Refugee “children out of detention” lobbyists visiting Parliament House with GetUp and ASRC

Refugee “children out of detention” lobbyists visiting Parliament House with GetUp and ASRC

Video 1. Najeeba’s story (With Nick Xenophon – includes response by Immigration Minister Chris Bowen)

Video 2. Kanishka’s Story – coming to Australia by boat, and then being locked up in detention

A message from GetUp!

Last week our movement helped put four young refugees — all of them former children in detention — in the room with Immigration Minister Chris Bowen and other key politicians to tell their story. Thanks to the petition, you, along with 39000 other GetUp members signed last week calling for children to no longer be detained, your voice was right there with our delegation in Canberra.

Politicians were astounded when they were presented with your petition. When presented with the stories of the young people who delivered our petition, some were in tears. These were children fleeing war and persecution. Three had already lost parents and siblings; two had also survived beatings and imprisonment in Indonesia for simply fleeing their country. And when they finally arrived in Australia, they were locked away again.

As GetUp members we have a lot to be proud of. Watch the video of what you helped achieve last week here:

https://www.getup.org.au/campaign/WhatWeCanDo?dc=1556,90680

Just yesterday, Chris Bowen reaffirmed his promise before the nation’s Parliament to have the majority of children out of detention around Australia by June. It’s a promise that will be tough to meet, but we know together we can get there if we continue to hold our leaders accountable to the standards of humanity that stand at the very core of our nation’s moral authority.

Thank you again for being the kind of person who makes a difference,

Simon Sheikh
National Director
for the GetUp team