Dear friends across Australia,
Heartbreaking images of a Syrian boy washed up on a Turkish beach are spreading all over the world. Aylan Kurdi was 3 years old. He should have been laughing with joy as he played with friends or safe in the embrace of his mother’s arms; not alone and lifeless, far from home. This is the human face of Syria’s war and the global refugee crisis — but there is something we can do.
Aid agencies are urging Australia to take in 20,000 emergency refugees from Syria — it’s possible with just a stroke of Immigration Minister Dutton’s pen. But he needs to know that Australians support the plan; that we care about those seeking sanctuary from fear; that we know no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land.
Let’s overwhelm the Minister with our call to make Australia home for a fraction of the world’s most desperate people. Add your name now — Avaaz will work with those leading the call for this emergency intake to ensure every single voice is heard by Mr Dutton.
For every refugee who has perished seeking safety, for every parent’s hope for their child’s future, sign and share this urgent petition:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/australia_home_for_syrians_loc/?bhPqncb&v=64465
The news is currently dominated by refugees arriving in Europe, but this isn’t just a European issue — it’s a global issue. Right now, Syrian refugees are locked up in Australia’s offshore detention centres like Nauru, which a report this week declared “not safe for children” due to endemic sexual assault, rape and child abuse.
Our country has a proud tradition of welcoming people fleeing persecution and war, but right now we’re part of the problem. This is a moment to turn that around — to not only make room for an emergency intake of Syrian refugees, but also grant asylum to those Syrians in detention and work with the UN to address the broader problem.
The global refugee crisis is complex, but the core of our response can be very simple — treating others as we would wish to be treated, recognising that if the luck of our birth had placed us somewhere else in the world, we’d be the ones seeking refuge and hoping that others would see us as people, just like them.
Let’s not allow fear and narrow political interests to triumph over love and compassion. If all of us sign and recruit our friends to sign by sharing all over the internet, we can open our arms to those desperate to keep their families alive. Join now and tell everyone:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/australia_home_for_syrians_loc/?bhPqncb&v=64465
