Detainees in APODs: To Alan Tudge and Marise Payne

Dear Hon Alan Tudge: I am U Ne Oo, a refugee supporter living in Ryde Sydney. I am a private Australian citizen of Burma origin; And I have no affiliations with any political parties; and I work full time as a cleaner to support myself.

I write to you regarding with the situation of asylum-seekers who have been detained after being evacuated for medical emergencies from PNG and Nauru. Most of them are detained the Kangroo Point Hotel in QLD and Mantra Bell Hotel in VIC. There are also former offshore asylum-seekers now in various APOD and ITAs.

I understand that these asylum-seekers, since the Australian government's interdiction at sea at 2013, have had their asylum application processed under Nauruan or PNG laws. Although they were found to be refugees they cannot, therefore, have a valid visa in Australia. I therefore ask you to "immediately & within 30 days" to issue substantive protection visa to those detainees, under the provisions of Section 195A of Migration Act.

Your government should have no illusion that these offshore asylum-seekers are Australia's responsibility, in accordance with the 2010 High Court of Australia decisions. The government must therefore grant them with the protection visa.

For those offshore asylum-seekers who have been deported back to their country of origins and who have been sent out to USA and other countries, the Commonwealth Government will be found in violation of 1948 Geneva Refugee Convention and its 1967 New York Protocols. On their cases, the Commonwealth Government have not had engaged with relevant statutory provisions in Migration Act 1958, and the due processes that required were not being followed.

On a personal note, I am deeply disturbed by the way your government treat those offshore asylum-seekers since 2013. With this matter, I earnestly urge not to engaged with partisan politics but, to seek urgent support from opposition Labour party.

For your information, I attached my observations on this matter. In closing, thank you for your attention to this matter.

Encl.

1. Legal Remedy for Detainees in KP, Mantra and ITAs;
(http://www.aus4iccwitness.org/node/87)
2. Erroneous Offshore Laws;
( http://www.aus4iccwitness.org/node/86)

News reporter's interview on Alan Tudge 2/6/2020 (video)

— June 2, 2020