Dear friends, Thank you for signing the petition. Thanks also to those who have promoted it and enabled it to reach a wider audience, such as the Members of Parliament, Melissa Parke and Anna Burke and Scott Ludlum, and social justice advocates, Father Bob Maguire and Julian Burnside. Next week Melissa Parke will take the petition to Canberra, so we are hoping that Behnam may soon get the protection he needs. He has sent you a message: "Thank you so much, everyone, for supporting me. I am very grateful. I had thought that in First World countries, Governments care about their own citizens' opinions and requests! My petition has reached almost 18,000 supporters but as yet there is no response from the Prime Minister. 18,000 is not small number. We are living in a terrible situation on Manus and the Australian government doesn't care about us. We didn't seek asylum in PNG and we haven't committed any crime in this country but for 31 months we have been in this prison. I used to think that those countries who make claims about respecting human rights have some kind of justice in their countries. I appreciate every single one of you." *** There is now a Facebook page, Justice for Behnam, and I hope you saw the article on him in last Saturday's Saturday Paper. The link is below. Thank you for signing the petition. Please also write to your local Member of Parliament and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and ask that Behnam be brought urgently to Australia for his health and safety. We are now almost 18,000 people wishing for the rescue of this very brave man. Dr Diana Cousens