On 19 July an estimated 50 people attended a vigil at Emerald Community House.
The vigil was one of more than 80 such events held around Australia, to mark the four-year anniversary of the announcement by then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, that no person seeking asylum by boat would ever be resettled in Australia.
Those who attended the vigil lit candles and listened to a selection of short personal stories of refugees and asylum seekers who have been held in offshore detention on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, and also on the tiny island nation of Nauru.
At the vigil there were photographs of several people who have died or been murdered while being held in offshore detention.
Several of the people attending the vigil shared stories of the work they and the groups they represent are doing, to alleviate the sufferings of refugees and asylum seekers. These stories were very moving and inspiring.
Judy Taylor of Grandmothers Against Detention of Refugee Children, La Trobe electorate, a sub-committee of Emerald Community House, spoke of the necessity to continue to lobby all members of the Federal Parliament.
She read a prepared statement provided by the organisers of the nationwide vigil, which included the information that over 2000 refugees and asylum seekers remain in limbo, and that this figure included 169 children.
It concluded with the words: “We are calling on both major parties to form a bi-partisan commitment to immediately evacuate the offshore camps and bring these people to safety.”
All of the people who attended, despite the cold and occasionally wet weather, expressed their gratitude that a vigil was held locally, enabling them to come together to express their shared deeply held desire to achieve an end to the present system of offshore detention of refugees and asylum seekers.
This system has been roundly condemned by the United Nations, Amnesty International, our own Human Right Commission and various other organisations.
Everyone at the vigil agreed, it has to stop and it has to stop now. Enough is enough.
– Words by Virginia Schneiders and Judy Taylor, co-convenors of Grandmothers Against Detention of Refugee Children La Trobe.
