My Letter To The Prime Minister

Now, close your eyes and imagine that you are in their position, your family
far away, and most likely dead, though you are not even given the dignity of
an answer to that question. You can never relax, you must always be alert.
Also you don't know who to trust, because when you needed to go to a
strange, new country called Australia, you took a huge risk, and it just is not
working out at all. Nevertheless, your hope keeps you alive and makes the
loneliness of separation from family and your own culture worthwhile. But,
it's still not over, because if you do make it on to a boat, after the long,
uncomfortable journey, you are turned back, to serve mandatory detention.
Your treatment for an undefined time, maybe over a year, in a Detention
Centre is just bearable. But there is pressure for you to go back to the country
you ran from, and what you are sure is the worst place on earth.
And now it has come to this; an awful death in the hands of the Taliban. Just
imagine that. Can you? These people are people,
with feelings. The message Australia sends them
is that they are worthless, and a problem that needs
to be removed. What reason could you possibly
have to justify what I can only describe as cruelty?
"The edge of the boat
was about a hand span
above water, there were
seventy people on it."
"Between the Devil and the
Deep Blue Sea"
Yet, this is what you are doing, Ms. Gillard. And really, who cares what
others think? You are the Prime Minister! So, think again about the boat
people, and do what you know is right.
I really thank everyone in ''Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea," for
inspiring me to write this letter, and change my thinking and feeling about
another human life.
Thankyou, Ms. Gillard, for stopping and thinking hard about each human
being as someone just like you, with a basic human right to life.
Sincerely:
Georgia Gregory (age 11)