The myth of ‘keeping us safe’

Behrouz Boochani writes, heartbreakingly, of the tyrannical regime refugees have endured on Manus Island. Using a bureaucratic labyrinth designed to frustrate and deny medical care men are condemned to suffering, and in some cases death. Every daily process and procedure is planned to humiliate and dehumanise, to reduce men to the status of animals awaiting death or refoulement to the war zones and despotisms from which they fled. Why is this done? Refugees are depicted as “the other”, lesser beings possibly dangerous and different, to be feared. Some politicians are “keeping us safe”, and using cruel and evil policies to secure their seats and their ministries. Let us stop this torture and bring asylum seekers here.