Rolling Stone has premiered our video for Rich Webb and his new single ‘Love Someone’.
https://au.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/song-you-need-to-know-rich-webb-love-someone-37409/
This video is in response to the unlimited mandatory detention for asylum seekers and refugees travelling by boat to Australia, the only country in the world to have something so severe, and the Australian government’s inhumane stance for over a decade, that “If you come to Australia by boat, you will never get to stay”.
These facilities have been the source of much controversy, with accusations of human rights abuses from Amnesty International, the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations. Journalists are forbidden from entering the detention facilities. Reports of self harm and suicide are upsettingly frequent.
According to the latest Australian government stats (30th Sept 2021), there are 1,459 people being held in mandatory detention facilities, and on average each person has been there for 689 days.
The UK government has praised the Australian governments methods and has revealed proposals for offshore centres for asylum seekers. Now with an estimated 420,000 refugees leaving war torn Ukraine (as of 28th February 2022), and with a projected possible 5 million people to leave the country, more action than ever needs to be done to safeguard refugees.
If you want to learn more about this topic, we would suggest reading Behrouz Boochani‘s book ’No Friend but the Mountains’, which is a devastating account by the author of his survival from one of these offshore detention centres, where he spent 5 years.