PAULINE PANNELL is a member of Grandmothers for Refugees Fremantle, and says with Human Rights Day this week, it’s a perfect time to stand up for those who need our help.

WE are all watching the wars unfold in the Middle East, the Ukraine and Sudan, with horror and a sense of helplessness. 

What do you do when you cannot offer your child or grandchild food, water and a safe place to sleep; when their school has been destroyed and there is no access to medicine for their injury?  

If possible, you flee, with the hope of finding a place where basic human rights will be respected.

Our eclectic, compassionate Fremantle may be that place.

Our community has a reputation of empathy and tolerance.

Thirty five per cent of the Freo population (more than one in three) were born overseas.

While many came here of their own volition, our community has also been built by those who fled circumstances that made life in their birth country impossible.  

The City of Fremantle became a Welcome Refugee Zone in 2015 and reaffirmed this commitment in 2018.

Sadly, though, we live in a country that fails to deliver human rights for many seeking asylum.

December 10 was Human Rights Day.  

It was 76 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris, enshrining the fundamental rights that are due to everyone.  

Australia was one of the founding signatories of this document that became the most translated in the world.  

Tragically, our pledge of dignity and equality of rights for all, continues to be undermined by our country’s treatment of many people seeking asylum. 

Last week our government passed three new migration bills that further risks our obligations to uphold human rights.

These new laws increase the power to reverse refugee protection and to deport and pay other countries to accept refugees and asylum seekers who have sought a home here.

Those who refuse to return (possibly to a country where they face detention, persecution or death) can be imprisoned for five years.

If a home country will not accept a returning citizen, travel bans may be imposed on people from that country seeking to travel to Australia, potentially leading to family separation for thousands

This legislation has the scope to impact up to 80,000 non-citizens in our community. 

Among those feeling the most vulnerable are the 8,500 people who fled to Australia 12 years ago and are still living in our community with the fear of being deported or returned to the place of their persecution. 

For some, this would mean separation from children in Australia who are Australian citizens.

The system of temporary and bridging visas of three to six months has deprived many asylum seekers of fundamental rights; the right to work and income support, to Medicare and education. 

Many are reduced to a state of hopelessness and poverty.

Our government continues to send people who are fleeing persecution by boat, to Nauru for “offshore processing”. 

This is a policy that has been criticised by multiple United Nations member states.

Our offshore processing centres have been called out for a litany of human rights abuses and for their cruel and degrading treatment of asylum seekers.

If you think our country can do better than this, join those of us in Freo  calling for change.  

Come along to our weekly Friday evening vigil from 5 to 6pm on the corner of Parry Street and South Terrace Fremantle, lobby your politicians, or join one of the Fremantle groups who volunteer their time to fight for a more just society.

GFRF: pauline.pannell@gmail.com. Amnesty International: fremantleamnesty@gmail.com