Australian Border Force (ABF) officers the power to confiscate the phones of asylum seekers

In the public interest.

This is a petition from Change.org

I sense Peter Dutton is the theme of the day and Home Affairs.  That is an intelligence capacity focused on civil society.  Metal health and the diminution of rights is the theme of our times.

My inner feeling is what you put out comes back, this is a universal lore.  The key question is can you silence democratic freedoms if people believe they are free?  It is evident there is fear around revealing information when there is a desire for it to be hidden.

The challenge to realise is there is no enemy.  But we do not awaken before our time.  Sometimes people have to go through a process of being ‘what they are not’ in order to discover ‘who they are’.

This petition is circulating in respect of refugees.

Peter Dutton is trying to sneak through legislation that would let Border Force officers take the phones of asylum seekers in detention. These phones are a lifeline to vulnerable people trapped in these centres. National Justice Project stopped these laws once, now they need your help to do it again. Add your name below.
#DialitDownDutton. Don’t take away asylum seekers’ phones!
2,051 have signed National Justice Project’s petition. Let’s get to 2,500!
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In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Peter Dutton is trying to sneak through legislation that would give Australian Border Force (ABF) officers the power to confiscate the phones of asylum seekers and refugees being held in detention.

The National Justice Project stopped Dutton from doing this before. We took him to court for taking phones from asylum seekers and refugees back in 2017 and we won. He tried to introduce this law back then to overcome our Court win and failed, so now, while we’re all distracted by COVID-19, he’s trying again.

Mobile phones provide asylum seekers and refugees with a lifeline to the outside world, to loved ones and to advocates – their mental health, the protection of their human rights, and their families depend on their phones. The proposed legislation gives ABF the power to effectively SILENCE and PUNISH innocent men, women and children who have not been convicted of any wrongdoing by cutting off their ability to stay in touch with family, lawyers and advocates.

Mobile phones can also hold Dutton accountable – they can record instances of mistreatment and cruelty. On Manus Island, Behrouz Boochani wrote an entire book via WhatsApp, exposing the cruel reality of our offshore detention regime.

The family from Biloela, currently on Christmas Island, used their phone to raise the alarm when Peter Dutton forced them onto a plane. It was a mobile phone that captured the shocking footage of little Tharunicaa screaming as her mother was dragged onto the plane by ABF officers.

It’s no wonder that Peter Dutton wants to give his ABF officers the power to snatch the phones out of the hands of asylum seekers and refugees. He will do anything to break the spirits of these people and deprive them of their voices.

We are up against a Government that will oppose human rights at every turn and prefer silencing their critics rather than taking responsibility for harm done to innocent people.

If this law is passed, it can be used to threaten, intimidate and harass asylum seekers and refugees.

Please, sign and share this petition and help us keep asylum seekers and refugees connected to the outside world.

#DialitDownDutton

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