The Australian government’s immigration policy was given a unanimous "thumbs down" Saturday by thousands of citizens who took part in rallies across the country.
Protesters in Melbourne, Sydney, Tasmania and dozens of regional centers called for the closure of offshore processing camps, which have been heavily condemned by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), and for asylum seekers and refugees to be brought to the mainland.
Organized by the groups Refugee Action Coalition, the Refugee Action Collective (RAC) and Doctors for Refugees, the rallies focused specifically on recent proposals by the government to ban for life refugees, who travelled to Australia by boat and are languishing in processing centers on two tiny islands, Nauru and Manus Island, from ever coming to Australia.
Chris Breen, spokesperson for the RAC, which organized the 3000-strong rally that took place in Melbourne issued a statement Saturday condemning the government's recently announced intentions to introduce new laws for a lifetime ban for refugees who came to Australia by boat.
“The proposed legislation is a discriminatory punishment for refugees that would permanently split families. If carried through it would result in hundreds of deportations from Australia to indefinite offshore detention.”
Breen described the government’s refugee policy as “callous, discriminatory, dysfunctional and increasingly desperate”.
He suggested that driving the proposal was a slump in Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s popularity and an attempt to secure the support of anti-Muslim senator Pauline Hanson.