Ferrovial: stop operating illegal detention centres today.

Ferrovial: stop operating illegal detention centres today.

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Tucked away in the middle of the Pacific ocean on two tiny islands, hundreds of men, women and children are being detained in such horrid conditions that they’re begging the Australian government for the right to die.


And what’s more -- private companies are profiting off their suffering.


But we can change this. The detention centre's latest operator is close to abandoning its contract -- and if we pile on enough pressure, we could push it over the edge.


Call on detention centre contractor Ferrovial to walk away from the illegal centres now.


More than 1200 people are held captive in inhumane detention centres on Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island. These brave people fled torture and war in search of mere survival and for this, and now they’re being held in conditions so appalling that a UN special committee called the detention centres “cruel, inhumane and profitable”. 


The contract to operate the detention centres was just bought by Spanish multinational Ferrovial, an infrastructure services company, as part of a bigger deal to buy the facilities’ previous owner. Ferrovial knows that these detention centres are controversial and, even worse, illegal -- Papua New Guinea just ruled that detaining people on Manus Island and Nauru is against the law and must stop.


If we pressure Ferrovial to walk away from the detention centres now, Australia will be left with one less company that’s willing to do its dirty work. And we’ll be one step closer to shutting down these inhumane prisons for once and for all.


Ask Ferrovial to drop its contracts in Nauru and Manus Island.


Ferrovial has committed to stop tendering contracts in the future but in the meantime it will continue to operate as usual. This doesn’t go far enough. Ferrovial needs to drop the Manus Island and Nauru centres right now.


Facing July elections, Turnbull and Peter Dutton MP are sure to point the finger at immigrants and refugees as the source of Australia’s woes. But we can’t allow anti-immigrant rhetoric to justify illegal detention centres that hold asylum seekers captive while the private prison industry profits.    


All over the world, SumOfUs members are standing up to the security corporations that make a profit from detaining innocent people in multi-million dollar business deals. Thousands of members in New Zealand took action asking Serco’s mismanagement of one of the largest Kiwi prisons in the world. And one of our first and most impactful campaigns ever stopped for-profit phone companies from exploiting incarcerated people keeping in touch with their families.


Now, let’s stand together and show Ferrovia that profiting from human suffering doesn’t pay.


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