Refugees – especially a moral test for Jews

Published: 30 April 2016

Last updated: 1 May 2016

Offshore detention as currently implemented by Australia has subjected desperate people lawfully seeking asylum to unsanitary and unsafe conditions, murder, death due to medical neglect, rape, mental illness, self-harm and multiple suicides. The PNG Supreme Court has now held that the detention on Manus Island is, and always has been, an unlawful violation of basic human rights guaranteed by PNG’s Constitution. The fate of these vulnerable people poses a moral challenge especially to Jews, who know what it is desperately to be seeking asylum.

After years of hosting a notorious refugee camp for Australia, Papua New Guinea says, Enough – Max Bearak – The Washington Post 27.04.16
‘Australia arguably has the most restrictive immigration control regime in the world.’

The monstrous failure of our bipartisan asylum seeker policy – Waleed Aly – Brisbane Times 28.04.16
‘Stopping the boats’ was a bipartisan policy and both sides of politics are responsible for its monstrous outcomes.

What does PNG's court decision mean? – ABC The Drum TV 26.04.16 [8:46]
Some explanation from Daniel Webb of the Human Rights Law Centre.

And see:

‘Love the stranger’ calls us now September 13, 2015
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks: “I used to think that the most important line in the Bible was ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’. Then I realised that it is easy to love your neighbour because he or she is usually quite like yourself. What is hard is to love the stranger, one whose colour, culture or creed is different from yours. That is why the command, ‘Love the stranger because you were once strangers’, resonates so often throughout the Bible. It is summoning us now.” A summons also to Australia and our own Jewish community.

What are Australian Jews doing to ‘welcome the stranger’? December 12, 2015