Uniting Church Condemns Strip Searching of Christian ProtestersThe Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) has condemned WA Police for
strip searching Christian asylum-seeker advocates involved in a protest in Perth
yesterday. Several ministers of
religion and lay workers including two from the UCA were detained by police
after a prayer vigil at Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s office in Subiaco. The
protesters from the group Love Makes
A Way were part of a national day
of action in MPs’ offices calling for all children in immigration detention to
be released into the community. After their arrest, one
of the protesters involved says police at the Perth Watch House told them they
would be forcibly stripped and searched for weapons or drugs if they refused a
strip search order before being placed in a holding cell. A number of those
searched were visibly distressed. Moderator of the UCA
Synod of Western Australia Rev. Steve Francis says he’s appalled at the
protesters’ treatment. “WA Police have
deliberately humiliated people engaged in a peaceful act of civil disobedience,”
said Rev. Francis. “Strip searching is an
outrageous and offensive response to Christian concern for the vulnerable, and I
will be seeking an urgent explanation from the WA Police
Commissioner.” Rev. Francis says
pastoral care is being offered to church members who were detained. The Perth group had
refused to end their vigil in Ms Bishop’s office until they received assurances
that 25 babies born in Australia to asylum seeker families would not be
transferred to the Nauru detention centre. The President of the
Uniting Church in Australia Rev. Professor Andrew Dutney has also condemned WA
police behaviour and re-stated the Church’s long-standing opposition to offshore
processing. “No Australian engaged
in peaceful, non-violent protest should be subjected to this kind of treatment,”
said Rev. Prof. Dutney. “This kind of punitive
treatment is a reflection of the shameful state to which Australian refugee
policy has now sunk, in which the Government of the day thinks it is acceptable
to send mothers and babies to a place where they will be at significant risk of
physical and mental harm and even abuse.” Amendments to the
Migration Act passed by the Senate last week give unprecedented powers to the
Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, placing the Minister’s decisions
out of reach of the courts and giving him permission to act contrary to
international law. Rev. Dutney has
described their passage as “a day of great moral failure for
Australia.” 11 December
2014 <저작권자 ⓒ christianreview 무단전재 및 재배포 금지>
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