Author tells Festival of Dangerous Ideas audience Australia’s offshore detention centres are ‘black sites’ and part of hiding the human cost of the refugee crisis

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This article is more than 5 years old

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Aylan Kurdi, the three-year old refugee whose death at sea has become the central image of the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis, should have been safely living in Vancouver, Canada, author and activist Naomi Klein said.

In an emotional introduction to her talk on climate and capitalism at Sydney’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas (Fodi), the Canadian writer said the “hostile bureaucratic processes” of Canadian immigration were to blame for the rejection of a refugee application by Teema Kurdi, Aylan’s aunt, who is living in Canada.

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The photo was a “harrowing image of abandonment and neglect”, Klein said.

“I have found these past days very difficult. Let’s also recall there have been other [positive] images and stories too.”

Klein said western politicians are “hiding the human costs” of the refugee crisis “simply because their need is inconvenient”, and referred to Australia’s offshore immigration detention centres as “black sites”.

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“Tony Abbott has been in the news this week marketing his black sites [as a solution]”, Klein said. “‘Prison camps for safety’, from the man who brought you ‘coal is good for humanity’.”

Earlier this week Klein issued a statement with other Fodi speakers distancing herself from retired Major General Jim Molan, a board member of festival co-curator the Ethics Centre and one of the architects of Operation Sovereign Borders, Australia’s border control regime.

The Australian government is standing firm in the face of growing pressure to help more Syrian refugees flee the war-torn country.

As the crisis in Europe escalates with thousands crossing the Mediterranean to escape the conflict, church groups and the Australian Greens are pressing the government to open its doors.



The Greens are calling for an emergency intake of 20,000 Syrian refugees and $150m funding for the UN high commissioner for refugees.



The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, said more than 250,000 men, women and children had already died and it was time for Australians to lend a helping hand.



He said attitudes towards refugees had reached a turning point following distressing images of young children trying to escape the war being washed up on beaches in Europe.



“I just say to Tony Abbott, if you have a skerrick of compassion, of decency, of humanity – you would support the Greens’ call and immediately welcome 20,000 Syrian refugees who desperately need our help,” Di Natale told reporters in Melbourne on Saturday.



“We are a lucky country and strong enough to offer people safety and respite from war.”



But the prime minister says he will not bow to the calls made by the Greens.



The Coalition agreed to take 4,400 people from northern Iraq and east Syria in 2014 as it carefully considered the impact of Islamic State through those areas, Abbott said.



He did, however, suggest that Australia may have scope to accept more refugees in the future because of his government’s controversial Operation Sovereign Borders.



“One of the good things about stopping the boats is that we are now in a much better position to increase our refugee and humanitarian intake,” Abbott told reporters in Hobart.



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Joyce Chia, senior adviser and spokeswoman for the Refugee Council of Australia, joined the Greens at a news conference calling on the government to offer asylum to Syrian refugees.



“The situation in Syria is one of the world’s most urgent and increasing crisis,” she said. “It is a crisis we can do something about.”

Australia has previously provided refuge to 40,000 Chinese people following the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989 and also issued temporary visas to 4,000 Kosovo refugees in 1999.

Australian Associated Press contributed to this report