Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) | Hansard source

Over 17 months ago the northernmost region in Ethiopia, Tigray, was embroiled in a war that has led to massacres of civilians, destruction of hospitals and clinics, an exodus of refugees and the emergence of famine. The region has been plunged into a human rights and humanitarian crisis.

A member of my staff, Nyat, who is part of the Tigrayan community, tells me that her community, particularly the youth, have been working tirelessly to advocate for their families. Due to the communications blackout, members of the diaspora have not been able to communicate with their family members. Nyat says that, even though there was a communications blackout, she tried to call her family every day in the hope that she could hear their voices and to make sure they were okay. She hasn't heard from her family for 11 months. There have been many accounts of Tigrayan people in Australia not having heard from family members only to find out that a number have been killed. The weight this has on the Tigrayan Australian families is devastating.

Researchers have estimated that as many as half a million people have died from war and famine in Tigray since November 2020. Millions of Tigrayans are still going hungry. According to the World Food Programme, 80 per cent of Tigray's population is food insecure and three-quarters of Tigray's population of six million are using extreme coping strategies to survive. What is clear is that the humanitarian situation in Tigray remains alarmingly dire and could further deteriorate if immediate action is not taken.

Staff at Tigray's biggest hospital say that patients are dying due to lack of medical supplies. This means people with HIV, tuberculosis, diabetes and cancer don't have access to treatment. In addition to this, women and girls have been subjected to sexual violence and then threatened so as not to seek medical care. The Amnesty International report titled I don't know if they realised I was a person highlights harrowing details of survivors of sexual violence suffering from a number of medical complications. Out of the 198 hospitals and health centres assessed by the World Health Organization, 141—almost all of them—were partially or fully damaged.

Just one month ago an Ethiopian government air strike hit a school compound hosting thousands of displaced Tigrayans in north-west Tigray. Human Rights Watch reports that 53 people were killed immediately and 15 of those were just children. Government air strikes in Tigray rose in number in October 2021 and increased significantly in mid-December. These air strikes, which obviously target civilians, have continued into 2022.

Those that fled the region now live in refugee camps in Sudan. They tell harrowing accounts of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity to human rights groups and diplomats. They're far from home and separated from loved ones, and they pray that they will return home soon. These 70,000 refugees, a third of whom are unaccompanied children, are at risk of exploitation. Conditions in the refugee camps are precarious, with a lack of food, shelter and medicine and extreme weather conditions.

I echo the words of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization: a communications blackout means Tigray has become a 'forgotten crisis, out of sight and out of mind'. I would urge the Australian government to do what it can to raise this issue urgently at the UN and to ask the UN to immediately start to act to work towards peace and the return of refugees to their homeland of Tigray.