Melbourne, Wednesday 8 May, — Hundreds of Australians will hold rallies across the nation on
\nFriday to demand the release of Ranjini and her three children, as well as the other 55 ASIO rejected
\nrefugees trapped in a legal black-hole in Australian detention centres.
\nFrom Cairns to Perth, people will gather to implore the Immigration Minister, Brendan
\nO\u2019Connor, to invoke the Australian ideal of a \u201cfair go\u201d and use his power to release these
\npeople into the community.
\nSimultaneous \u201cRelease Ranjini-Release Them All\u201d candle-light vigils will be held in Perth,
\nAdelaide, Darwin, Newcastle, Brisbane, Cairns, Geelong, Ballarat, and Wonthaggi.
\nIn Sydney, they will be held in the CBD and outside Villawood detention centre, where
\nRanjini and her children are incarcerated, while in Melbourne there will be gatherings in the
\nCBD, Dandenong, Brunswick and Footscray.
\nFriday will mark one year since a pregnant Ranjini and her two little boys were hauled off
\nthe streets by Immigration authorities in Mill Park in Melbourne\u2019s north and bundled off to
\nVillawood.
\nNow the proud mother of a four-month old boy, Paari, which means \u201cLighting the world\u201d,
\nRanjini is suffering multiple psychological wounds as she attempts to cope with a baby born
\nin detention as well as two increasingly-disturbed sons.
\nAccording to media reports, her oldest son, now 9, has begun self-harming by plunging
\nsticks into his ears, potentially causing irreparable damage to his hearing. Psychologists have
\nsaid this is a direct result of his incarceration.
\nThe Australian Government\u2019s cruelty has not escaped international attention. Worldrenowned
\nauthor Noam Chomsky has a sent a message to the Tamil Refugee Council,
\ndenouncing the policy of indefinite incarceration.
\n\u201cThe true measure of the moral level of a society is how it treats the most vulnerable
\npeople,\u201d Chomsky said.
\n\u201cFew are as vulnerable as those who have fled to Australia in terror and are locked away
\nwithout charge, their terrible fate veiled in secrecy. We may not be able to do much, beyond
\nlamenting, about North Korean prisons. But we can do a great deal about severe human
\nrights violations right within reach.\u201d
\nThe \u201cRelease Ranjini- Release Them All\u201d campaign is also designed to let Australians know
\nthat the Gillard Government has abandoned its moral, ethical and legal responsibility to
\nensure that all people in this country are treated fairly.
\nEven though these people have been declared refugees, and thus allowed to live in the
\ncommunity, secret assessments that can never be challenged mean they are effectively
\nlocked away for life.
\nMany have been held for as long as four years, most for more than three years, because of
\nadverse security assessments from ASIO. The end result has been countless suicide
\nattempts, hunger strikes and other forms of self-harm. Amid all this, the impact on the many
\nchildren held with them has been devastating, and, according to psychologists, in many
\ncases irreversible.
\nA spokesman for the Tamil Refugee Council, Trevor Grant, said the much-valued democratic
\nideal of the presumption of innocence has been cast aside as the Government wrestles with
\nthe fear of losing political capital if it releases 56 people held in Australia\u2019s version of
\nGuantanamo Bay.
\n\u201cThe Gillard Government lives in fear of being declared soft on terrorism by Tony Abbott.
\nYet there is no evidence at all to say these people have anything to do with terrorism,\u201d
\nGrant said.
\n\u201cThey have had connections with the Tamil Tigers, like millions of Tamils who lived under
\nthe Tamil Tigers\u2019 government in the Tamil homeland for more than a decade. If you worked
\nin a bank, or swept the streets, you had a connection with the Tamil Tigers because they ran
\nthat part of the country.
\n\u201cThe Tamil Tigers no longer exist. They were wiped out in a civil war fought within their own
\ncountry. They have never threatened Australia, then or now, and if ASIO thinks they were
\nsuch a threat why is it that the Tamil Tigers have never been on the proscribed list of
\nterrorist organisations in this country?
\n\u201cAs Noam Chomsky points out, these people have fled terror and persecution in Sri Lanka.
\nOur Government has recognised this by declaring their asylum claims legitimate and giving
\nthem refugee status. Yet it is now terrorising them some more.
\n\u201cThese people deserve a fair go, if nothing else. Australian citizens are able to challenge
\nadverse ASIO assessments but not these people, even though they have already been
\nassessed as refugees, and thus, requiring our protection.
\n\u201cWhat sort of protection is this? The sort you\u2019d find in a police state that pays no heed to
\ndemocracy and human rights.\u201d
\nFor further information contact the Tamil Refugee Council: Trevor Grant (0400 597 351) or
\nAran Mylvanagam (0404 431 913).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Melbourne, Wednesday 8 May, — Hundreds of Australians will hold rallies across the nation on Friday to demand the release of Ranjini and her three children, as well as the other 55 ASIO rejected refugees trapped in a legal black-hole in Australian detention centres. From Cairns to Perth, people will gather to implore the Immigration Minister, Brendan O\u2019Connor, to invoke the Australian ideal of a \u201cfair go\u201d and use his power to release these people into the community. Simultaneous \u201cRelease…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archived-press-releases","post-has-thumbnail"],"yoast_head":"\n