Cate Blanchett slams Australia in speech to the European Union
The Australian actress has given a passionate speech to Members of the European Parliament in Brussels during which she took aim at Australia’s ‘discredited and largely abandoned’ treatment of asylum seekers | WATCH
Cate Blanchett took aim at Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers as she urged the European Union to focus on the protection of refugees and not on fortifying borders.
Blanchett, a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees since 2016, used her star power to tell Members of the European Parliament that Australia’s immigration detention policy for asylum seekers is a “discredited” approach which creates “psychological damage”.
“I wonder if those who now question the [Refugee] Convention, or who see walls and barbed-wire fences as a solution to the world’s 36.4 million refugees, have ever met and talked with a refugee, or really forced themselves to confront the human cost of harmful policies such as externalisation,” the 54-year-old Australian actress told the meeting in Brussels.
“As an Australian, I can tell you that we learnt the hard way, the devastating physical and mental torment that refugees experienced while corralled offshore.
“The psychological damage to those guarding them. The billions of dollars of taxpayers money wasted on a now discredited and largely abandoned approach.
“And, may I say, the resultant shame and regret many of us feel surrounding these ineffective and inhumane policies.”
Blanchett said the only way to tackle growing numbers of refugees is to increase funding and humanitarian support.
“The EU can provide the model for enlightened leadership, investing, for example in opportunities and solutions closest to the countries of departure before people have embarked on dangerous journeys – focus on their protection, and not on fortifying borders,” she said.
Blanchett said she had seen for herself “the devastating impact of insufficient funding” on a visit to a South Sudan refugee camp in July.
Statistics from the UNHCR show that of the 36.4 million people who have been forced to flee their countries, 69 per cent remain in neighbouring countries.
The right to seek asylum and the provision of asylum without discrimination were central to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which marks its 75th anniversary this year, Blanchett said.
“The European Parliament should continue and build on the EU’s proud tradition of humanitarian support while also ensuring development funding goes to host countries and refugees,” she urged.
“What sits at the core of my dual roles as actor and Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR is the human condition, the human story.”
Her appearance followed a fleeting visit to Singapore the day before, where she shared a stage with Prince Wiliam for the announcement of the Earthshot Prize.
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