Canberra Walk For Refugees
Adam Richards and his son Ned Thorn are walking from Sydney to Canberra to raise awareness around the treatment of the people on Manus Island and Nauru. These people are genuine refugees and asylum seekers that came to us seeking nothing less than safety from certain death. This walk follows on from a marathon walk over summer last year when Adam and Ned walked from Adelaide to Canberra when Ned was only 13.
Adam Richards with son Ned Last Year
The goals of the walk are:
1. To raise awareness. This walk is a call out to our fellow Aussies that enough is enough. We are not a cruel people and especially not to children.
2. To send a clear message to the Australian government that these men, women and children should be immediately brought to safety here in Australia where processing can be completed humanely.
3. To raise money: We hope to raise enough to cover immediate expenses and then be able to donate money to existing charities for clothing, educational materials, medicines and phone credit as well as other essential items for the men, women and children on Manus Island and Nauru.
Background
Since July 19th 2013, it has been the policy of the Australian Government that no person seeking asylum in Australia by boat will be settled here. This includes all women and children as well as single men. Instead, they are taken to offshore detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru.
Currently, around 1500 men, women and children are still on Manus Island and Nauru. The affects of mandatory detention, particularly on children, are devastating and well documented. These men, women and children have now been detained for five years come 19th July 2018. For the majority of Australians this is unacceptable and far more time than needed for all the necessary security checks to be done. In fact, so far around 86% have already been assessed as genuine refugees.
Some of the Children on Nauru
Back in about September 2016, a deal was announced between our Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the then President of the United States Barack Obama with the U.S. agreeing to assess the refugees for settlement there and that we would in return take an equal number of their refugees from Central America. This deal is problematic and transcripts of conversations between Mr Turnbull and Mr Trump, indicate a face saving exercise, indeed Malcolm Turnbull does not expect the U.S. to take a large number. This is not humanitarian processing but cynical politics played with human lives.
So far, 15 months later, less than 150 people have gone to the U.S. under the terms of the deal.
The Problem
There are many problems witb the situation on Manus and Nauru. They include:
Australia, a former world leader in the treatment of refugees, now failing to even meet its obligations under international law, particularly the United Nations Convention on Refugees of 1951 and the United Nations Convention on Human Rights. Both these conventions, signed by Australia more than 50 years ago, require the speedy processing and fair settlement of people who seek safety on our shores.
The UN says over 90% are mentally ill as a result of their ongoing trauma at our hands and that mental health care is wholly inadequate.
They are denied adequate access to physical health care and medications. This is shameful coming from a great country like ours.
Around 170 children are still detained on Nauru and the numbers would be higher but many have become adults while detained so long. The damaging effects of lengthy incarceration on children is well documented by both psychologists and paediatricians. What if it was your child? How would you feel?
On Manus, the new centres occupied in November, as commented by the UN and Amnesty, are inadequate and still incomplete.
What Do We Hope To Achieve
1. Immediate evacuation of all the men, women and children on Manus Island and Nauru, in a manner which respects all their human rights. We ask for evacuation to Australia or third party countries such as N.Z. and the U.S.
2. We want to raise funds to assist with the immediate medical needs of these people as well as for clothing. When the men were moved from the old detention centre on Manus Island to inadequate new facilities on the island, most of their possessions were destroyed.
3. Raise awareness. This fiasco is not worthy of us as a nation or a people.
4. Call out to our fellow Australians that enough is enough and it is time we took a stand on it since the ordinary rules of common human decency seem to have escaped our politicians.
This walk will cost considerable money, including petrol and food for the support crew (of 1). As already stated we also want to actually raise money for the men, women and children on these islands.
PLEASE GIVE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN. EVEN SMALL DONATIONS OF $1 or $2 MAKE A DIFERENCE. We are not travelling fancy and we have been lucky to have accommodation donated along the way. We are cooking our own food to minimise costs and are committed to donating the maximum amount to Manus and Nauru.
