Stop the construction of Christmas Island detention centre
Toward the end of November last year, plans for a new government refugee holding facility on
FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION:
Compassion, not incarceration, is a better way for refugees (November 20, 2006 media release from National Council of Churches in
“If what we are hearing about the new centre on Christmas Island is true this sounds more like a prison than anything else,” said the Reverend John Henderson, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches in
“Our society will be judged by the way we treat those in need. Compassion and fairness are marks of a truly civilised society, upholding values of human dignity and individual worth. To hold people fleeing persecution in such intrusive, high-security conditions is inappropriate and unacceptable,” said Mr Henderson.
“What have become of the 2005 Palmer Inquiry and recent nation-wide Immigration Department community consultations on how to improve services, including community care models, for asylum seekers?”
“We would welcome genuine reassurances from the government that it does not intend to clamp down even harder on those who have already suffered severe harm. In recent times there has been a lot of talk of so-called “˜Christian values’ including by many in government. We would like to see such values reaffirmed in the cause of human rights and treating our neighbour as we would ourselves want to be treated,” Mr Henderson concluded. MORE
Australian government to construct a “
A Just Australia expressed its outrage at the blueprints for the new immigration detention centre to be built on
Refugee Action Collective
View photos of the detention centre HERE.
TAKE ACTION:
Write a letter to your Federal MP HERE.
Download and sign a petition sponsored by the National Council of Churches in
From: Specific Issues Committee, Asylum Seekers and Refugees (Sisters Sally Bradley, Claudette Cusack, Lorraine Phelan and Mary Quinn)
Contact: Carmel Heagerty RSM, Institute Justice Co-ordinator