ChilOut Media Releases.
Minister for Immigration's 2004 Media Releases.
Australian Democrats press releases for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs.
Bob Brown, Leader of The Greens, Media Releases. Kerry Nettle, Greens Senator.
See also the immigration section in The Age, an up-to-date source of news items on asylum seekers and detainees. There is also a section in the Sydney Morning Herald.
"A last resort?" HREOC's report of its National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention was tabled in Parliament, on Thursday, 13 May 2004. Read media releases and news reports...
Bakhtiari family deported under cover of darkness
At just after 2.30am yesterday, Alamdar Bakhtiari, 16, the oldest of the six children, was glimpsed at the window of the RAAF charter plane flown into Port Augusta by the Department of Immigration to remove the failed asylum seekers. "He looked out and gave us a sad wave," said a refugee supporter who rushed to the airport after hearing around 11pm on Wednesday that a special flight to deport the family was flying in and would be leaving again some time before 3am.
Bakhtiyari family has left Australia
In a statement, Senator Vanstone said the family had been flown out of Australia after being declared medically fit by a doctor. "The timing of the family's departure was determined by the availability of the charter aircraft and transfer arrangements en route," she said. "The family had been advised last week that departure from Australia was their only option and arrangements were being made for them to return to Pakistan." [...] Justice for Refugees South Australia chairman Dr Don McMaster said the department's deportation of the Bakhtiyaris over the Christmas holiday period was a ploy to avoid media coverage. "It's doubling distressing for them because one, they don't want to go to Pakistan, and the way it is being done is very cloak and dagger," he said. [...] Meanwhile, Catholic welfare agency Centacare director Dale West said security guards took Mr Bakhtiyari out of the Baxter detention centre at 1am (AEDT) today. His wife and children were removed from their accommodation at the same time. "They have been the public face of the way people are treated in our detention system and people don't realise that one o'clock in the morning is the standard approach," he said.
Government defends secret deportation, 30 December 2004, The Age.
Bakhtiari family wants time to say goodbye
One of the Bakhtiari children, Muntazar, 14, on Monday pleaded for the Government to give them enough notice of their deportation to let them say their final farewells. "They probably will tell us five minutes before and that's it," Muntazar told Channel Ten News.
"Please inform us before so at least we can say goodbye to our friends."
Bakhtiaris prepare for deportation
The Bakhtiari family is expected to be flown to Adelaide on Monday morning to prepare for deportation from Australia, a refugee advocate said. Despite anxiously waiting for news on Boxing Day, Justice for Refugees South Australia president Don McMaster said a flight for Pakistan would depart on Monday at 3.30pm (AEDT) and the family, staying at a Port Augusta detention centre, was expected to board a charter flight to Adelaide on Monday.
Speculation continues on Bakhtiyaris' deportation
Dale West, from the Catholic welfare agency Centacare, says the family packed their bags on Christmas Day. He believes they will be flown out of the country today.
When a family tree casts only shade and doubt
The fate of the Bakhtiyaris now rests with Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone. With all avenues of legal appeal exhausted and an Immigration Act that requires her to remove asylum seekers who have no valid claim for refugee status, plus documentation from the Pakistani Government that the Bakhtiyaris are Pakistani nationals, her options are severely limited. She could exercise ministerial discretion and grant the family visas on compassionate grounds, acknowledging that they are Pakistani but also that there is plenty of evidence that they have sustained much emotional damage, and the children cannot be held responsible for their parents' mistakes.
Bakhtiyaris' last-ditch plea rejected
IMMIGRATION officials last night confirmed the Bakhtiyari family would be deported after federal minister Amanda Vanstone refused to consider a plea to reopen the asylum-seekers' case. Department officers said the minister would not consider the application as there was nothing new in it.
Locked in an identity crisis
Among the hundreds of thousands of Afghans who queued for their country's historic October election stood voter No.0547012 - a failed asylum-seeker named Mazhar Ali. Said to be the brother of Australia's most famous would-be refugee, Roqia Bakhtiyari, Mazhar Ali was branded a bogus refugee - a Pakistani, not an Afghan - by then immigration minister Philip Ruddock and deported to Pakistan in 2003. Why Mazhar Ali would go to Afghanistan and vote in the national election, braving snipers from the deposed Taliban regime as they fired into the queues, if he was a Pakistani is a puzzling notion.
