Writers for refugees is a small grass-roots organisation committed to protesting the treatment of asylum seekers and refugees in the current political climate; we want prominent writers, academics and journalists to join us in speaking out against policies of mandatory detention, offshore processing and the elimination of the prospect of permanent resettlement in Australian for people who arrive here by boat. The group was founded in December 2013 by fiction writer Kalinda Ashton and poet and spoken word artist Benjamin Solah. We welcome new members and ask writers to use their public profiles to draw attention to this issue and to foreground their dissent to these policies.
You can help by signing on to our online statement and committing to reading this statement at your public events, book signings, launches and author talks. We also have a forum forthcoming to launch writers for refugees. Stay tuned for more details.

We are opposed to government policies of indefinite mandatory detention and believe we should welcome refugees, many of who are fleeing war, poverty, persecution and oppression, to our communities. We are worried about the number of children already in on-shore and offshore detention centres and the mental health of refugees who have already endured years in detention.

We are extremely concerned at the lack of transparency and openness in the new government policy and in the decision to reintroduce Temporary Protection Visas and to make it impossible for those asylum seekers who come by boat to ever permanently resettle in this country, as well as the stripping of legal funding and rights of appeal through the Refugee Review Tribunal. We protest the Abbott government’s decision to process refugees in offshore detention centres and to turn back boats to Indonesia. We are concerned this will not only shirk Australia’s obligations under the Refugee Convention and abandon our basic human rights commitments but also will likely contribute to more deaths at sea and even less safety and security for those on board.

We are also very worried about conditions on Nauru and Manus Island with the recent Amnesty International report noting that Manus Island was violating prohibitions against torture and leaving refugees with insufficient shelter, water and basic facilities.
Seeking asylum is not illegal and not a crime. We object to the demonising and dehumanising labelling of refugees as ‘queue jumpers’ and ‘illegals’ that is dominant in the Abbott government’s jargon and in much of the mainstream media. We believe in increasing Australia’s intake of humanitarian refugees contesting stereotyped and vilifying portrayals of asylum seekers. We aim to challenge myths with facts and to speak openly and honestly about the very small number of people who seek asylum in Australia, the vast majority of whom are found to be refugees.

As writers and academics we commit to speaking up against these injustices and to try and give a voice to those silenced by their imprisonment in remote detention centres.

Statement:

As a writer, I am opposed the system of mandatory detention of refugees in Australia. This system, which in some cases sees refugees, including children, imprisoned for years, is inhumane and unjust. I acknowledge the suffering faced by refugees presently held in detention centres both on- and off-shore and will continue to speak out about my country’s treatment of those seeking asylum. Refugees are facing dangerous, inappropriate and inadequate conditions on Nauru and Manus Island and being further traumatised by their exposure to such facilities. Others are drowning at sea while Abbott continues to vow he will turn back the boats. I am committed to upholding human rights and extending generosity and assistance to those fleeing persecution and oppression. I choose to use my voice as a writer to speak for the voiceless and the silenced who have come to Australia by boat seeking freedom and asylum but were met with ‘cruel, inhuman and degrading’ treatment. I wish to acknowledge those who have lost their lives or their hope attempting to seek safety and solace here. I read this statement to call on the Australian government to welcome refugees and end these policies.

