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<span class="date-display-single">Mon, 18/06/2012</span> </div>
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<div class="glw-authors">By <span class="glwnews-article-location"><a href="/taxonomy/term/413">Alex Bainbridge</a></span></div><div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-image">
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<img src="http://www.greenleft.org.au/sites/default/files/imagecache/frontpage-lead-article/melbbreakingthroughbanner17-6-12.jpg" alt="" title="" class="imagecache imagecache-frontpage-lead-article imagecache-default imagecache-frontpage-lead-article_default" width="140" height="105" /> </div>
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<p>Protesters tore through a giant run-through banner that read "free the refugees" as part of World Refugee Day rally in Melbourne. Below the slogan, symbolic bars were broken representing the breaking of the fences imprisoning refugees.</p>
<p>More than 2000 protesters took to the streets in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra on the weekend of June 16-17 to say 20 years of mandatory detention is 20 years too many.</p>
<p>The rallies mark the annual World Refugee Day and highlighted the fact this year is the twentieth anniversary of the introduction of the policy of mandatory detention.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/51354" target="_blank">read more</a></p>