Palm Sunday rally 2019

Say Yes to Refugees: #BringThemHere

Rally on Palm Sunday

2pm Sunday 14 April, Belmore Park (near Central station)

Invite your friends to the Facebook event at www.facebook.com/events/365279150933100

Download versions of the leaflet and poster to print here (or email info at refugeeaction.org.au to request copies)

The pressure to dismantle offshore detention on Manus and Nauru is growing. The refugee rights movement has forced the government to bring hundreds of children and their families off Nauru since August. Prime Minister Scott Morrison only narrowly avoided a humiliating defeat in parliament in December over children on Nauru and medical transfers from the offshore camps. He was forced to close down parliament early to avoid a bill backed by crossbench MPs, Labor and The Greens.

The Coalition refuses to offer even a “single act of compassion” for refugees and asylum seekers on Manus and Nauru, ramping up racism and fear in a desperate effort to win votes.

But there are now over 600 refugees from Manus and Nauru who have remained in Australia due to legal action and political pressure ever since 2016’s Let Them Stay campaign. The government has not dared to send them back. However they remain in limbo without permanent visas, so that adults are unable to work or study. The government needs to welcome all refugees and provide fair processing and a secure future.

The health crisis for those remaining on Manus and Nauru is still acute. We need to maintain the pressure to close the camps and bring everyone here to live in the community.

Labor is the favourite to win the federal election due by May. But it remains committed to maintaining offshore detention, refusing to bring the refugees to Australia. It says it wants to send them to third countries—but there are no third countries willing to take them, except for New Zealand which has offered only 150 places.
Australia is the only place they can find safety. We need to keep fighting to close the camps and #BringThemHere.

The tensions between the US and China are also rising, as the countries engage in an escalating trade war and military rivalry. War rages in Yemen. The standoff over North Korea is still unresolved, with the terrifying danger of nuclear war. Australia needs a forthright pro-peace, anti-nuclear foreign policy.

Join us to say yes to refugees, peace, justice and unity!

Rally endorsed by: Asian Women at Work Inc, Blue Mountains Refugee Support Group, Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education, Grandmothers against detention of refugee children, Independent Education Union NSW/ACT, Labor for Refugees, Love Makes a Way, Migrante Australia NSW, Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Justice and Peace Centre, MUA Sydney branch, Mums for Refugees, National Tertiary Education Union NSW, National Union of Students , NSW Greens, NSW Teachers Federation, Pax Christi Australia, Refugee Action Coalition, Sydney Peace & Justice Coalition, Synod of the Uniting Church in NSW/ACT, Unions for Refugees, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom NSW

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