Jenan Taylor
15 August 2024
Christians will be asked to pray for an end to cruelty to refugees, including those left in Papua New Guinea and Nauru under Australian government offshoring arrangements.
It comes as the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre reported in July that cruel treatment, including inadequate health provision and medical neglect, placed refugee lives at risk under the policy.
Ecumenical group Love Makes A Way will be staging a vigil to pray for an end to the asylum seekers and refugees’ offshore plight.
Organiser Phil Hudson said the aim was to prayerfully reflect on and highlight their ongoing situation and treatment, and that of many thousands of asylum seekers awaiting resolution here in Australia.
Read more: PNG faith leaders demand Australian government evacuates refugees
He said it was important to act in love as Jesus would, and show those forgotten and pushed aside by Australia’s policies that Christians stood with them.
“Love has to be our first motivation, especially if as Christians, we see people who are being mistreated not just for a short time, but in an ongoing way,” Mr Hudson said.
He said the vigil would include an ecumenical liturgy, accounts of offshore detention, and hymn singing.
More than 100 asylum seekers remain in PNG and Nauru more than a decade after the federal government made offshore processing agreements with the two countries.
The Refugee Council of Australia and the ASRC said the offshore policy was creating a humanitarian and man-made health crisis for the refugees.
Advocate Catholic nun Sister Jane Keogh said many in PNG desperately needed health interventions from the Australian government as their health was deteriorating each day.
Sister Keogh works with a group of church charities in PNG who provide emergency support to asylum seekers, including many with no medical or work rights.
She said many were too physically and mentally ill to be employable, and those who could work were vulnerable to assaults amid unrest in the broader community.
Sister Keogh said at least 10 people were no longer able to communicate well or make reasonable decisions because of their on-going experiences as asylum seekers.
She said the churches were trying to support the families of more than half of the detainees, including covering the hospital fees of those with newborn babies.
Read more: Community will suffer without better support for asylum seekers: Charities
ASRC head of systemic change Jana Favero said in a statement the Australian government could end the harm by immediately evacuating people to Australia.
The vigil for asylum seekers and refugees will be held on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral at 5.30pm, Friday 16 August.
For further details, see here.
The Department of Home Affairs has been contacted for comment.
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