres.
We, eX-detainees, ask students to exit their classrooms and unite with us at 1pm (Melbourne time) tomorrow on 5 May 2021, wherever you are. We ask that you hold a banner that reads #EndMandatoryDetentionPolicy, #EndDetentionCentres or #StudentWalkOut and join us in one minute’s silence for those who have survived and those who have lost their lives in Australian-run detention centres.
Australia’s policy of mandatory and indefinite detention is a form of torture that has continued in Australia for over 30 years. Refugee detainees and eX-detainees are among the most oppressed people in the world. We endured abuse in our own countries, and then when sought protection in Australia we were subjected to institutional abuse. Immigration detention centres are arbitrary and capricious forms of state violence; they function to subjugate asylum seekers and refugees by imprisonment.
Enough is Enough, End white supremacy refugee policy NOW.
By holding refugees hostage in detention centres and “hotels”, governments and private companies are committing crimes against humanity. Many detainees or eX-detainees have been forcibly deported or self-deported due to the unbearable torture in detention back to countries we fled from; and were consequently tortured or killed upon return.
eX-detainees request all supporters to center eX-detainee and detainee voices during the walk out. We are the experts in our own lives- nothing about us, without us.
Instead of mandatory and indefinite detention and boat turnbacks, our eX-detainee and detainee communities demand;
- An end to mandatory detention policies
- The immediate shutdown of all Australian run detention centres
- All onshore and offshore refugee detainees and eX-detainees (in camps, hotels and the community) to be given permanent protection, freedom and justice with proper humanitarian, financial and medical support
- All the refugee detainees and eX-detainees granted permanent protection
- All detainees and eX-detainees to be able to apply immediately for family reunion under the humanitarian category, and fast track the processing of their applications
- Fast track refugee detainees permanent residence to citizenship
Also, follow our COVID19 safety plan as follow,
- Wear masks
- Maintain social distance
- Do not attend if you are unwell (live streaming available)
- Bring your own sanitisers
- If you are an eX-detainee attending the event, inform RISE via email or social media
- Make way for the elderly and people with disabilities
- If you are a politician from three main parties or any other, stay all the way back and don’t spread your political viruses on our supporters- this is not a vehicle for your political promotion
Download our Student Walk Out posters and display them at public places (please poster where permissible)
PDF : https://drive.google.com/file/d/16fi9BeOsjpF3eyQJikdER7IhP6QsOE7K/view
JPG : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1e2LJp-fuqS6NOhAxmksSMaFbgU8yq7SX?usp=sharing
Facebook event page : https://facebook.com/events/529746868424153
As eX-detainees in Australia, we acknowledge that the land we seek protection on is the land of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples whose sovereignty was never ceded. ‘Always was, always will be Aboriginal land’.
RISE eX-detainee Team