choices...

We know from recent events and their public exposure that a majority of unfortunates who fall prey to Australia’s asylum seeker system experience considerable hardship, including those who are not locked up.

Another sorry tale is the plight of Eritrean asylum seekers. The leadership of the Eritrean community in Australia has described these asylum seekers as living in a very bad situation; some of them are forced to seek sanctuary at local churches or to live with friends and families. They don’t have any income or ability to work.

The Australian Government has failed to provide them with basic rights available to every Australian – the right to live without fear and to work.

Meanwhile the situation in Eritrea goes from bad to worse.

Australian Eritreans are calling on the government to grant residence to all Eritrean asylum seekers and to account for practices that fail our national and international commitments to asylum seekers and refugees.

The notion of sanctuary being applied by this government is not informed by values associated with a ‘free’ and ‘open’ society. Freedom and openness are tenuous realities, easily traded away if not cherished and protected.




As Mahatma Gandhi said, "... As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the World, as in being able to remake ourselves. We must become the change we wish to see in the world...”