Palm Sunday Refugee Rally 2015

Palm Sunday is traditionally a Christian celebration marking the return of Jesus to Jerusalem the week before Easter, (marking the resurrection of the lord saviour).

But, in recent years Palm Sunday in Australia has been used to mark a different occasion. A commemoration, a solidarity protest for those seeking asylum in this country.

On the last Sunday in March, the 29th, hundreds of Canberrans converged on Garema Place to stand for the rights of refugees joining similar protests across the country. The turn-out was said to be a large crowd for a protest in the capital.

Groups representing different community associations marched one after the other from across the city to join the main forum where former ACT chief minister Jon Stanhope and former refugee UC student Ismail Hussaini, were among the voices heard.

Ismail fled persecution in Pakistan when he was 17 and made the perilous boat journey across the Timor sea, separating Indonesia from Australia.

Now a student at the University of Canberra, Ismail said he was overwhelmed by the support Australians generally show him.

Key speaker and ACT Labor heavyweight Jon Stanhope did not hold back in criticising the government –and the ALP’s stance– on its so-called border protection policies.

“Is it asking to much to expect that Australia’s treatment of refugees to be consistent with the refugee convention?” he asked the crowd.

“Australia has been found by the United Nations to be a country that has, through its asylum seeker policy, facilitated torture,”

“It’s time to demand that the Labor Party return to the principles [it has] outlined including its stated total opposition to mandatory and indefinite detention … [and] construct policies consistent with the beliefs and the values which it boasts that it holds.”

Jon was appointed administrator at Christmas Island for two years where many asylum seekers were held. He spoke of the three separate and independent reports by the Australian Human Rights Commission, The United Nations Committee Against Torture, the Philip Moss Review into allegations at Nauru.

“The Human Rights Commission found in a far reaching review that children in detention suffer extreme levels of physical, emotional, psychological and developmental stress,” he said.[box]

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Story, photos and graphics by Scherry Bloul