Political leaders miss deadline to get #KidsOffNauru (Tuesday 20 November)
Despite our best efforts, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten have failed to get all the Kids Off Nauru by Universal Children's Day (Tuesday 20 November)).
When the Kids Off Nauru campaign launched on August 20, there were 119 children detained on Nauru there are now only 17.
Although this is good progress we can not and will not rest, until all the children and their families are evacuated from Nauru, resettled in Australia or another suitable country that welcomes them.
Here's what you can do next...
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• Promote the petition as much as you can - so we can reach 200,000 signatures
• Attend our Canberra Rally. Go to www.kidsoffnauru.com/rally for more details. Register your seat on a free bus from Melbourne or Sydney to Canberra and back by this Friday 23/11
More than 168,000 individual Australians, 420 organisations and 65 ambassadors have signed up to the Kids Off Nauru call in three months.
The Kids Off Nauru coalition is calling for all Australians concerned about the welfare of children in indefinite detention to rally on Tuesday next week outside Parliament House in Canberra.
Thanks for all your support!
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Angela Mercuri, Buddies director, 22 August
The #KidsOffNauru campaign is calling on the Australian Government to find a solution that resettles the approximately 120 children trapped on Nauru before Universal Children’s Day on November 20, 2018.
Public awareness of children remaining in offshore detention on Nauru is low. Some were born there. Some are approaching five years on the island. And as many as 20 children are locked up in the regional processing facility.
Officially the Government says “most are now free to move around” but they all remain effectively imprisoned on the island. Immigration minister Peter Dutton continues to claim that he got every child out of detention but we believe 20 are still behind fences awaiting “processing”. This deception has quelled public urgency over “kids in detention”.
We remain deeply concerned about the health of children left in this cruel and unsafe environment, and the long-term impact this indefinite detention will have on their lives.
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Each one of us can help this campaign:
• Sign up to the Kids Off Nauru campaign at www.kidsoffnauru.com
• Sign the petition below
• Look for and use #KidsOffNauru in your Twitter, Facebook and Instagram interactions
• Write a letter to any of the following political leaders:
– The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (might need to be quick!)
– The Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten
– Leader of the Greens Richard Di Natale
– Leader of the Nationals Michael McCormack
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Please Support the 'Kids Off Nauru' Campaign
Children should not be in detention. They must be given a fair chance for survival and development. All decisions taken about offshore, indefinite detention must first and foremost consider the best interest of the child.
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PLEASE USE THE ATTACHED PDF TEMPLATE TO EXPRESS YOUR VIEWS TO OUR POLITICIANS
Angela Mercuri, Buddies director, 7 September
The #KidsOffNauru national campaign is now in its third week. I want to thank you for signing on and sharing it with your social and other networks.
The campaign is gathering momentum: almost 90,000 people have joined up and Buddies is amongst more than 170 organisations that have added their voice to have these children and their families out of detention and finding a more just and enduring solution.
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Yet 107 children and their families remain on Nauru. A joint ASRC-RCoA report, Australia’s man-made crisis on Nauru: six years on, released on 3 September 2018, finds that “experts are saying that the people transferred to Nauru by Australia are among the most traumatized they have seen, even more traumatized than those in war zones or in refugee camps around the world” (https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Nauru_Manmade_Crisis.pdf, p3).
The report makes for harrowing reading, including about the growing number of children displaying symptoms of traumatic withdrawal syndrome, whereby they are overcome by hopelessness and helplessness causing them to disengage from the world.
So, if you have not yet had a chance to sign on the campaign, please do so now at www.kidsoffnauru.com, share it with your networks and continue to raise your concerns with the Prime Minister scott.morrison.mp@aph.gov.au .
We also have some details on our Buddies Petitions page.
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