Afghans reveal 'link' to Bakhtiyaris
Joining public debate over the family's identity for the first time, Afghan officials in Canberra said their Government had been "investigating" Roqia Bakhtiyari's claims that she was from Afghanistan since late 2003, but the evidence was "as yet inconclusive". "It is understood at least one person in the Jaghori district of Ghazni Province, whom Mrs Bakhtiyari has claimed to be related to, has confirmed the existence of such relations," the embassy said. Lawyers for Mrs Bakhtiyari's husband, Ali, wrote to Senator Vanstone yesterday urging her to use her discretion under s48B of the Migration Act to allow a fresh application for protection on the basis of new evidence that could prove they were Hazara Afghan refugees. The courts were unable to review the new evidence over the past two years.
In an interview with The Australian, Senator Vanstone said the new evidence had been considered by an Immigration Department "decision maker" and had been rejected. The department "was satisfied" the family was from Pakistan, Senator Vanstone said.
Protestors seek 'Afghan' family's asylum
About 100 protestors gathered outside the Federal Immigration Minister's office in Adelaide, demanding the Bakhtiari family be allowed to remain in Australia, The Australian reported.
The new Australian fair go
And so the story moves towards its end. The Bakhtiyari family's phones have been confiscated and they wait in the Baxter detention centre to be taken to Pakistan. They are asking to go to Afghanistan because that is where they come from, but Amanda Vanstone won't let them go there. Although they speak no Pakistani language and speak Farsi, the language of their home region of Uruzgan in accents appropriate to the region, they will go instead to Quetta, in Pakistan.
Welfare agency asks New Zealand to open its doors to Bakhtiari family
The South Australian Catholic welfare agency, Centacare, has written to the New Zealand Immigration Minister, Paul Swain, asking him to take in the Bakhtiari family. [...] Mr West said the letter had been sent while all options for the family's future were being explored the day before their sudden return to immigration detention early Saturday. He said he was less optimistic about New Zealand accepting them since they were returned to custody because the situation had become more political. "New Zealand doesn't want to embarrass Australia," Mr West said.
NZ refuses Bakhtiyari pleas (21 December, The Age).
Vanstone slams Bartlett hunger strike
Senator Vanstone said it was irresponsible for a member of parliament to set an example that could result in serious health problems. [...] "I hope to make them (asylum seekers) aware there is a lot of people in the Australian community supporting them and pressuring on their behalf, that they're not alone and they don't need to harm themselves further on top of the harm that's already been done to them by the government," [Senator Bartlett] said.
Government refuses Bakhtiari plea
The federal government today dismissed appeals from the Bakhtiari family to be returned to Afghanistan amid criticism it lacked compassion for the family's plight.
Labor backs Bakhtiyari verdict
LABOR'S immigration spokesman Laurie Ferguson yesterday joined the Howard Government in dismissing the Bakhtiyari family's plight, declaring the asylum-seekers' story lacked "credibility" and they should leave Australia.
Community devastated after Bakhtiyaris moved
Two of the Bakhtiayri children attended Adelaide's St Ignatius College.
Prayers for the family were offered at a church service held at the school this morning. Teacher Dianne Campbell says the community is shocked that no-one had the chance to say 'goodbye' properly. "We can't just give one more hug and say goodbye, that's what's hurting me the most you know," she said. Class mate Sam Hooper says he is sad for his friends. "As Amanda Vanstone says they've exhausted all their options, but I don't understand why they can't stay and become Australians or live amongst us like they were," he said.
Refugee family goes back into detention
Senator Vanstone said the return to guarded three-bedroom accommodation at Port Augusta, nearer to Ali Bakhtiyari who remained in the Baxter detention centre, would benefit them all. She said Mr Bakhtiyari's fortnightly visits to Adelaide to see his family - where he would stay under guard in a motel not far from their home - were unsatisfactory. While agreeing that the move was not wanted by the family, she said the return to detention in Port Augusta would benefit them.
[...] Mr Bakhtiyari's lawyer, Paul Boylan, said no one who knew the family doubted they were from Afghanistan, but the Government could not admit it was wrong. "They have to save face," he said. "These are the most high-profile refugees in Australia."
ChilOut deplores treatment of Bakhtiyari family
ChilOut is outraged by the Australian government's treatment of an Afghan family of seven who have been seeking asylum for the past four years. At 7 o'clock this morning, the mother, five children and baby were forcibly transferred to Port Augusta's immigration detention centre. They fear that they will be deported to Pakistan tonight. Grave fears are held for the family's safety. ChilOut and other human rights agencies are alerting international bodies such as the Red Cross, UN High Commissioner for Refugees and UNICEF that Australia may dump an extremely vulnerable refugee family in Pakistan.
Vanstone defends decision to move Bakhtiyaris
Immigration officials went to the Bakhtiyari family home at 7:00am ACDT to collect the family and take them to the Residential Housing Project at Port Augusta, in South Australia's north. A spokesman for the family says Immigration Department officials turned up at the house unannounced this morning and made the family leave immediately in two cars. They claim the family was not allowed to pack belongings and mobile phones were confiscated.
