No matter where we come from, every one of us deserves safety, dignity and compassion. Yet for decades, successive governments have inflicted needless cruelty on refugees and people seeking asylum by abandoning them to unsafe, inhumane conditions in Nauru and Papua New Guinea.[1] 

It’s time to end offshore detention. Exposing people to cruelty, isolation and trauma  has never made anyone safer - it only punishes people who need protection.  

BACKGROUND:

Approximately one hundred people are currently trapped in offshore detention on the remote Island nation of Nauru by the Australian Government. They have been subject to ongoing human rights abuses, denied access to nutritional food, essential healthcare and mental health support. 

At least 30 people have been left behind in Papua New Guinea following the closure of facilities on Manus Island. The Minister for Home Affairs continues to refuse medical transfers,even for those who are critically unwell. 

Labor is entrenching and expanding Australia's offshore cruelty regime through a $2.5 billion secretive deal with the Nauruan Government. 

There has been no transparency or accountability around this new agreement, with critical details deliberately hidden from public scrutiny. 

The Government is spending $790 million on an American private prison company to warehouse just 100 refugees on Nauru.

Whistleblowers have exposed evidence of corruption, cover-ups and criminal infiltration at the heart of Australia’s offshore detention regime. The public deserves to know how our government is spending billions of dollars to punish people who are seeking safety.

Offshore detention thrives in the shadows. But when we shine a light on the cruelty being carried out in our name, we can expose the injustice and demand an end to this national shame.

TAKE ACTION:

By speaking out - and showing that we will not accept cruelty as policy - we can pressure our MPs and the Minister for Home Affairs to end offshore detention once and for all.

Write to your MP today to demand they speak up against the Government’s brutal offshore detention regime. Together, we can replace cruelty with compassion.

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[1] Cruelty By Design: The Health Crisis in Offshore Detention, prepared by the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, July 2024. <https://assets.nationbuilder.com/asrccampaigns/pages/3472/attachments/original/1721280178/ASRCreport_Healthcrisisinoffshoredetention_July2024.pdf?1721280178> 

*Photograph courtesy of Rémi Chauvin, Nauru 2016