Kalinda Ashton, The Danger Game
Benjamin Solah, Broken Bodies
Janet Galbraith, re-membering
Jon Gresham, Story in From The Belly Of The Cat
Mireille Juchau, Burning In
Rebe Taylor, Unearthed: the Aboriginal Tasmanians of Kangaroo Island
Hamish Danks Brown, All Other Destinations
Sarah Schmidt, The Dolphin
Jacinda Woodhead, Overland
Jeff Sparrow, Overland
Rjurik Davidson, The Library of Forgotten Books
Erika Stahr, Burmese in Australia
David Feith, Stalemate: Refugees in Asia
Jema Stellato Pledger, Limbo 24/7
Luka Lesson, The Future Ancients
Vanessa Russell, Holy Bible
M R Mortimer, Dance of Nevermind
Geraldine Moore, ADHD Potatoes
Simone Ubaldi, Ghostwriter: Road to Nowhere by Mark Chopper Read, Stronger Now by Nicole McLean
Grace Gorman
Michelle Martin, CITE Personal Essay “Prevelly Hillbilly”
Marisa Wikramanayake, Dreaming In Reality
William Wallace, Occupy Melbourne Digest
Robert Bollard, In the Shadow of Gallipoli: A hidden history of Australia in WW1
Fran Martin, Backward Glances
Simon Mitchell, Louie the Pirate Chef
Rick Kuhn, Henryk Grossman and the Recovery of Marxism
Sam Cooney, The Lifted Brow
Roger Nelson, ArtAsiaPacific
Emilie Collyer, A Clean Job and other stories
Nigel Featherstone, I’m Ready Now
John Passant
Christopher Barnett, when they came/for you elegies of resistance
Nola Firth, Even if the Sun
John Minns, The Politics of Developmentalism
Kirsten Tranter, A Common Loss
Robert Verdon, Before we Knew this Century
Jessie Ray, The Last Conversation – Compiled by Ahmad Al-Rady
Randall Stephens, Melbourne Poets Union/ Little Raven / Sweetalkers
Ann de Hugard, A Question of Translation
Lucy Treloar, Wrecking Ball
Peta Murray, Things That Fall Over
Bill Garner, Born in a tent
Sylvia Posadas
Maxine Beneba Clarke, Foreign Soil
Yoyoe, spoken word artist
Andy Jackson, Among the regulars
Christopher Raja, The First Garden
ReVerse Butcher, Somewhere Dismembering, The Artist vs. The Upstanding Citizen, A Bird in the Bush is Worth Two Hands
John Marnell, Overland
Michele Seminara
Amanda Anastasi, 2012 and other poems (book); Loop City (CD & chapbook)
James WF Roberts, Blue Electric Dusk and Ten Poems
Dr. Brent T Downes, From life, to page, to stage
Mary Chydiriotis, Offset 2013
Louise Molloy
Kim Sattler
Carmel Bird, Dear Writer Revisited
Sara Moss, Synaptic Graffiti Collective
Sara Dowse, West Block
David Donovan, Independent Australia
Dennis Altman, The End of the Homosexual?
John Bartlett, Estuary
Emily Bitto, The Strays
Myron Lysenko, a rosebush grabs my sleeve
Judith Rodriguez, The Hanging of Minnie Thwaites
Tara Judah, Overland
Adam Curley
John Gulzari, Dear Writer Revisited
Tricia Larkins
Emraan
Inayat
Nicki Odenbreit
Carol Ann Martin, Once There Were Mermaids
dawood.mardani
Dr. Jay Daniel Thompson
Carlos Rose Cruz, duplicity, thrice told
Melissa Bubnic, Beached
Rebekah Hayden
Tom Savage, Signal Problems
Liaquat Ali Hazara, Times (Pakistani Newspaper)
Mark Roberts, Rochford Street Review
Di Cousens, House Red
Clare Strahan, Cracked
Michelle Dicinoski, Ghost Wife: A Memoir of Love and Defiance
John Tognolini, Singing Johnny Cash In The Cardiac Ward-A Personal Story of Heart Disease & Music
Alex Miller, Coal Creek
Rita Horanyi
Sunil Badami
Cameron Trost, Black Beacon Books
Antony Loewenstein, Vulture Capitalism
Jacky T, Things I see around Brunswick
Annette Hughes, Art Life Chooks
Amy Espeseth, Sufficient Grace
Robert Bollard, In the Shadow of Gallipoli: the hidden history of Australia in World War One
John Tully, The Devil’s Milk: A Social History of Rubber
Mary Fall
Xero Corp, The Tao of Alchemy
Belinda Castles, Hannah and Emil
Dharmavanam Daws, sacred/profane
Michael John Kildare
Isobel Blackthorn, All Because of You
Harry Saddler
Daniel Witthaus, Beyond Priscilla
Martin Hirst, Journalism Ethics: Arguments and cases for the Twenty-first Century
Shane Duran
Simon Carabetta
Margaret Robson Kett, Baby Ways
Alice Robinson Anchor Point (forthcoming)
Sam Wallman, The Lifted Brow
Mark Riboldi
Lucy Neave, Who We Were
Peter Minter, Overland
Hop Dac
Asher Wolf
Judith Buckrich, Collins: the Story of Australia’s Premier Street
Heather, the kiwitravelwriter
Angela Meyer, The Great Unknown (ed.)
Judy Doubas, Strategy
Deborah Crabtree
Debabrata Chakrabarti, Guenter Grass (Translation), Moriz Winternitz
Lisa Jacobson, The Sunlit Zone
Ali Alizadeh, Transactions
Arnold Zable, Violin Lessons
Kylie Ladd, Into My Arms (Allen and Unwin 2013), 2 previous novels
Jennifer Mackenzie, Borobudur
Paddy O’Reilly, The Fine Colour of Rust
Robert Cope, Digital Journal
