Human Rights Alliance media release

2 Responses to Human Rights Alliance media release

1. shane Backhouse | June 5, 2012 at 4:20 am |

   mind you these smugglers get paid from the same very people who want to come here .they also could not give a shit about the condition of the boat or over loading.THEY WILL BE OK AS THEY WILL HAVE LIFE VEST TO HELP PROTECT THEM .sorry people any one who has disregard for the safety of women and children after money deserves the titles placed on them
   The bigger picture you all forget that is 100% more damageing and morally wrong is the time women and children are kept in detention How about seeing positive action taken on this .As menatlly i can assure you it is doing damage that will never be cured.this is sad that our government has taken the attitude -who gives a shit as we don’t .

2. Human Rights Alliance | June 4, 2012 at 5:47 pm |

   Human Rights Alliance media release:

   Irresponsible politicking fever pitch with scare-mongering must cease. Describing humanity as ‘people-smugglers’ and ‘illegal’ Asylum Seekers must end – it is racism and discrimination to describe people as such.

   It is disappointing to witness reputable news media fuel the racism by portraying those who assist our Asylum Seekers in their passage as ‘people smugglers’ and describing them as ‘cynical’, ‘sinister’ and ‘criminalised’.

   It is the ‘migration walls’ that are criminally inhumane.

   “Let us build humanity rather than destroy it, our negative sense of self must be replaced with a positive concern for others,” Human Rights Alliance spokesperson, Gerry Georgatos

   A majority of our parliamentarians and some journalists within the news media portray everyone who assists human beings necessitated in pursuing Asylum as bent by sinister criminality when in fact many of those who assist Asylum Seekers do so for reasons no less different to those which guided Oskar Schindler and Nancy Wake in what they did for so many.

   “In any human endeavour and in any sphere of influence, in every occupation and in every government there is always an element who circumvent their calling and propriety – there are always those who will ransom from any predicament an excessive self-interest or benefit.”

   “Let us not tarnish the reputations and deeds of people who indeed assist others from persecution and from abject and dangerous predicaments. In addition let us not destroy the right of people to pursue Asylum – and in terms of their natural and prescribed rights there has been much damage already damned into the Australian psyche and consciousness, our moral compass skewed.”

   The Australian Government’s migration walls are the major contributor for the manifest of those who will risk their own right to liberty in order to assist others in the seeking of Asylum.

   The Australian Government’s conduct and its influence upon the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation needs further inquiry in response to what has thus far has been uncovered by various inquiry.

   Australia owns significant responsibility for lives lost at sea, and for the desperate measures manifest for people to lawfully reach our shores.
   Asylum Seekers should be able to work lawfully with agencies in their right to reach our shores. Those who assist them should not be criminalised. The People Smugglers Act and its damaging racism and horrific mandates must be rescinded.

   Australia’s legal and moral obligations should be geared to assisting Asylum Seekers and not in the rise of peril, suffering, harm and death.

   Many Asylum Seekers who we have spoken to have said they could not have made their journey without the assistance provided by those others much maligned by the Australian Government and some within the news media. Many regard them as heroes.

   Asylum Seekers seek out those who can assist them and everything is consensual.

   If there are people who have settled in Australia who seek similar assistance from others as they required in order to bring their family from peril and to our shores then these are their natural rights and instincts and these people should not be demonised for what you and I would likewise do to protect our families, extended families, friends and others because this is humanity. You cannot cast aspersions upon people for having to seek assistance from whomever when they have in full view unfettered ignorance and the debacles of discrimination, prejudices and racism of our Government and its departments, agencies and institutions.

   Those who are slandered as ‘people smugglers’ often were themselves Asylum Seekers and Refugees. Iraqi Ali Jenabi’s brother was killed by Saddam Hussein’s forces. He arrived in Indonesia penniless and to earn passage for his family to Australia, and which included his mother, sisters, brothers and an uncle he worked for others coordinating the passage of Asylum Seekers. His family finally arrived in three boats.

   Ali Jenabi’s humanity continued and he has helped many in their passage, including those with no money. He is a hero to the Iraqi communities of Australia however he is a ‘people smuggler’ according to Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Leader of the Coalition, Tony Abbott.

   Do not cast a pall of aspersions on everyone who sacrifices much to help people seek Asylum – would parliamentarians want a swathe of aspersions cast upon them all by the Australian people in response for the misdeeds and improprieties of several of their own?

   Media contacts:

   Gerry Georgatos
   PhD Law researcher Australian Custodial Systems, Australian Deaths in Custody

   gerry_georgatos@yahoo.com.au
   0430 657 309

   Natalie Flower
   HRA coordinator
   info@humanrightsalliance.org
   0412 833 733

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