Angelina Jolie, we need you.
We need to use your incredible fame for good. We need you to expose what our own Government won’t be honest about. We need you to show us the truth of Australia’s refugee shame.
Yesterday, the President of Nauru invited you to visit his country. You have to accept that invitation, Ms Jolie. You simply have to. If you leave from Los Angeles, you can be on Nauru in 22 hours and 30 minutes.
The President will greet you, he’ll want to show you the Australian built detention centre that has stimulated his local economy. He’ll be proud of it. But let me tell you that here in Australia? We are not.
There are others who will greet you, along with the president. The 208 children currently being held in mandatory detention, some of whom have been physically and sexually assaulted. Several young pregnant women who have tried to take their own lives in the hope that, if they die, their children will have a better chance at Australian citizenship. There will be fathers who are rioting; desperate to draw attention to their plight. Kids with preventable illnesses and limited access to healthcare.
There are dehydrated, desperate human beings languishing there in hot, rough, cramped conditions like battery hens. They are the victims of the Australian Government’s morality deficit, and the world needs to know they exist. Every one of those asylum seekers has asked for refuge in Australia, but our government intends to turn them away.
Why? Because they came by boat instead of plane.
Our Prime Minister Tony Abbott gave the United Nations the middle finger and sent these refugees offshore to Nauru. He and our Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison, have shrugged off international law so they can reach their pathetic election promise to “Stop the boats“.
As the public, we’ve tried to appeal to their empathy, we’ve tried to bargain with our votes. We’ve tried to send journalists to uncover the truth. But we’re not getting any closer to saving these people, or even finding out exactly what’s happening to them.
And the situation is only getting worse.
It didn’t occur to me until yesterday, that what we need now is you.
For a few precious hours yesterday, everyone who works in the Australian media thought that you had already agreed to visit Nauru. I was jubilant – I thought your presence could be the publicity we need to get people to care about asylum seekers and what is happening in our country’s name, just hours from our shores.
I still think that. I know it.
You do such extraordinary humanitarian work. You’ve held a summit in London to discuss sexual violence against women in war zones, one of the most serious mass crimes of our time. You’ve helped countless refugees in Syria and Haiti. You’ve used your fame to put refugee safety on the global agenda.
And now? We need you to the visit place our government has sent people in need to die.
We don’t have a spotlight to shine on the atrocities happening on Nauru right now. But you do. An international media and humanitarian spotlight follows you wherever you go, and right now we need that spotlight here.
Please, please, call the President of Nauru and accept his invitation.
We need you to tell the truth that our politicians refuse to.
Please share this post on social media with the hashtag #pleaseangelina if you agree with our author’s plea.
Top Comments
37 children are to spend yet another weekend on a customs boat somewhere on the Indian ocean- in windowless rooms, separated from their fathers and uncles because the men are separated from women and children. They are not criminals, but they are held hostage by the Australian Government. ON Monday the Government must explain itself to the highest court in the land...
They left home about four weeks ago on a boat which became unseaworthy. They were rescued, but taken into custody and NOT taken to the nearest port which was Christmas Island, Australia. What on earth does Scott Morrison think he is doing? If they were his daughters he would scream the place down.This is mistreatment.
There is a proper legal process to be followed and Morrison high handedly ignores it. Asylum seekers must be protected, treated with respect for their human dignity. Never should children be treated like this. It scars adults and especially children. Shame on us.
WE should all be phoning or emailing our members of Parliament, and the ten Senators for our State.
On Thursday 17 July, 37 Tamil children, their parents and others, 153 human beings in total, are STILL sailing in circles in the Indian Ocean on an Australian Customs ship, waiting for a legal opinion from the highest court in the land about their possible handover to the Sri Lankan authorities whom they fear, because of persecution at their hands..
The Government will not tell us where these human beings are, what processing of any refugee claims may have taken place, whether the conditions are humane and appropriate for women with babies and for children. We are not at war with asylum seekers and this Government secrecy is undemocratic and makes us uneasy.
If we send people back to danger, because we have not followed fair and full legal processes, our Government is the law breaker because refoulement breaches the Refugee Convention.Seeking asylum is a protected human right. Why is this Government so high handed and plain cruel to asylum seekers. What if they would sooner drown trying to find a safe country than be sent back to Sri Lanka because their fear of persecution is well founded?
They are allegedly sailing in circles not because of the governments desire to do so, are they? Who decided to tie it up in the courts again?
Am I mistaking or are you referring to a boat of Sri Lankans that decided to leave a camp in India, where UNHCR representatives are there to assist them? This is important because if they were in India they weren't facing any direct or imminent fear from Sri Lanka. If they choose to then leave a UN camp for other countries, they are now country shopping and don't deserve places ahead of genuine refugees who aren't.