WARNING - Rare excursion into politics!

WARNING - Rare excursion into politics!

"The Federal Government Welcomes Refugees"

(Barbed wire security fence at a factory - and nothing to do with refugees. See below.)

WPP2015-Wk-37-Metal

Weekly Photo Project 2015 curated by Alen Ianni , Bernhard Rembold , Cliff Loresco , Francesco Scaglioni , Heather D ,  Ken Fowkes ,  Navin Upendran  , Robyn King and T.E. Smith

#WPP2015

#WPP2015-Wk-37-Metal


Photo taken outside my office, which borders the factory of a formerly iconic Western Australian solar hot water system manufacturer.

And now for the politics.

Successive waves of Australian Federal Governments - of both major parties - have taken to demonizing refugees not sourced from UNHCR camps. As the policies have gotten more extreme, offshore (think Gitmo-like) 'processing camps' have been set up to house those that do make it through the gauntlet of naval vessels that tow them back to Indonesian waters.

In the camps they are subject to institutional abuse, physical and sexual, attacks by locals who don't want the overcrowded camps in their villages, and even murder. The AFG's response? To make it illegal to report on conditions in the camps, or to whistle-blow on abuse.

One last time - a refugee is not an illegal immigrant. There is no queue for refugees to line up at to be resettled. Not all refugees have accessible UNHCR camps. The camps - more shanty towns subject to uncontrolled police and army raids - in Indonesia are not UNHCR controlled, and people in them have no access to diplomatic channels.

#auspol