Free The Children

[Alex H]

I've visited Villawood. It's fucking disgusting. Ok, so the parents may or may not have a legal (and I use the term loosly) right to be here, but what did the kids do? Did what mummy and daddy told them to do like good little children and got on the boat.

Yes, we are signatories on the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child (sounded good when it just meant telling Rawanda to feed their kids more, didn't it?) but now WE have to live up to it too!

Move mothers with children into minimum security accomodation in populated areas outside the detention centers, and keep the dads inside (in case some smartarse thinks that hostages really are essential) and give them weekend access visits like every other separated family.

I'm really fuck bitter about this cause I've been inside a detention center (read concentration camp) and seen what life is like. And I hope to CHRIST that I never end up like that, cause I'd be rioting and hunger striking and making suicide attempts too.

Is there a website or SOMETHING where internationals can petition our govenment, cause they don't seem to listen to us? Anybody? International pressure? Anywhere?

[j2k4]

I abhor this detention.

I feel, however, that we must somehow come to grips with our respective immigration/refugee problems.

It seems every white/European/English-speaking Democratic/Socialist country is beset with this problem.

Does this strike anyone?

[Alex H]

Yeah. White people are afraid of too many things.

[kAb]

maybe they are there for a reason?


Otherwise... stupid. free zeh children

[Alex H]

Well, they are. It isn't a good one though.

[j2k4]

Originally posted by Alex H@3 December 2003 - 02:07
Yeah. White people are afraid of too many things.

You miss my point.

What are all of these people trying to get away from, or trying to get to?

What is it that us light-skinned folk have that they want?

And why aren't us vengeful white people in the U.S. trying like hell to get into Mexico, just to get even?

[Alex H]

Originally posted by j2k4@3 December 2003 - 07:41
You miss my point.

You missed mine! (My fault - I should have gone into it further and it was a silly generalization).

A lot of the people in the detention center I visited left their home countries because they were being persecuted (in many different ways). Some were Iraqis (who left years before the war) who were "enemies of the state". Basically someone, at some point had heard them say something bad about Sadam and they would be rounded up and killed. And this is "I'll kill you, I'll kill, your family, I'll kill your friends, I'll kill your neibours, I'll kill their family, their friends" type stuff. Some were running away from the Taliban, some were Christians who lived in Islamic countries. Everyone was running away from people who were trying to kill them.

I remember a while ago, our Government rejected a Colombian guy who said he had run afoul of his countries government and was afraid to go to the US because they still might locate him there. He got kicked out with a "No imminent danger" letter and stuck on a plane back to Colombia. Two days later his headless torso was found floating down a river. One guy they sent back to Iraq didn't even make it off the plane before he was caught and they executed him in the airport bathroom.

We have a great lifestyle (well, nobody sends death squads after us anyway) so they come here. And then we tell them to piss off. Or we lock them up for 2 years, and THEN tell them to piss off. Either way, the kids shouldn't have to be locked up. We could at least show some compassion for the innocent children.

I mean, look at this picture. It looks like a Nazi concentration camp! Should ANY kid have to live there?

[cowswithguns]

Excellent job Andie........I'm so proud of you. I have signed the petition and just hope that this will allow people from overseas to see what appalling conditions these children live in.

Our government has so much to answer for and I am so ashamed that we treat not only the children but the refugees in general in this way.

It's about time things were done to enable these children to experience life outside detention centres and to fast track their parents status.

@ j2k4

I guess they see us as lucky people on the surface of things....we appear to live in an affluent, free society with plenty of hope and opportunity. You can't blame them for wanting to leave often war torn countries for a more peaceful life.

[MagicNakor]

It looks much nicer than a Nazi concentration camp. I would also imagine that it is not a deplorable existance than one would have in said Nazi concentration camp.

[AussieSheila]

Oh yes MN! Ever so much nicer than a Nazi camp. OK, they are not going to be gassed but these are kids dumped in the desert. It would break my heart to see any of my kids in a place like that.

Thanks you guys! :">

Alex, you seem to know quite a lot, or at least how to find info. Will the international votes count? If not, I've got Malcolm Fraser's e-mail addy, I'll ask him.

B)