An article about Mark Seymour’s public support for asylum seekers.

Author:  Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC).

Date: 18 September 2017.

Original URL: https://www.asrc.org.au/2017/09/18/mark-seymour-throws-support-behind-letthemstay/

Article Text

Aussie music icon Mark Seymour of Hunters and Collectors has thrown his support behind the #LetThemStay movement.

Last year, a national movement know as Let Them Stay secured a high court injunction to allow people brought to Australia from Nauru and Manus Island detention camps for urgent medical treatment, to stay.

Peter Dutton has begun issuing a new ‘Final Departure Bridging E Visa’ cutting off income and housing without notice and giving people 6 months to leave Australia.

Australians are again railing against this new cruelty. Organisations including the ASRC are being inundated with offers to accommodate, support and employ people. More than 3000 people have made donations to the ASRC alone.

The #LetThemStay movement is firing up again with 1000s of people calling and emailing their MPs.

Aussie music icon Mark Seymour said:

‘Regardless of the politics and sensationalism, my interest in the asylum seekers is about speaking out for the rights of vulnerable desperate people.’

‘The very fact that people were brought here in the first place was a tacit admission by the government that their safety could not be guaranteed in the camps offshore.’

‘Suddenly withdrawing welfare to a very small group of 410 deeply traumatised people who have been forced into dependency due to no rights work in Australia anyway, is unfair and cruel’.

‘Final Departure Bridging Visa E is specifically designed by the Turnbull government to force them to return to the camps and ultimately to the places they were originally fleeing from’.

‘There are many thousands of Aussies like me who deplore the cheap trick of using people seeking asylum as political pawns. We won’t stand for cheap politics, lacking in any moral courage or vision.’

‘You have to ask yourself the question. What lies behind the government’s motives at this time? To suddenly introduce this new visa, right now?’ Mark said.

For more information about the Let Them Stay campaign, visit www.asrc.org.au/letthemstay/

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