Local MPs must demand Abyan’s return
Date/Time
Date(s) - Fri 23 Oct 2015
13:00 - 14:00
Categories
Starts at 1pm at Zed Selejla’s Office, outside the Canberra Centre near the intersection of Bunda and Akuna Street. A simultaneous protest will occur at Gai Brodtmann’s office, 205 Anketell St Tuggeranong.
Late last week, the Australian government secretly deported ‘Abyan’, a 23-year-old Somali refugee, back to Nauru, where she had been raped and became pregnant, in order to avoid a federal court injunction preventing her removal. That the Australian government could commit such a heinous act, after only recently claiming that under its watch Australia would be recognised internationally as a country which respects women, is a disgrace. That our local representatives have so far remained completely silent is simply inexcusable.
This Friday, 23 October, we will be protesting outside the offices of all our local representatives to Parliament, and asking each of them to publicly call for Abyan’s return. We’ll be meeting at 1pm outside Zed Seselja’s electorate office, and marching to Andrew Leigh’s and Katy Gallagher’s offices from there.For people in the Tuggeranong area please join a separate delegation to Gai Brodtmann’s office, 205 Anketell St Tuggeranong.
Outside each office we will have a short rally, and a handful of us will go inside to meet with the MPs to discuss Abyan’s deportation. We will also present to each of them the following motion which was passed by a large gathering at our public forum on Monday night:
“This meeting of the Canberra community condemns the Minister of Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton’s decision to deport ‘Abyan’, the 23 year old Somali refugee raped on Nauru. We call on our local Federal Parliamentarians to publicly demand that she be returned to Australia and be given access to appropriate medical and legal counsel immediately.”
If you have time to spare in your lunch break please join us, and invite your friends.
