URGENT ACTION NEEDED TO STOP REMOVAL OF SERIOUSLY ILL ASYLUM SEEKER CHILD

Hi everyone,

The Immigration department is up to its usual trickery once again. We need your help to save the life of a seriously ill, nine year old Afghan boy in Brisbane, who the Immigration department is proposing to send to Christmas Island, far from specialist medical care. Here is some more information about the child from Campaign Director at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre - Pamela Curr.

I am requesting your assistance to stop the removal of a seriously ill, nine year old Afghan child and his parents to Christmas Island. The reason for this is that the child has Hereditary Spherocytosis. http://www2.texaschildrenshospital.org/internetarticles/uploadedfiles/85.pdf

Hereditary Spherocytosis results is an over production of red cells with severe anaemia, splenomegaly and jaundice as these break down. This child has had both his spleen and his gall bladder removed in the past month to alleviate the condition. The condition can not be cured but with good medical care can be controlled. Without a spleen this child is highly susceptible to infection. He must remain on daily antibiotics and be watched for any sign of infection as this could become life threatening within hours.

This family is awaiting a decision on their protection visa application. They arrived on Saibai Island around the 22nd May. They came to Australia seeking asylum and in desperation, medical care for their child who was at this time desperately ill. The family was taken to the Royal Brisbane Children’s Hospital for urgent care. They are now in community detention under guard somewhere in Brisbane.

The Immigration department is now proposing to send the family to Christmas Island which is 2,600 kms from Perth and the nearest specialist medical facility. Currently there is no doctor on Christmas Island although the doctor will return in a few weeks. Normally there is one doctor on the island and one on circuit through the other islands. The Medical facilities for a child with a life-threatening condition are dangerously inadequate.

Recently a West Papuan child on Christmas Island required two trips back and forth from Christmas Island to Perth for medical care. This necessitated flights with her father and two guards at enormous cost and great stress. In 2002 Fatima a 27-year-old Afghan woman died as a result of high blood pressure which caused a brain haemmorrhage. She had been given Panadol for 3 days before collapsing.

The child's doctors have stated that he must remain close to specialist medical facilities. The practicalities are that if the child developed an infection, it could take at least 24 -36 hours to authorise a plane and then to organise a flight to Perth. This proved too long for Fatima. We must not allow this child to be placed at risk of a similar fate.

Please intervene to save this child’s life.

Yours Sincerely
Pamela Curr

SO... WORTHY OF ACTION?

If you think so, please contact your local MP's office and the offices of your state or territory senators to raise the matter of this child urgently. Just drop them an email - it doesn't have to be too shiny or sophisticated. Just let them know you're not happy.

* Contact details for Federal MPs
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/index.htm
* Find your electorate
http://www.aec.gov.au/esearch/main.htm
* Contact details for Senators
http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/senators/index.htm

Also - if you haven't yet, sign the petition at www.getup.org.au

All the best,

Jess x

(the pic is from wikipedia)

Human Rights Act: Melbourne Launch

Life These Days

Hi there,

Well I've just returned from a lovely evening. A friend who got out of detention recently exercised his more-than-a-bit-fantastic cooking skills and cooked up a big feast for a bunch of his friends tonight. It was absolutely beautiful! So I have a tummy full of hearty, warm Afghan food. Yummo.

The photo above is a picture of my father's house in the Grampians, a mountain range about 3 hours from Melbourne. My dad LIVES there. PERMANENTLY. Lucky bastard. Incidentally, the opening sequence of the Refugee film is all this house, and the beautiful mountain range behind it. The last time I was there was on the way to Baxter a few weeks ago. Unfortunately I had food poisoning so it wasn't the *most* fun I've ever had...!

Anyway, on Sunday I am going to spend the week there, going hardcore bootcamp on my thesis. I hereby declare that I want to have finished writing the damned thing by the time I get back. Ouch. Now that I've said it out loud, it makes it a bit scarier. But I want to have 14,000 words on the page. They don't all gotta be brilliant, but they gotta BE there.

I have been looking forward to this sejour to the mountains for a long time. Dad will be at work for most of the time, but I will take my dog with me. Those of you who know me will know that I love my dog quite a lot, so we will have some quality time of snoozing and walking and tummy scratching before I go overseas. This week I had a coffee with a Monash academic who supervised my Honours in 2004, and with whom I've worked closely since, and when I told him about my plan to escape and write, he raised an eyebrow and dared me to leave my mobile in Melbourne. Oh my goodness. So tempting.

