Culture

15,000 Attend #LightTheDark Candlelight Vigils For Victims Of Australian Immigration Policy

Over 750 spot vigils were organised by GetUp in less than 36 hours.

by Steph Harmon  24 February 2014

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According to GetUp estimates, over 15,000 people stepped out around Australia to hold candlelight vigils last night, to show solidarity with and offer hope to asylum seekers, and to oppose the Government and ALP policy of mandatory detention and the veil of secrecy that has been cast over it.

At Light The Dark vigils around the country, a minute of silence was held for Reza Berati, the 23-year-old Iranian “gentle giant” who was brutally killed during the violent flare at the detention centre on Manus Island last week. Spiritual and political leaders spoke of the moral vacuum that has engulfed the Australian leadership, and refugee activists called for the public to continue distancing themselves from it, to offer much-needed hope to detained asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru.

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The vigils were preceded by a last minute press conference called by Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, in which he admitted that the information his government received, which ran counter to first-hand reports from inside the centre, was wrong. The violence which his Government had proclaimed began outside the detention centre — and so outside the jurisdiction of Australian officials and the company which oversees the centre, G4S — had actually started within it. “G4S will take the strongest disciplinary action against any employee found to have been involved in any wrongdoing against any person in our care,” a G4S representative said. Morrison, meanwhile, underlined his commitment to mandatory detention and Operation Sovereign Borders. “I have a very clear task and that is to stop the people smuggling trade coming to Australia.”

But many Australians aren’t on board. A Twitter and Instagram scroll through the #lightthedark hashtag shows a huge number of people who don’t identify with the policy being made in their name. “Australians tonight have demonstrated that we are a compassionate and welcoming people,” said Tim Costello, EO of World Vision Australia. “We know asylum policy is complex — but what isn’t complex is that a human being who came to us for protection instead died in terrible circumstances.”

Here’s Melbourne:

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Here’s Sydney:

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Here’s Brisbane:

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Here’s Perth:

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And here’s Adelaide:

 

 

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Feature image of Sydney #LightTheDark by Nick Bond