The Arrivalists

Asylum seekers in their own words.

The government doesn’t want you to see this, or read things like this.

It could be argued that Successive governments have de-humanised asylum seekers. They are not people like you and me, they have become ‘illegal arrivals’, ‘detainees’, we’ve all heard the language.

They are also anonymous, we don’t see their faces we seldom hear their stories; they have numbers
They have no voice, no face, painted and portrayed as a threat; they are dehumanised.

Only when someone is dehumanised, can the government treat them without humanity. Our asylum seeker policy requires this, because if we knew them as people we would not allow it to happen.

The Arivalists presents the writings and creative work of people who are or have been in the asylum seeker detention system.

Read their works and you will connect with them as other human beings – people in pain, with sadness, with anxiety and fear. Just people, just like us.

And the more people that connect with our asylum seekers, the harder it is for the government to continue their current inhumane practices.

So read the work, share it, spread the word, let’s change the way the rest of Australia feels about the people we have in immigration detention.

The Arrivalists is a project of The New Parliament Magazine, you can find it here: http://thearrivalists.tumblr.com