His All Holiness BARTHOLOMEW

Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Your All Holiness,

My name is George Georgiadis. I am an Orthodox Christian in the Archdiocese of

Australia.
Australia is a beautiful country, but, there is something terribly wrong here which I am
writing to tell you about and to ask for your prayers and for your help.
Your All Holiness, Australia is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on
Refugees. This means that Australia has obligations under International Law to give
refuge to people who are Asylum Seekers who flee to us because of persecution and
war in their own country.
However, in 2001, the government of Australia introduced a system called
“Mandatory Detention” for Asylum Seekers. This means that those Asylum Seekers
who flee to Australia are automatically locked away in detention centers, away from
public view, sometimes for over a year and with little contact with the outside. In
many cases they are being deported back to the countries they fled, and we know
that many of them are either killed or tortured when they return there.
Your All Holiness, I go and visit these suffering people in a Detention Centre called
“Villawood Immigration Detention Centre” in Sydney, and I give what comfort I can,
but it is not enough. Every week I go and visit people and every week I hear their
terrible stories of suffering, war and persecution. Many of them have been waiting in
Detention Centres in Australia for years, only to be told that they are rejected, and
then they try to kill themselves by whatever means they can, usually by hanging
themselves.
Your All Holiness, I meet people every week in the Detention Centre whose families
have been killed and who have been tortured themselves back in their own country,
and they fled to Australia for safety, sometimes on small boats, and they are thrown
into these Detention Centres when they get here (if they manage to survive the
journey), and in many cases are sent back.
The Government of Australia claims that it is fulfilling its obligations by processing the
Asylum Seeker’s applications for Refugee Status, however, this is not true. The
Australian Government does not permit the United Nations High Commission for
Refugees to determine whether or not someone is a refugee, but instead, the
Australian “Department of Immigration and Citizenship” makes the decision as to
whether or not someone who flees to Australia for safety is a refugee, and this is
arbitrarily determined by two officers of the Department who are answerable neither
to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees nor to anyone else.
Your All Holiness, I ask first for your prayers for these Asylum Seekers who have fled
to us here in Australia.
Secondly, I ask Your All Holiness to remind the Government and the people of
Australia of our obligations, not only to Humanity, but to God as well, Who
commands us to welcome strangers and that failing to do so to the least of His
brethren is a failure to do so to Him.

Kissing your right hand,

George Georgiadis