The Government has been forced to acknowledge it has been using shadowy processes to deport Tamil refugees to Sri Lanka where they face torture, imprisonment and worse, the Australian Greens said today.

“The Government must change the law to ensure that genuine refugees are not deported back to danger,” the Greens’ immigration spokesperson, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

The Government has agreed to actually look into the asylum claims of 56 Sri Lankan refugees after they lodged a High Court challenge, appealing their forced removal from Australia.

“This is an important step in recognising the rights of these 56 people to have their claims for asylum assessed, but what about the 600 others we have already sent back?” the Greens’ immigration spokesperson, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

The Greens are calling on Australians to help in sending messages of hope to refugees who are locked up in our nation’s detention centres this Christmas.

“It’s important for us to let refugees know that there are many Australians who genuinely care about them,” the Greens’ human rights spokesperson, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

“I am asking Australians to write a message of hope to refugees, send it to my office and I will then send them to Nauru, Manus Island, Christmas Island and our other detention centres.

The worsening situation on Nauru has reached a critical point with reports that a man who has been on a hunger strike for almost 50 days in in real danger of losing his life, the Australian Greens said today.

 “There is a person’s life hanging in the balance and I am calling on Minister Bowen to forget the politics of this debate for just one moment and intervene,” the Greens’ immigration spokesperson, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

The Greens know that it is illegal in international law to withhold the right to work from refugees, but today the Government voted to continue down a worrying path of punishing refugees.

“The Government has clearly made a choice; they are willing to break the law to punish vulnerable refugees to win votes,” the Greens’ immigration spokesperson, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

After sustained pressure from the Greens and advocacy groups, Minster Bowen has hinted he may not follow through with plans to stop refugees from working in Australia but a lack of actual policy means people are still being left in the dark.

 “After flip-flopping back and forth on whether refugees will be allowed to work in Australia, the Government needs to come clean on what its policy actually looks like,” the Greens’ immigration spokesperson, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

The tenor of debate surrounding refugee policy has become so toxic and so negative that it is trashing the very values of a fair go that Australians hold dear, the Greens said today.

“I moved a motion in the Senate today to urge MPs not to incorrectly use the term ‘illegal’ when referring to people who are seeking asylum in Australia and I was heartened to see that it was upheld,” the Greens’ immigration spokesperson, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said after the vote.

The Greens have express dismay at new lows in the tenor of debate regarding immigration policy in Australia.

“Labor and the Collation are locked in a race to the bottom, trying to outdo each other on who can be the harshest to refugees in a bid to win cheap votes,” the Greens’ immigration spokesperson, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.