BY GAIL LORD
SYDNEY — In case you missed it, March 21 was the United Nations' International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. To draw public attention to the day, Amnesty International organised a protest action outside the immigration department office in the Rocks.
Amnesty speakers noted that the Third World Conference Against Racism will be held on August 31 to September 2 in Durban, South Africa, and called on the Australian government to adopt a policy of "zero tolerance" towards racism in the lead-up to the conference.
Speakers from the Free the Refugee Campaign and the Refugee Action Collective described the ongoing protest action by detainees at the Port Headland refugee detention centre in north-west Western Australia against the unhuman detention conditions they endure and the slow processing of their applications for refugee status. They called on the government to stop the deportation of refugees.
Kobra Bahraimi from the FRC and the International Federation of Iranian Refugees also told the protesters about a suicide attempt on March 16 by the 14-year-old son of an Iranian detainee at Villawood detention centre in Sydney. The boy's father has been on hunger strike for more than two weeks to protest against his treatment by the department.
Future refugee rights actions in Sydney were announced, including a Sydney University International Solidarity Collective-organised protest outside Qantas in the city on March 28 at 1pm (Qantas is the main airline used to deport unsuccessful asylum seekers from Australia), and outside the Villawood detention centre at noon on April 8, organised by the FRC. For more information phone (02) 9687 5134.