Tampering with Human Rights

10/12/2002

The Federal Government lied and spied in its attempts to manipulate the Australian public, Melbourne lawyer and refugee rights advocate, Eric Vadarlis said today.

He said the Government has demonised asylum seekers for political purposes and intimated that they were terrorists despite the fact that refugees had lived in Australia for years without committing a single terrorist act.

Mr Vadarlis delivered the Equal Opportunity Commission's Victorian Human Rights Oration, in commemoration of United Nations Human Rights Day.

He rose to prominence in August last year when he and 21 other lawyers took Federal Court action against the Government to stop it pushing the Tampa out of Australian waters. An injunction was granted but later overruled on appeal.

A Greek migrant who came to Australia by ship as a 12-year-old, Eric's upbringing was similar to countless migrant children who were called wogs and got into fights. It was a potent combination of these early experiences, a passionate belief in helping the 'underdog' and pride in Australia's multiculturalism that compelled him to take action for the Tampa boat people - a move that has cost him and his family dearly financially, mentally and emotionally.

"The current debate about refugees has been used as an excuse to declare open season on Muslims and Arab speakers who have lived here for generations. We live in a democracy. We not only have rights, we also have a privilege and an obligation to fight injustice."

Chief Commissioner, Dr Diane Sisely said Australians had de-humanised refugees by concentrating on the controversy created by Government's policies and on the number of people arriving and held in detention.

"All Australians from the Prime Minister to Primary School children need to recognise and respect asylum seekers as fellow human beings - deserving of the same human rights that we all enjoy," she said

"Refugees deserve to be treated with dignity and with respect to their basic human rights. If we don't respect the human rights of refugees how can we protect the rights of all Australians?"

Mr Vadarlis contrasted the Government's mandatory detention policy with past policies following World War II and the fall of Saigon, when Australia welcomed refugees. He said Australians had an obligation to share their good fortune with others instead of "jailing and rejecting the most traumatised of people and adding to their suffering."

Mr Vadarlis said far from responding to public opinion, the Government created fear and led the public on the issue.

"The politicians have clothed us all in fear. We have been told to distrust our neighbours, to distrust those who don't look like us, to treat everybody with suspicion," he said.

The second annual Victorian Human Rights Oration was held at Melbourne Town Hall at noon today.