Stop the Cruelty - Close Nauru and Manus Detention Centres

Dear Mr Turnbull

As someone who cares about human rights, I call on you to close the Nauru and Manu Detention centres and work to integrate asylum seekers into Australian society.

Not only are the conditions awful, but that we may be breaking international law.

In April this year the supreme court of Papua New Guinea found that the asylum seekers in detention on Manus island had not broken any immigration laws, and the fact that they were facing indefinite detention, and face frequent acts of violence, no real health care, and even sexual assault that their constitutional protections had been violated. Australia, where the national psyche is one of giving everyone a "fair go" yet the Government doesn't want anything to do with people seeking just that, a fair go. Doesn't seem fair does it? And in a country where the national anthem is called Advance Australia Fair, seems to be going a little backwards, not advancing much. Reporters are banned, and staff are sworn to secrecy in these two detention centres. What are they trying to hide?

Advance Australia Fair?

Inhumane conditions Conditions so terrible, that they are dying of treatable infections. Children are self-harming and need psychiatric treatment. With no hope adults are driven to such depths of despair that they are driven to the point of insanity. They try anything to get out, even swallow razor blades to spend a few days in hospital - anything to just get out. Can you imagine coming so far, risking so much just to hang yourself on a tree? To reach such depths of despair that you would eat a razor blade? They still had hope in Syria, Afghanistan, Iran and Sudan. In countries that have been devastated by war, ruled by police states and merciless dictators, with few freedoms, where they faced abuse, torture and worse - they still had hope. Hope for a life where safety is not their number one priority and concern. That is all, safety.

Yet Australia cruelly rips even the faintest of hopes from them. Hope so lost, that even setting themselves on fire seems to be a better option than living one more day under the conditions that they face.

The only hope they have left is left at the end of a rope, hanging from a tree.

We have reduced their humanity to be worth nothing, but we call it humanitarian because we have saved them from drowning. What are we doing Australia, what have we done?

Worse than animals We are better than this, we value human life and we know that everyone, no matter where they are from, deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. Not like animals in tents that cannot even keep out the rain.

We do not accept that humans can be treated like this.  

Mr Turnbull, this is in your hands. You must close these detention centres. They have become places of nightmares, devoid of humanity and filled with fear. This is not Australian. Australia cares.

We demand that a settlement plan is drawn up for the re-settlement of these desperate asylum seekers in Australia and that Nauru and Maru are forever closed- relegated to the history books, a lesson and a reminder for the next generation. Monuments, relics, reminders of how Australia came to the aid of those who needed it most.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Will you do nothing Mr Turnbull?

Sincerely,

[Your name here]