I Will Not Celebrate the Release of Baby Asha

This is a continuation of something I wrote for the 4ZZZ AnarchyShow today.

Regarding the release of Baby Asha into community detention.

This is not a victory. This is one step along the road to victory. There have been many steps before this and there are many to come.

There’s still over 260 people in Australia facing deportation to Nauru including 36 other babies.

Personally I know the relatives of a Kurdish baby and her family who are in Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation.

This is called a transit centre because it is for people in transit. This baby is set for return to Nauru. And it seems this will happen soon.

This is no reason for celebration.

There are still almost 1500 people in Australia’s offshore detention hellholes.

I will not be celebrating until they are brought back to this country and are living in the community.

The government and opposition still have offshore detention policies.

I will not be celebrating until these are abolished.

I will not be celebrating until the government has a fair and just refugee determination process.

Minister Dutton has said Baby Asha will be sent back to Nauru after all legal and medical issues are resolved.

Like other refugees brought from Nauru to Australia if Baby Asha and her family are found in need of our protection – through the recently introduced dodgy fast track policy – they will be sent back to Nauru.

Fungal diseases have become epidemic in the so called community on Nauru.
Just imagine conditions in tents with no air-conditioning.

They also will have the ‘opportunity’ to settle in Cambodia or another of Australia’s poor neighbors who are bribed by our government to take them.

If they are found not to be owning of our ‘protection’ they will have to stay on Nauru or be sent back to the country they fled.

In Baby Asha’s case Nepal where her family are part of a persecuted Christian minority.

This is no reason to celebrate.

There is no reason to celebrate while lawyers for Baby Asha and family are being denied access to their clients.

I will not be celebrating while I am receiving messages from people (they are people, not numbers, not statistics) saying they are sick of life in the Manus Island detention facility and want to die.

I will not be celebrating while cats walk around inside the hospital in Nauru.

A cat can be seen in the background although the condition are bad in without the cat

I won’t be celebrating until there is justice for Reza Berati, Hamid Kehazaei, Leo Seemanpillai, Fazel Chegeni, Omid Avazali, Ali Muhammad, Mohammad Nasim Najafi and all the others who have died because of Australia’s refugee policies.

This includes deaths, there is a way to ensure we help refugees without them having to risk their lives at sea.

Basically I won’t be celebrating until Australia has humanity at the centre of all things not money.

Reza Berati’s grave he was murdered during unrest on Manus Island in 2014, no one has been convicted of his death.

The conditions Baby Asha will grow up in if sent back to Nauru