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April 19, 2003
There are lots of online stories about the clash between protestors and police outside the Baxter Detention Centre in Port Augusta where asylum seekers are now housed by the Commonwealth Government.
But there is very little about the Commonwealth's response to the Akram Al Masri judgement by the Federal Court, which declared that the Howard Government could not hold refugees indefinitely when they had no country to return to.
The response by the Commonwealth? To dump 2 Iraqi refugees from Saddam Hussein's Iraq, who were under detention in the Baxter Centre, in the Port Augusta Square at night. They were left there stranded with few possessions. Some had been in detention for over 3 years. They were dumped in the square at night by Australian Correctional Serives officers under instructions from Canberra. This action took place on the cusp of Easter.
No compassion for the refugees was shown at all, even though Australia has just fought a war with the oppressive Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein in the name of freedom from a brutal tyranny that controlled its population through fear and torture. Treating Iraqi refugees this way makes a mockery of the Government's reason of fighting the war to free Iraqi people. The Australian Government is indifferent to the wellbeing of the Iraqi people.
There is a long history of this indifference.
So much for the Christian values the Australian neo-cons say they uphold in their defence of the noble Western tradition. They violate the ethos of Christian compassion with every action they take to ensure that refugees are treated as criminals.
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Gary, is there a source for this story anywhere?