Refugee Speech

Refugee speech – Kelsie Stott

A young girl of 14, lives in Sri Lanka, wakes up every morning wondering if today is she is going to die. Now can you imagine how you would feel, waking up to that thought, everyday fearing for your life. Now think of escaping, getting away from that danger, running away to somewhere you think is safe. But then finding out it’s not.

This girl comes to Australia seeking refuge. You would think that now things will get better for her, and they do. But just barely. We’re Australia! We want to help people!                                                                                                               But we don’t. Not really anyway. We like to think that we do, but the reality is most of us have no idea what goes on in Immigration detention centres.                                                                                 Now this girl has a false sense of security coming here, she doesn’t know what she’s getting herself into. Yes, the situation is better for her. But not much safer. The rights given to her are a bare minimum. They don’t meet the standard of humanity that all people are entitled to.                                                                                                                                                            This girl isn’t just a girl. She’s not just one person. She is one of thousands upon thousands seeking refuge. All trying to better their lives.                                                                                                                                         Don’t get me wrong not all detention centres treat them badly, but there are far too many run by this country that do.

International Human Rights organisation has been urging the Australian Government to rethink its "abusive" policies on asylum seekers and refugees, highlighting its "failure to respect international standards". Human Rights Watch said Australia had a solid record of protecting civil and political rights, but its treatment of asylum seekers and refugees was taking a "heavy human toll".  The organisation's director, Brad Adams, has said "Australia needs to seriously rethink its abusive refugee policies and take steps to restore its international standing as a rights-respecting country”.  To restore means to return to its original state, make it what it once was. At some point we were good to these people. We treated them with respect and gave them the rights they deserved.                                                                                                                     The refugees didn’t change. They come to us for the same reason they always have. Safety. We changed, Australians changed, the way our guards treat them changed. Why did it become okay to treat these people poorly? Isn’t it what they were escaping from in the first place? Haven’t they already had enough?

A Somali refugee was raped and impregnated on Nauru. Family planning and legal experts said the Immigration Department had potentially breached its duty of care by allegedly refusing requests from the woman to see a counsellor or doctor. After a public campaign, Abyan, who was 14 weeks pregnant, was flown to Australia to have the abortion. In a statement released soon after, Minister for Immigration Peter Dutton said Abyan had "decided not to proceed with the termination" and lawyers and advocates making claims to the contrary should be "ashamed of their lies". But her first statement after she returned to Nauru she said the Minister was false.                                               (This is Abyan’s statement and it reads) “I was raped on Nauru. I have been very sick. I have never said that I did not want a termination. I never saw a doctor. I saw a nurse at a clinic but there was no counselling. I [also] saw a nurse at Villawood but there was no interpreter. I asked but was not allowed to talk with my lawyer. Please help me.”                                                                                                 She was raped in a place that’s meant to be helping her and they tried to cover up what happened. She probably isn’t the first and she might not be the last but she certainty isn’t the only refugee to become a rape victim.