From the Department of Freeing-Refugees-Makes-First-Ruddock-And-Now-Vanstone-Cry:
Honey the cat has been re-united with Aladdin, the human being with rights!
The Age reports that, following “an extraordinary fund-raising campaign and a 4300-kilometre journey, Honey was reunited with Mr Sisalem at the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service’s Spotswood animal shelter… For 10 months, Aladdin Sisalem’s only friend on Manus Island was Honey the cat. As the island’s sole detainee spent his days at the computer, appealing to the world to support his quest for asylum, Honey would sit beside him on the table. As he typed, she would put her paw on the computer keyboard. She was, he says, a companion he could talk to freely, and a reminder that “there was still something very good in life” — hence, presumably, constituting a real thorn in the side of the authorities, and reason enough for them to attempt to “force… [Aladdin] to leave Honey behind when he was granted a protection visa last month…”
Which he was. But now they’re re-united. So all’s well that ends well… well, almost.
According to the Department of We-Will-Decide-Who-Comes-To-This-Country-And-The-Manner-In-Which-They-Come, as of 23 June 2004, that leaves 1,011 prisoners in Australia’s concentration camps for refugees.
