A group of 20 refugee supporters, mostly students, have staged a sit-in at the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, Sydney office on Lee st, at 11.45am today. They are protesting the ongoing rapes and assaults against refugees on Nauru.
Erima Dall from the Campus Refugee Action Collective, Sydney University said “Malcolm Turnbull has made addressing domestic violence a feature of his government, but if he is concerned about violence inflicted against women then he must end the violence against refugees in the government’s care. He must close Nauru and bring refugees into the Australian community. Anything less is sheer hypocrisy.”
The group is demanding that the 23 year old Somali refugee, going by “Abyan”, made pregnant in a sexual assault on Nauru, be immediately brought to Australia where she can access an abortion. The case was revealed last Monday on the ABC’s 7.30 report.
“It is simply grotesque that a woman who has been raped and needs an abortion is so far being refused passage to Australia. The facilities to perform an abortion are not available on Nauru, and even its legality is unclear. Is Turnbull going to force her to give birth, or leave her to some other fate? That would be a shocking act of violence” Ms Dall said.
“Offshore processing and so-called ‘re-settlement’ on Nauru will never be safe” she added. “The constant rapes and attacks we have seen are not an accident – offshore processing is designed to be a horrible deterrent.”
“Processing the remaining asylum seekers will not address this. As long as the Australian government continues to dump vulnerable people beyond the reach of justice, they will continue to be preyed upon.”
The group will be joining the rally this Sunday October 11, 2pm at Sydney Town Hall to join thousands more taking a stand for refugee rights, to end offshore processing and all detention of refugees.
For comment: Contact Erima Dall 0432 221 516 (Campus Refugee Action Collective, Syd Uni)
or Steven Kwon 0416 406 900 (Campus Refugee Action Collective, Syd Uni)
More information:
According to Transfield Services there have been 33 formal allegations of rape or sexual assault inside the detention centre between September 2012 and April 2015 on Nauru. This is on top of 67 allegations of child abuse, and 253 instances of self-harm. There have also been numerous attacks on those refugees living in the community. Nazanin, for example, a 23 year old Iranian refugee raped and beaten in May, attempted suicide twice. The department of immigration would not bring her to Australia until she suffered kidney failure. More recently, ABC’s 7.30 program documented the brutal rape of two women. One woman known as “Najma” was left in a cave and had to wait 4 hours for a police response. The other, “Abyan” was made pregnant due to her assault and is begging to be brought to Australia for an abortion.
