2012 marks 20 years since the policy of mandatory detention of asylum seekers was introduced in Australia. This barbaric policy is at the core of the problem with our refugee system. This year, refugee supporters are coming together across the country to say mandatory detention must go! Join us on June 16, and make your voice heard.

Saturday 2nd of May, 12pm, Perth Immigration Detention Centre; cnr Baker & McComb Roads, Redcliffe (opposite the boom-gates at the entrance of Perth Domestic Airport)

The Refugee Rights Action Network wil be going to Northam Detention Centre this May.  The new detention location is part of an expansion of detention facilities and all of the abuses that it entails. After 20 years of mandatory human rights abuse and misery for refugees it is time to end this disgraceful refugee policy and replace it with something fit for humanity.

Over the Easter long weekend, activists from around Australia will be travelling to Darwin to highlight the human rights violations taking place in its three detention centres; for those who can’t make it, there will also be solidarity protests in the major capital cities calling for an end to the mandatory and indefinite detention of asylum seekers and refugees. Click ‘More’ to visit the convergence’s website.

With its recent attempts to deport two Tamils back to Sri Lanka, the Australian Government showed its increasing disregard for the safety of asylum seekers and contempt for international advice. In addition to injunctions, there will be times when we need to blockade Perth’s detention centre; join us if you want to help stop the government deporting people back to danger.

Many of the refugees in our detention centres speak little or no English, yet they receive minimal support from our government or the companies paid to provide care. Through the ‘Dictionaries for Refugees’ program, RRAN has been giving bilingual dictionaries to the people in Australia’s detention centres for over one year now, and so can you.