Bakhtiyari family moved
Lawyers representing Australia's highest-profile asylum seekers, the Bakhtiyari family, say the mother and her six children have been moved out of a house in Adelaide to Port Augusta, possibly in readiness to be deported.
Iraqi refugees ready for new life
Four families were among a group of 23 Iraqi asylum seekers who arrived in Australia to begin a new life after being detained on the Pacific island of Nauru. The 23 people were found to be refugees earlier this month after fresh interviews and a reassessment of their status on the basis of new information on conditions in Iraq. Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said most of the 15 adults and eight children would join relatives in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and regional Victoria.
Iraqis Arrive From Nauru
Lips sewn in refugee hunger strike
"Many others will join the strike in coming days and we will continue until our situation is resolved," the detainees said in a statement issued by refugee advocates. "Many of us have been here (in detention) for four or five years and we are tired, frustrated and extremely depressed. "We are peaceful people and will harm nobody but ourselves in our quest for freedom. [...] An immigration department spokesman blamed misinformation spread by refugee advocates in relation to the Sri Lankans' hunger strike for the latest, similar action.
Hunger strike fails to spark Baxter asylum review
The hunger strike is now over, with refugee support groups claiming the Immigration Department has agreed to review the Sri Lankans' visa applications. But the department has issued a statement rejecting that. It says while it appears the hunger strike is over, it has not made any undertaking to review the cases of the Sri Lankans. It says to do so would be irresponsible and would raise false hopes among the detainees.
The law, but hardly just
There are about 40 people in immigration detention centres who have been there for four or more years. The Law Council says lawyers have a responsibility to fight for the "fundamental human right" to liberty. It has set up a working party to examine the possibility of further legal challenges to the Migration Act. The Law Council's broad aim is to change the process so that if there must be detention, it has built-in limits that ensure release after a set period. Indefinite detention may be the law but it is not just, and the Law Council is right to seek to change it.
Author hungers with poet detainee
Mr. Keneally, 69, who has authored more than two dozen books, has gained a reputation in Australia for his eloquent attacks on detention. He became involved with asylum seekers about four years ago when researching one of his books, "The Tyrant's Novel." "We can't legitimately call ourselves a free country when we do this," said Mr. Keneally, who is hoping Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone will listen to the request to release Mr. Amarasinghe, who is a member of PEN.
Most Iraqis on Nauru win refugee status
Two-Thirds of the Iraqi asylum seekers left on Nauru have been reassessed as refugees. Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone today will announce that 27 of the 41 Iraqis remaining on the island have had successful reviews. Five families, including 10 children, have been declared refugees after being detained on Nauru for three years. The reviews leave 54 asylum seekers on the island. Sixteen of the refugees will be resettled in Australia and should arrive in about a month. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is looking for countries to accept the other 11.
Afghan men granted permanent visas
Seven young Afghan men have been granted permanent visas after three years in detention or temporary release in South Australia. The men had initially been found not to be refugees. Their cases were reconsidered as part of a reassessment of all Afghan applications announced earlier this year.
Seven asylum seekers get visas
Senator Vanstone used her ministerial intervention powers to grant visas to the seven young men, who arrived in Australia without a parent or guardian in 2001 and have been in immigration detention or foster care since. [...] The men are now entitled to live in freedom in Australia and apply for the full range of benefits available to other Australian residents.
Hunger strikers in hospital
Two Sri Lankan men remained in a stable condition in hospital today as a group of detainees at the Baxter detention centre vowed to continue their hunger strike until they died. [...] Ms Wroblewski said the hunger strikers had vowed to continue their action until they were freed from detention or they died. "They're very determined. It's not a decision they entered into lightly," she said. "There's not even a sign that any of them are not going to continue. It's very sad."
Interned Sri Lankans begin hunger strike
Sarath said the hunger strike had begun because the Government failed to listen to their concerns after a peaceful protest in the past few months. The Sri Lankans had refused to sleep in their quarters, instead staying outside. "If we die here, no problem because if we go back we will die," Sarath said.
Judge renews call for bill of rights
Justice Kirby raised the issue of a bill of rights as he referred to recent High Court decisions upholding the mandatory detention of children and the indefinite detention of stateless asylum seekers. In those cases, the court found Parliament's laws to be valid despite a breach of international law. He said it was inevitable that calls for a constitutional bill of rights would grow as the High Court's "willingness" to find rights implied in the language and structure of the Constitution receded.
Claudia Karvan
Karvan is steadfast on one issue. She has spoken publicly, challenging the government's line on asylum seekers and is a patron for A Just Australia, a group sympathetic to the cause. Tears well and her voice cracks as we discuss the topic.
