Media Release Brisbane’s Catholic Justice and Peace Commission has called on Catholics in the Archdiocese to become active in promoting the human rights of asylum seekers in detention. The call was made on the first anniversary of the deadline set by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission for the release of all children held in Immigration Detention Centres in Australia. The deadline was set in its 2004 report on the effects of detention of children. The Commission’s Executive Officer, Peter Arndt, asked that Catholics contact Federal Members of Parliament and urge them to promote policy changes which support the human dignity of asylum seekers. “There are still 68 asylum seeker children in detention in Australia and common sense tells us that this is very harmful,” Mr Arndt said. “Our Commission is not supporting one political party or another in the latest commotion over Australia’s policy of mandatory detention of asylum seekers,” he said. “Catholic Social Teaching has the defence of human dignity at its very heart and we are called to promote and defend that fundamental value in every sphere of human activity including the making of public policy,” he said. “We are called to be witnesses and agents of peace and justice in society and to enable the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be heard in public affairs,” he added. The Commission has prepared resources on refugee issues in the lead-up to World Refugee Day on 20 June. They will be made available on the Commission’s website at http://www.uq.net.au/cjpc/ “In the past three years, so many Catholics in our Archdiocese have participated in our campaigns to support refugees who sought permanent protection in Australia and we know that this involvement by ordinary Catholics who care about their fellow human beings has made all the difference to decisions made by the Refugee Review Tribunal and the Immigration Department,” Mr Arndt said. “We are still involved in a number of cases including a Syrian man, a Lebanese man and an Ethiopian woman who face deportation and we are urging Catholics to pray for them and to take action to support them,” he said. "We are also concerned that children be released from detention and that those who have been locked up for as much as six years be released and we urge Catholics to tell politicians that we do not believe that it is just to lock up children or to keep people detained indefinitely,” he said. For further information, please contact Peter Arndt on (07) 3891 5911 or 0409 265 476. |