Further Prayer Needed for Australian Refugee Situation

2 Chronicles 7:14

“…if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Folks, in light of the article below, which is just another sorry saga in the litany of cruelty, indifference and irresponsibility perpetrated against the most vulnerable in our midst (in our case refugees) by, sadly, our very own government representing US, its citizens, we need to continue to cry out to our Lord against such unrighteous behaviour, sanctioned by our governing authorities.

PRESS RELEASE 31 AUGUST 2015 by Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce:

Transfield awarded yet another 5 years to mismanage offshore detention centres.

Vice-Chair of the Australian Churches’ Refugee Taskforce, Sister Brigid Arthur, said today “it’s inconceivable that despite the abuses which have been inflicted on helpless people on Nauru and Manus Island, that the operator of those facilities, Transfield Services, has been awarded another 5 years to inflict even more harm”.

As a regular visitor to mainland detention centres, Sister Brigid Arthur works with women and children who have experienced sexual assault on Nauru. She said that “this company was paid $1.2 billion by Australian taxpayers to manage these gulags on Manus Island and Nauru. Transfield AND their sub-contractors should have been punished by their poor performance, not rewarded!”

Misha Coleman, Executive Officer of the Taskforce, said “now the spotlight will really be on those investors – superannuation funds, mums and dads – who hold shares in Transfield Services.”

She said that Transfield were awarded the contracts the first time around in an uncompetitive process, which the Government of the day justified due to the hasty decision to re-open Nauru and Manus Island and the political need to get them up and running ‘overnight’.

This time around, Coleman said “there was enough time to run the competitive process with full due diligence being applied to competing companies. We’ve had so many inquiries including the Government’s Moss Review, which document a plethora of poor management procedures in Transfield’s Nauru centre, and which have led to the systematic sexual abuse of women and children. Most of this abuse goes largely unprosecuted and unpunished. Surely some of these poor performance issues should have found their way into the judging and scoring for this new round of contracts?”

In evidence given to the Senate Inquiry into recent sexual abuse legislation on Nauru, many submitters talked about the way the toilet areas have become dangerous places where sexual assaults often occur. Coleman said that “the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce will be calling on the government, and Transfield Services, to introduce basic safeguards – such as functioning and safe toilet facilities – into the contracts before they are signed by both parties. Surely that’s the least we can expect from a billion dollar deal.”

Further comment available from:

Misha Coleman
Executive Officer, Australian Churches’ Refugee Taskforce, 0428 399 739

Sister Brigid Arthur
Vice Chair of the Australian Churches’ Refugee Taskforce, 0408 101 134

Copyright © 2015 Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you joined up through Act for Peace or via the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce website.

Our mailing address is:

Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce
209 Gertrude Street
Fitzroy, Vic 3065
Australia

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Speaking at the Hubert Humphrey Building dedication in Washington, D.C. on November 1, 1977, former U.S. Vice President (1965-69) Hubert Humphrey spoke about the treatment of the weakest members of society as a reflection of a government: “the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life; the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”

From The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and When by Ralph Keyes, St. Martin’s Griffin (2006

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Let your heart choose what prayers to send up to our Heavenly Father. We have the confidence that if we pray according to His will, He hears us and will intervene, where man and governing authorities have built strongholds of untouchability, where they perpetrate their unrighteous decision making. God CAN AND WILL smash those walls and shine His light of truth on them and bring a change for righteousness to our Nation.

Do we care enough to cry out to Him, with our whole hearts and continue to do so until the tide turns?

He may ask us to take some further action. Let’s obey Him in all things.

May you sense His pleasure as you seek Him!