Dear Friends,
I’m copying below an email sent to Susan by Kon Karapanagiotidis, from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. It highlights the crucial need of keeping the Medevac law in place to protect asylum seekers and what is currently happening to avoid its repeal and with the Senate inquiry.
Please keep sharing the petition and thank you so much for all your support.
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Dear Susan,
Minister Dutton wants to go back to his old ways of blocking, delaying or denying medical treatment to sick people in offshore detention.
As you know, the Minister’s Medevac repeal legislation has passed the House of Representatives, but has been referred to a Senate Inquiry which will sit in October to investigate the repeal.
The ASRC in partnership with doctors and organisations have been working day and night to get critically sick people through the process so they can access life-saving treatment in Australian hospitals.
Since February, we have gotten 110 people approved for medical transfer.
We must do everything we can to keep this process going to save lives.
Doctors, community groups and organisations, including the ASRC, are putting in submissions to the Senate Inquiry this week.
It is critically important to ensure the Senate Inquiry and Parliament have all of the relevant facts about why Medevac is the best process to save the lives of sick people in offshore detention.
Here are the main points of our joint submission with the National Justice Project (NJP):
-The passing of the Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Act 2019 (‘Medevac Law’) has resulted in over 110 people suffering from physical and mental health conditions accessing urgent medical care in Australia.
-Prior to this, sick people were waiting an average of 2 years, and some for up to 5 years, for medical transfer after it had been recommended by the government’s appointed doctors.
-The majority of transfers were the result of legal intervention because of political interference, delays and blocks, where the Minister required organisations to lodge complex legal proceedings in court.
-These long delays led to deteriorating medical conditions and at least two deaths as a direct result of the department delaying transfers, and more from treatable illnesses.
-The Medevac Law ensures there is no longer political interference with the transfer system. 80% of transfers are approved with the agreement of the Minister, with none being blocked due to security reasons.
-There is no threat to Australia’s national security or adverse impact on Australia’s medical system.
Our submission is based on the ASRC’s 18 years’ experience working with people seeking asylum and the NJP’s extensive experience in legal advocacy and intimate knowledge of the urgent medical situation facing refugees in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.
The ASRC and NJP are members of the Medical Evacuation Response Group (MERG), established to manage transfer requests as part of the Medevac Law.
QUOTE
Prior to the passing of the Medevac Law, former International Health and Medical Services (IHMS) staff and whistleblower Dr Peter Young said:
“Medical transfer requests are made sparsely and reluctantly because doctors know they will be blocked by the department. It’s appalling and unconscionable that our government is doing everything it can to prevent doctor’s advice being followed and to increase illness and suffering of people in offshore detention.”
Make no mistake, the Medevac Law was drafted and passed by Labor, Greens and Cross bench, as the only way to force the Government and Minister Dutton to act on doctors’ recommendations rather than deliberately endanger people’s lives for political ends.
Minister Dutton’s Migration Amendment (Repairing Medical Transfers) Bill 2019, as with the government’s entire ‘deterrence policy’, is pure political posturing without any base in evidence or fact.
If the Minister repeals Medevac, we know that more people will die from medical neglect in offshore processing.
But together we won’t let that happen.
Please share this powerful message on Facebook, retweet, like and repost on Instagram with the hashtag #SaveMedevac.
We look forward to saving Medevac and changing the policy on asylum with you for good.
Yours,
Kon
P.S. read the ASRC and NJP full submission here:
and read coverage in the Guardian below.
Kon Karapanagiotidis - ASRC
http://action.asrc.org.au/
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre · 214-218 Nicholson St, Footscray, VIC 3011, Australia