Dear supporter, It's been a terrible week for refugees and asylum seekers in offshore detention thanks the usual suspect - the Australian Government. On Sunday, the Federal Government announced that asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island would be banned for life from entering Australia. And this is despite the government already establishing that 72% of asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island are in fact genuine refugees. Genuine refugees who wanted nothing else but to reach safety. This law, which applied to nearly 1300 people currently in detention on the islands would act retrospectively, applying to anyone who had attempted to reach Australia by boat from mid-2013. The majority of these people have already experienced violence, rape and persecution - in their native countries and since being detained in offshore detention. Many of these are women, who have suffered from unspeakable abuse on Nauru, which we have documented in detail in our report published in June: www.awswn.org/the-report But that's not all that's happened in the past few days. In a grand display of zero tact or humanity, the Australian Government has actually begun putting up advertisements on Facebook geographically targeting people conflict zones, warning potential asylum seekers that they will never set foot in Australia if they flee by boat. This is a message we don't believe Australia should be telling asylum seekers and genuine refugees who are fleeing for their lives from war, genocide and persecution, particularly when both refugee policy and Australia's inaction on settling refugees remains woeful and little other solutions have been offered. And what are we doing whilst our politicians use some of the world's most vulnerable people as a political football? Aside from our continuous advocacy, speaking up and writing, over the next few months and into the new year we'll be lobbying and fighting for women and children detained on Nauru, and the entire system of offshore detention. We've also developed a new website which we'll be populating with new information. So how can you help? Keep speaking up. The inhumane treatment of asylum seekers and refugees will only continue until our policy makers realise the majority of Australians find it unacceptable, and frankly, very un-Australian. You can also join us to keep updated by visiting: www.awswn.org For those on Nauru, Luisa Low Australian Women in Support of Women on Nauru