Offshore detention centres are inhumane, cruel and financially disadvantageous. People live in mouldy, overheated tents with no privacy. They receive poor medical care and education and the local people, specifically on Nauru, subject them to violence and abuse because they are different. By pushing these people away from Australian shores, the Australian government is effectively subjecting these people to persecution, defying Article Five of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Australia helped develop. The asylum seekers and refugees in these camps are losing hope and their mental health quickly disintegrating. Self harm, depression and suicide have become the norm, even young children are subject to these mental health conditions.This needs to stop.

In addition, it is extremely financially disadvantageous to the government to keep these people offshore. It would be much more cost effective, as well as more humane, to bring them onshore. These people would receive better conditions, better education and better medical care. The government would have more control over them and it would be more cost effective. The costs saved would go towards Foreign Aid to “tackle the problem at the roots”, by trying to fix the problem that forced them to flee in the first place.

We know our policy cannot solve the problem completely but, as a nation, we can do better. This is better. Bring them here.