Dear Ms Andrews,

I am a friend of the Centre for a Compassionate Society, which is based in the electorate of Melbourne. I live in the electorate of ***. We have committed to writing a letter to your government every week until all refugees and asylum-seekers who remain on Nauru and in PNG under Operation Sovereign Borders are appropriately re-settled. We also seek humane treatment for refugees and asylum seekers on-shore. We are copying this letter to the Prime Minister, the Minister for Immigration, the Shadow Minister for Home Affairs and Immigration, and to our local members of parliament.

We are grateful that 4 more refugees were released into the community from the Park Hotel this week. One of them arrived on Christmas Island when he was 17. He has been held under Operation Sovereign Borders for nearly 9 years, meaning he has not been able to obtain an education or any employment experience, or even learn to drive. Finally release, he has been given 3 week’s accommodation in a Budget Hotel in Ardeer, after which he will receive no Centrelink support. Instead he is expected to find work having never worked in his life and speaking fairly basic English.

Minister we continue to deplore the arbitrary nature of your Department’s treatment of these people. Tax payers have been paying nearly a thousand dollars a day to keep each of them in the Park Hotel for more than 2 years, and now you deprive them of all government financial support? Those left behind in the Park Hotel and other detention facilities continue to suffer because your Department refuses to inform them when, if ever, they will be released. Is this how you would want your loved ones treated if they were forced to flee to another country in search of safety?

Yours sincerely,

*

Send your letter to Ms Karen Andrews: karen.andrews.mp@aph.gov.au (Minister for Home Affairs).
You could cc it to Ms Kristina Keneally: senator.keneally@aph.gov.au (Shadow minister for Immigration and Home affairs), and to your local Federal MP.

Send the text to the Prime Minister via their website HERE, and to the immigration minister, Alex Hawke, HERE.