Vilifying refugees fleeing persecution is a disgrace

I WRITE to respond to the attempt by Graeme W Brewer (“Your Views” January 1, 2018) to vilify the non-Anglo refugees on Manus Island under the headline of “Refugees on Manus Island are cowards not courageous”.

This is a slur on people who, most likely they have never met – people who have fled their own countries (like the South Vietnamese did after the fall of Saigon in 1975) and have had the temerity to risk their lives at sea, on often unseaworthy boats, to seek a better life for themselves and for their children in Australia.

That these people are, without a shred of evidence, branded as “cowards” is a disgrace, rather than the true “courageous” people that they are (just ask the Vietnamese how easy it was at sea). There may, of course, be refugees who have transgressed, and then they ought to be held accountable according to law.

These refugees have little or no chance of defending themselves from vilification.

Unless GWB has met them personally and formed his considered views based on facts, then he ought to heed his own advice and “do thorough research” – meet these people before commenting.

Has he considered that these refugees may have been fleeing the very things that he so eagerly condemns and attributes to them in his enlightening letter?

Oh! How could I forget? The Australian Government has so carefully and thoroughly discouraged people from making contact with these nameless refugees. They are not “Australians” so we can say whatever we wish about them without fear of being held to account! ADOLFO J MATTHEWS, MERMAID WATERS