Anyway it is lots past my bedtime. I just thought I'd post this picture to make everyone feel maybe the tiniest bit jealous. I am so looking forward to it...! You should HEAR the birds singing in the morning...!

J x

Being "Mohammed" in Australia

This afternoon I had a coffee with a friend of mine who recently got out of detention. After 5 long years, he is finally free and wandering around in this wide brown land wondering what happens next. I often love that conversation - the first proper catch up after a month's craziness after detention. But sometimes - and this has happened a few times recently - the person I'm speaking to doesn't have the look of freedom in their eye.

This guy I saw today looked so tired and drained. I begrudgingly told him that he didn't look any better than when he was in detention. He confessed that he'd been running himself into the ground a bit, but then he began talking about the fact that he has had quite a few unpleasant incidents of people being completely racist towards him. Bouncers not letting him into bars, potential employers expressing reservations at his name (the dreaded "M" word), people looking at him funny.

If he were the only person who said this stuff to me it mightn't concern me, but it's happened a lot recently. The last guy was an african guy who's on a bridging visa, who was just about in tears because he had experienced such blatant discrimination.

When will these guys be able to get on with their damn lives?!

It also brings to mind the story of a friend of mine whose family is Lebanese. She was once the proud owner of the name Fatima Abdulatif. UNTIL her brother started applying for jobs, didn't get any, and was told by his temp agency that it was because his name has 'Abdul' in it. So, their ENTIRE family has changed its surname to Latif. They got rid of that nasty 'Abdul' business. And not only that, Fatima has become Tina. By deed poll. Her entire middle eastern heritage and her family's nationality, origin, religion and identity have been sanitised into oblivion because we DON'T LIKE IT. (reminiscent of anyone you know....??)

How embarrassing for white Australians, and how devastating for thousands of new Australians, that we as a nation cannot see past a name. I think that's about enough!

Fair Dublin

Hi there,

I feel I must apologise for my serious lack of blog updates recently. I've got a lot of things on my mind in the last few weeks before I go overseas. One of the main things I'm worrying about is finding accommodation in Dublin! It is UNBELIEVABLY hard to find a room in that place! I keep getting rejection emails (mostly because of the time-period of my stay) from people called Eoghan, Fearghal, Siobhaun, Connell, Davey, Declan and Aisling. It's very demoralising!

Anyway I'm sure I will overcome this hurdle but I just thought I'd write to say hi, because I can see that a few people are still logging on to see whazzup. Oooh, by the way, the banner across the top of this post is the logo from University College Dublin - the esteemed institution from which I will be receiving my Masters. Interestingly though, the Masters program is run by the School of Biology and Environmental Science, Agri and Food Science Centre, and from what I can tell I'm getting a Masters in Agricultural Science....! MSc(Agr) HA - there's a reason for the HA on the end there: not only does it stand for Humanitarian Action, it also nicely begins the phrase HAHAHAHA!!! oh dear :S

Very soon, there will be more info about the *FILM* available here. It's looking great! I'm very excited :)

See you all soon.

JT x

REUNITING A FAMILY SEPARATED FOR HALF A DECADE

Julian Burnside QC & Jessie Taylor
speak to raise funds for Jarnil Khan Hashimi & family
When: Monday 7 August 2006
Time: 6.00-7.00 pm. Proceedings will begin at 6.00 sharp.
Where: Main Dining Room, University House, University of Melbourne
Parking: Parking is available on campus from 4.00 pm for $4 (coins only)
Cost: $20 minimum per person
Refreshments: Nibbles will be provided after the talk. Drinks available from the Bar.
RSVP: Bookings with payment by 3 August essential. Numbers limited.
Please send cheques (no credit card payment) payable to The Brigidine
Asylum Seeker Project to: Juliet Flesch, History Department, University of Melbourne

Jarnil Khan Hashimi
In his native Afghanistan, Jarnil, who had protested against the Taliban practice of selling women and girls, lost his right leg and the sight of one eye in Taliban reprisals. He fled, and after a long and dangerous voyage, arrived in Australian waters and claimed asylum. He was detained on Nauru for two and a half years.
Jarnil was granted a Temporary Protection Visa in 2004 and went to live and work in regional Victoria. His wife and four children under thirteen remained trapped in Pakistan, unable to join him. In April 2006, however, Jarnil was granted a permanent Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme visa, which will allow him to travel to and from Pakistan and bring his family here. But there is a catch. Jarnil, who works in a Castlemaine supermarket, is entitled to no financial assistance. This fundraiser is to pay for him to go to Peshawar and bring his family home.

