Please take a photo this Friday, in an online solidarity action to support refugees and refugee activists.

Download signs you can use here

Detention centres force refugees to use shared utilities, live in close quarters with limited movement and insufficient access to medical care. This puts refugees at high risk in a time of covid-19.

In the past few weeks we have seen a number of actions by refugees calling for their release. Refugees have staged photo actions in Kangaroo Point in Brisbane and rooftop protests in Villawood detention centre in Sydney.

At the same time, we have seen the Government exploit this crisis to peel back civil liberties. Last Friday, the 10th of April, members of the Refugee Action Collective in Melbourne were arrested and collectively fined upwards of $40,000. Although the fines were issued under new covid-19 laws, organiser Chris Breen was charged with ‘incitement’.

This is a scary time for refugees and refugee advocates alike. But we refuse to be intimidated. This Friday we are calling on all supporters to take a solidarity photo using the phrases:

Protest is safe, Detention is not #freetherefugees
I support the Villawood protests #DetentionIsAnInfectionRisk
 

Speakers:
Refugees in detention in hotels including the Mantra in Melbourne

6pm next Monday 20 April, via Zoom

To join download the Zoom app on your phone or computer and register for the meeting at this link

The detention centres and hotels where refugees are imprisoned are breeding grounds for coronavirus infection. The Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases and other medical experts have called for their release. There have already been several scares.

Hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers who were transferred from Manus and Nauru for medical treatment are being held in detention in hotel like the Mantra in Melbourne and Kangaroo Point in Brisbane. They have held increasing protests demanding release.

This forum will hear directly from inside the detention hotels from refugees imprisoned there, who will take us on a virtual tour of conditions.

Invite your friends to the Facebook event here
www.facebook.com/events/512088659458132

Support Melbourne refugee activists facing attack on right to protest

Sign the petition here

On Friday refugee activist Chris Breen was arrested for helping to organise a car cavalcade protest past the Mantra Hotel in Preston, Melbourne. As Chris wrote afterwards, “I have been charged with ‘incitement’ and police have seized my phone and all my computers.”

The Refugee Action Collective in Melbourne organised the protest to call for the release of the 70 refugees held in detention at the Mantra hotel, where they are at high risk of coronavirus infection.

A total of 26 people were also fined $1652 for leaving home without a valid excuse—a total of $43,000 in fines—despite ensuring the protest was entirely safe, with activists confined to their cars.

This is an appalling attack on the right to protest.

Please sign the petition to support the activists here