One hundred medical students and their supporters took action at Sydney University against offshore processing and the detention of children on November 5.
Taping their mouths shut to represent the attempt to gag workers under the Border Protection Act, the students held up signs saying “I am a Medical Student Against Kids in Detention #DetentionHarmsChildren #KidsOut.”
The organisers of the protest, Sydney University student group GlobalHOME, told Green Left Weekly: “We organised this action in solidarity with the staff of the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne who, despite pressure from the Border Force Act, have courageously taken the stand that children should not be discharged back into the unfit conditions of immigration detention centres as it is deleterious to their physical and mental health.
“Since the Royal Children's Hospital publicised this stance, various other children's hospitals around Australia, including Randwick, Adelaide and Darwin, have organised similar actions in the past few weeks. Other universities like James Cook and UNSW have also stood in solidarity with their future colleagues with similar actions, under the hashtag #kidsout and #detentionharmschildren.”
This is not the first action GlobalHOME has taken for refugees. They also hosted a seminar night with Professor David Isaacs, the prominent paediatrician who has spoken out about the abhorrent conditions he witnessed on Nauru.
GlobalHOME also works with detainees in Villawood detention centre in Sydney and refugees in the community through Australian Refugee Volunteers (ARV).
GlobalHOME joins a long list of organisations that have shown indefinite detention leads to poor health and that call upon the government to release children and their families.
GlobalHOME welcomes collaboration on projects. It can be reached on Facebook.
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