Julian Burnside QC needs no introduction to those engaged in refugee matters. He has worked tirelessly and productively in individual cases and in attempting to change punitive Government policy. He acted for the Ok Tedi natives against BHP, and for the Maritime Union of Australia in the 1998 waterfront dispute against Patrick Stevedores. He was elected a National Living Treasure in 2004.

Jessie Taylor was Castan Centre Global Intern to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, 2006 and will talk of her experience with the Australian Delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

I Had A Dream Last Night

Well, truth be told, it was not so much a dream as a nightmare. I dreamed that I was somewhere that was supposed to be safe - a camp, or a holiday or something, but things felt a little bit tense. It was in a jungle tree-house log-cabin sort of setting, and there were lots of people there that I knew, either well or just as an acquaintance. There was a kind of tower with rooms in it, and a spiralled ramp that led to the top.

Before long, things slid from mildly tense to all-out violent. A number of the people at the camp place began to kill the others. They were targetting people depending on who they were (ethnically / religiously / politically) and what they believed in. The killers had got dressed up in camouflage gear and were rampaging through the place machine gunning down people who admitted to holding certain beliefs. I saw people killed before my eyes, and I was shocked by how specifically they were targetting individual people.

I was with a few other people and we just spent the whole time stealthily creeping around trying not to get shot, although most of us did. The people were running up and down the ramp in the tower trying to find people. Eventually - I don't know how - I got into a car and started to drive away very fast, but even then they were still shooting at the car.

I woke up absolutely terrified and it took me a while to relax enough to get back to sleep.

In my country, that nightmare has never be anything more than a nightmare. Probably if you're reading this in Australia, you are imagining some kind of video game! But when I thought about it, I realised that that EXACT scenario happens on a daily basis in so many countries in the world.

I know this all sounds rather obvious, but I have never had the idea of persecution rammed home to me quite so strongly as this. For me - for most Aussies - it's all so theoretical that it may as well be a fairy tale. But it's not! Innocent people find themselves in a situation where someone wants them to die simply because of who they are or what they believe in, and unfortunately, they can't be safe simply by waking up from their sleep. Man, I'm so lucky to be almost 24 years old and never have had to think about this before.

Making Our Fillum...

Well hey there. If you know me and / or read this blog semi-regularly, you'll know that I am currently in the midst of making a film about refugee stuff (with - of course - the assistance of some mighty talented other people without whom I would probably try and do the whole thing in claymation. and that would just take AGES).

Well, we're making our film! We've done most of the shooting during the trip to Baxter, and we've done interviews with the former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, and with Julian Burnside, and an ex-guard who worked at Maribyrnong and Baxter. It's coming together wonderfully, thanks to the talents of Mr Adam Arkapaw (cinematographer and cameraman extraordinaire) and David 'Big Man Hands' Schmidt, cameraman and editor, pictured above right).

I just wanted to post this little update because I don't want you to think that nothing is happening! In reality LOTS of stuff is happening and it's great. I'm very excited and can't wait for you all to see it :)

ALSO - little update... In case you haven't caught up with the goss, the Migration Amendment Bill was basically stomped on at this session of Parliament, having been fundamentally rejected by a number of members of Howard's own party. He may try to pull a swifty and reintroduce it into Parliament in August but hopefully as a nation we'll be ALL OVER IT and not let him try anything tricky.

If you haven't already signed the Getup petition (or implored everyone you know to sign it too), go to http://www.getup.org.au/campaign.asp?campaign_id=30 and sign that puppy. The initial goal was 35,000, but that was blitzed. Then it rose to 50,000, then to 75,000, and now they've pumped it up to 100,000! It would be AMAZING if we could pull that off, and at the time of writing it was at 84% (83,715 people!), so let's DO IT!

Cheers

:) Jess x

PS if you can think of a cool name for our film let me know. I may come up with some kind of prize... ;)