On the 28th of March, medical students across Australia will march to demand fairer treatment and equal rights for refugees and those seeking asylum. This years’ Palm Sunday Rally combines a nation-wide virtual rally with in-person, state specific rallies. 

“Every day, refugees and asylum seekers experience the brutal psychological and physical effects of indefinite detention,’ President of the Australian Medical Students’ Association (AMSA), Sophie Keen, said today. 

“There is a gross disregard by the Australian Government for the health and safety of these individuals, whose lives, by no fault of their own, have become bound to a global refugee crisis. 

“Our policy and protocol is an international embarrassment, and should be an urgent priority for reform moving forward.”

After more than seven years, it is estimated that more than 250 people remain in offshore detention. Australia has come under fierce international scrutiny in recent months for perpetration of systemic human rights abuses. The UN has previously stated that Australia’s policy of indefinite and arbitrary immigration detention clearly contravenes numerous international conventions and treaties that Australia is signatory to. 

Individuals in offshore immigration are not currently afforded the right to a judicial review process and there are no limitations placed on the duration of detention. 

At least 12 people are reported to have died in these camps, as a result of medical neglect, suicide, or murder. Many more have been subject to physical or verbal abuse with reports of guards punching and beating minors in addition to allegations of sexual assault. 

AMSA has advocated for an end to offshore detention for several years through the AMSA Crossing Borders Project. In 2020, hundreds of medical students marched at home for refugees around the globe with the message “detention harms health”. More than 500 calls to action were submitted by medical students across Australia with demands for fairer treatment. 

Palm Sunday Rally 2021 promises to garner similar interest with societal pressure mounting for reform. This year, students are calling for an end to offshore and alternative places of detention, an end to temporary visas, and the provision of ongoing support such as income, medical care and accommodation to those who have been released from detention into the community.

“Australia’s off-shore detention centers, ostensibly aimed at securing our borders, perpetuate inhumane and degrading treatment of asylum seekers and refugees, placing their lives in constant jeopardy with limited hope of resettlement,” Pretashini Somasundram, a representative of Crossing Borders, AMSA's refugee and asylum seeker advocacy division, said today.

“Mandatory detention fundamentally endangers the physical and mental health of refugees and asylum seekers placing individuals at increased risk of suicide and self-harm. It is unacceptable for this to happen on our watch.

“As the future healthcare workforce, medical students across Australia are rallying for equal access to health as a human right this Palm Sunday. This extends to every member within society – refugees and those seeking asylum included.”

AMSA is the peak representative body for Australia’s 17,000 medical students. Through AMSA Crossing Borders, AMSA advocates for Australia to meet its International human rights obligations regarding refugees and asylum seekers, and to cease mandatory, prolonged, indefinite detention.