This month signifies the 10th anniversary of refugees detained by Australia in offshore detention centres. The evacuation of refugees from Nauru brings one chapter in a decade of harm to an end.
However, ten years after our government forced them to brutal overseas detention camps, dozens of people who came here for safety are still trapped in Papua New Guinea.
The Australian government has refused to take responsibility for the refugees it sent to PNG, but it has been revealed that the Morrison government made a secret deal with the PNG government. Australia is continuing to pay PNG, but the Albanese government will not reveal how much is paid or how long this will continue.
Of the 3127 people sent to detention in Nauru and Manus Island in 2013 and 2014 more than 1100 remain in limbo in Australia and 80 in PNG.
The Australian Government has abandoned responsibility for these people claiming they are now under the jurisdiction of the country in which they are held. Of the original number detained, some were transferred to Canada, some to New Zealand and others transferred to Australia through Medivac.
The Refugee Action Committee Eurobodalla (above) is focusing on the 80 remaining in PNG and we urge people to join us in campaigning your local member and the Federal Government Minister (Clare O’Neill) by writing in support of resolving the plight of these abandoned people:
