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Remembering the Tampa
26/08/2022 at 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Free
Ballarat RAR invites the Ballarat community to join the ‘Remembering the Tampa’ rally.
On 26th August 2001, the Norwegian cargo ship, Tampa, took on board 438 asylum seekers from a damaged fishing boat in international waters. Most of the people were from Afghanistan fleeing the Taliban.
The Australian Government prevented the Tampa from landing on Christmas Island, leading to the asylum seekers being transferred to Nauru as part of the “Pacific Solution”, now called “Operation Sovereign Borders”. Australian policy towards refugees changed forever. No longer are people arriving by boat seen as genuine asylum seekers in need of protection, but instead are treated as “illegals”.
Today, 21 years later, refugees and asylum seekers continue to be detained in Nauru, and also Papua New Guinea. As a consequence many of these people suffer from great stress, which has led to some deaths.
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