Wendy Poussard, Poetry as a Second Language
Elaine Lewis
Nick Whittock, covers
Constantine Pakavakis
Sophie Rudolph
Carole Browne
Terry Whitebeach, When I Was a Boy in Sudan
Morag Loh, Left-Wing Ladies
Hale Adasal, Gavur, a journey to belong
Margaret Jacobs
Judy Horacek, Woman with Altitude
Jan Govett, Tough Kids
ron browning, Flickering Lights Poems/Refugees
June Factor, Far Out Brussel Sprout
Jennifer Strauss, Tierra del Fuego: New and Selected Poems
Meera Govil, Eltham Bookshop Reviews
Judith Rodriguez, The Hanging of Minnie Thwaites
Belinda Lees, Lost for Words
Glenys Osborne, Come Inside
Chi Vu, Anguli Ma
Christine McKenzie, PEN Melbourne
Manal Younus, Forgotten Prisoners
Erkut Erdogan, circus
Benjamin Law, The Family Law; Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East
Kate Holden, The Romantic: Italian nights and days
Alice Williams, Would it kill you to say please
Carol Cumming, Script and filming mentor for Refugee Week Short Film Festival (City of Yarra)
Andrew Nette, Ghost Money
Lisa Gardner, Asian Correspondent
Tim Sinclair, Run, Nine Hours North
Dani Powell
Barb Kelly
Rory Hudson
Angeline Shannan
Michael Grewcock, Border Crimes
Katherine Lyall-Watson, Motherland
Elizabeth Stephens, Queer Writing
Margry Forde, Behind the Cane
Alex Broun
Claire Thomas, Fugitive Blue
Susan Hawthorne, Cow
Adam Aitken, Eighth Habitation
Beth Spencer, How to Conceive of a Girl
Dianne Touchell, Creepy & Maud
Desney King
Katherine Howell, Deserving Death
Joyce Kornblatt, The Reason for Wings
Meera Atkinson, Traumatic Affect, Southerly, Griffith REVIEW
Anna Solding, The Hum of Concrete
Clare Atkins, TV Scriptwriter
Michael Gurr
Deborah Vanderhoek, Open for Inspection
Joyce Kornblatt, The Reason for Wings
Blake Ayshford, An Accidental Soldier
Chris Barker, The Hearts of Men
Robin Davidson
Tony Cavanaugh, The Train Rider
Joan Sauers, Mothers & Daughters
Minnie Kent Biggs
Chris Mansell, Spine Lingo
Claire Scobie, The Pagoda Tree
Kelly Lee Hickey, 2010 Poetry Slam Champion
Lefa Singleton Norton, Limited News, Express Media
Aden Rolfe
Elizabeth Allen, Body Language
Andrew P Street
Annarosa Berman, Sex at 6pm
Amy T Matthews, Navigating the Kingdom of Night, University of Adelaide Press
Margaret Bassal
Tom Doig, Moron to Moron: two men, two bikes, one Mongolian misadventure (Allen & Unwin, 2013)
Doris McIlwain, Living Palely, Artlink Journal.
Tom Flood, Oceana Fine
Judy Clark
Cecile Yazbek, Olive trees around my table
Francesca Sasnaitis, Southerly journal
Elisabeth Hanscombe, In My Father’s House in Women and Power, Griffith review
Pearlie McNeill, Counting The Rivers
Lynette Washington, The Swarm
Kay Rozynski
Luke Beesley, New Works on Paper
Michelle de Kretser
Hal Judge, Someone Forgot to Tell the Fish
Jenni Nixon, Agenda!
Julie Chevalier, Henry Darger: his girls
Enza Gandolfo, Swimming
Jo Kasch
Susan Cram, Elephant Whisperer
Saba Vasefi, Slap Fingerprints
Gail Jones, Five Bells
Ashley Hay, The Railwayman’s Wife
Alex Chapman, Sojourn
Samantha Strauss, Writer for Television
Alana Spragg, Children’s Story
Sari Smith, Extract of “Dinner at the Hyperion” in antiTHESIS, 2013
Saskia Beudel, A Country in Mind
Winton Higgins, Journey into darkness
Adele Ogier Jones, Afghanistan – Waiting for the bus
Rosie Scott, A Country Too Far
Margaret Rainbird
Joyce Evans, Only One Kilometre
Merlene Fawdry, Seth
Elizabeth Ward
Elizabeth Reichhardt
Sylvia Florin
Vivienne Glance, A Simple Rain, The Softness of Water
Jean Merrall
Gaele Sobott My Longest Round: the life story of Wally Carr
Omar Musa, Parang & Here Come the Dogs
Krissy Kneen, Steeplechase
Nancy Corbett, Floating; Heartland
David Stavanger, The Special (UQP) 2014
Ghostboy , Enter / We love You (as much as everybody else does)
Michele Fermanis-Winward, Narrator Magazine
Anne Elvey, Kin (5 Islands, forthcoming 2014)
Jo Taylor
Indigo Eli
Bronwyn Mehan, Spineless Wonders
Carol Jenkins, X to the N
Pierz Newton-John, Fault Lines
Raelke Grimmer, Sleepwalking
Mark O’Flynn, The Forgotten World
Jim McGrath, Heart of a Dog
Ali Jane Smith
Dael Allison, Fairweather’s Raft
joanne burns
Marian Matta
Guy Salvidge, Yellowcake Summer
Kit Kelen, China Years – Selected and New Poems
Anne M Carson, Removing the Kimono
Louise Allan
Annabel Smith, Whisky Charlie Foxtrot
Karen Pickering, Cherchez la Femme
Linda Jaivin, Found in Translation: In Praise of a Plural World
Enza Gandolfo, Swimming
Jane Skelton, Lives of the Dead
Asher Hirsch, Right Now
Jennifer Ellem, Unload & Unwind

*http://writersforrefugees.com/2013/09/03/writers-for-refugees-statement