Sunday Selfies Send Minister A Message

This Sunday New Zealanders and MPs are being asked to make a selfie sign, post it on their social networks, then email it to Minister Michael Woodhouse (m.woodhouse@ministers.govt.nz) to give voice to the New Zealand government’s silence on Australian refugee imprisonment.

This month a UN report cited conditions on Nauru and Manus Island as contravening the Conventions on Torture. There has been widespread international condemnation of the Australian offshore detention practice. Refugee advocates like #WagePeaceNZ (https://www.facebook.com/wagepeacenz) accuse Australia of outsourcing their human rights obligations by ‘selling’ refugees to poorer countries such as Nauru, PNG and most recently, Cambodia.

The New Zealand government has remained silent on the Australian practice.

In 2013, after talks with Julia Guillard in Queenstown, John Key welcomed Australia’s invitation to send any future New Zealand asylum boat arrivals to Australian offshore detention camps. Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse has said that the prospect of New Zealand sending refugees offshore is ‘unlikely’. It was unclear whether he was referring to the fact that New Zealand has never had a boatload of asylum seekers, at least in modern history.

#WagePeaceNZ founder, Tracey Barnett, reports that conditions in the Australian camps are inhumane, cruel and include imprisoning children, “This year alone, a recent report cites 19 cases of sexual assault, 44 on the mainland. What does that look like in reality? Recently, a terrified, clinging, eight-year-old boy broke down. When his mother asked him to draw what troubled him so, he drew a guard with an erect penis. Women in the camp report being terrified of drunk Nauru guards, allowed into tents three times a night for headcount checks.”

“Four hundred people queue for hours for four toilets. People are issued two plastic disposable cups to refill water in queues each day. Sanitary napkins are rationed, considered a ‘fire hazard’ and women are not allowed to clean themselves outside of a daily three-hour queue for a one-two minute shower in 40-degree heat. Cleaning agents have been taken away because people have been trying to drink them in suicidal despondency,” Barnett said.

“I really believe that when Kiwis are made aware of these modern-day gulags in our back yard, New Zealanders won't want any part of it. We need to call Australia out—and make sure their xenophobic contagion doesn’t spread to these shores.”

To view the selfie signs as they get posted on Sunday, go to: #WagePeaceNZ on FB at,https://www.facebook.com/wagepeacenz

ENDS

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