Refugees – facts and myths
There’s a Federal election sometime in or before May 2022, and no doubt there’ll be a rollout of myths about refugees trotted out by politicians, demonising genuine refugees who happened to arrive on the wrong timeline and by boat. The PM cast doubt on the veracity of refugee claims by those held in the Park Hotel – even though most are recognised as genuine refugees. It’s appalling.
In an interview with 2GB on Monday, Morrison rejected the idea that the people in detention are refugees. “Well, the specific cases, Ben, I mean, it’s not clear that to my information that someone in that case is actually a refugee,” he said. “They may have sought asylum and been found not to be a refugee and have chosen not to return, and…that happens in this country, people aren’t found to be refugees and they won’t return.” (25 have been found to be refugees, still detained indefinitely, and 7 are seeking asylum). Read more here. The next day he denied he said he denied misleading Australians about whether his government is detaining refugees at a Melbourne hotel, insisting he “answered to the best of my knowledge at that time”. Morrison came under fire over the “grossly misleading” comments, with Elaine Pearson, the Australia director of Human Rights Watch, saying on Monday: “It’s an outright lie to say that these people are not refugees, when most of them have had their refugee status formally recognised for years.”
During a media conference in Canberra on Wednesday, Morrison was asked whether he would apologise for the comments, and whether it was appropriate that some refugees had been held in detention for more than eight years. Morrison replied: “I didn’t make a statement that every single person was, who is in that place, was not a refugee. I said that was to my understanding the case with some people who were there.”
Given the suffering of these detainees for SO MANY YEARS, it is shocking the PM is so slippery with the truth, and displays such lack of empathy for the situation the detainees find themselves (what happened to that empathy consultant employed to help the PM – didn’t seem to change much!!).
The Amnesty sheet of facts and myths, well worn over the years, provides some important information, and may help conversations with friends, work colleagues and family.