Family stalked by shadow of Bali finds hope
Tow years ago the lives of Sara and Safdar Sammaki were torn apart. Their mother was killed in the Bali bombings and their father, Ebrahim Sammaki, an Iranian refugee, was in detention at the Baxter Detention Centre. Now, a year after his release, the children are finally settling into a normal life.
Protesters rally for refugees
[Y]outh ambassador for Children Out of Detention (ChilOut), 16-year-old Canberra schoolboy Will Mudford said he expected better of the government than to lock up children. "What this Howard government is doing is creating this century's stolen generation, it's terrible the way Australia treats children," he said. "We expect better of other countries and we should expect better of ourselves and our representatives in parliament."
Protesters rally over refugee treatment
About 400 people have rallied outside Parliament House in Canberra, protesting against the Howard Government's treatment of refugees. [...] Speakers at the rally have attacked the Howard Government for failing to end the detention of asylum seekers. Many of the speakers were particularly angry at the detention of children, describing it as inhumane.
STAND UP FOR REFUGEES RALLY
A broad cross-section of Australian society will rally at Parliament House at lunchtime today to maintain public awareness of refugee and detention issues. Thousands of refugee supporters will ask politicians to use their commonsense and compassion in the next parliamentary term. The crowd at the "Stand Up for Refugees" will represent the thousands of Australians who care about this issue and are swelling in numbers. They simply demand humane and dignified treatment of asylum seekers and respect for their human rights. The return of the Coalition Government does not give it a mandate for human rights abuses.
Children freed from Villawood
Four Australian-born children are finally being released from Villawood Detention Centre this week but their Fijian mother, who is facing deportation, is being kept behind bars. The two eldest children of Seseana Naikelekele were released from Villawood on Friday into the custody of a relative. Their siblings [...] have spent the past two years behind the wire at Villawood, but will be released this week into the custody of another relative.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FUNDS NAURU ASYLUM ACTION
Lawyers acting for asylum seekers say it is disgraceful that the Federal Government is funding a challenge to its own laws which could prevent the High Court ruling on the fate of asylum seekers on Nauru.
Canberra funds Nauru legal attack
Nauru's challenge, heard by the High Court yesterday, was not defended by the Government - a situation described by Justice Michael Kirby as "remarkable, bordering on astonishing". [...]
Nauru is challenging a Commonwealth law that makes Australia's High Court the final arbiter for appeals from Nauru's legal system. The action aims to prevent the High Court hearing an appeal lodged by Melbourne lawyers against a decision by Nauru's Supreme Court that upheld the legality of detaining asylum seekers on the island.
Aussie Champion Betty Cuthbert Champions Kids' Rights
Australian Olympic champion, Betty Cuthbert will be visiting the kids on Christmas Island to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child on the 20th November 2004.
The visit will commence on 18 November 2004. Betty will be visiting the local school and meeting the kids there and presenting awards at the year 12-graduation ceremony. The 10 Vietnamese Asylum Seeker Kids on Christmas Island will also get an opportunity to talk to Betty about her life achievements.
Refugee blunder costs ASIO
ASIO has been forced to pay about $200,000 in compensation to a refugee it falsely classified a national security risk, causing him to be locked up for two years. [...] He was released after ASIO was forced to admit he was classified "directly a risk to Australian national security" solely on information provided by the secret police who had persecuted him.
Lock up strains ties
She said she was supposed to be deported on Saturday but no one came to pick her up from the centre. "My lawyer is preparing documents to put a stay on the deportation order," Ms Naikelekele said. "No one from the immigration section contacted me and I am in the dark. My five children and I share two rooms and eat at the mess in the centre. "I am spending sleepless nights with the thought that I will have to leave my children behind if I am deported.
Detention centre vital for Nauru
"It's not a lie to say that the standard of living being provided to residents in the centres is better than what most Nauruans are living today," Nauru Minister for Health Kieren Keke says. But for bankrupt Nauru the detention centre provides jobs and much needed cash. Keke says it provides cash flow on the island, economic activity, and job opportunities. So far Nauru has received tens of millions of dollars for operating the centre - and it can't afford to lose that income.
Deportation to Fiji splits family of six
More than 100 children from Macarthur Adventist School, where Sally and Jope have been students for the past two years, wrote cards to Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone pleading for their friends' mother to be allowed to stay. School principal Jill Pearce said they received no reply. "Their mother is being forced to suffer, not knowing if she will ever see her children again," Mrs Pearce said. "She is making a terrible sacrifice. What love she is showing to give her children a better life." Mrs Naikelekele had been in Australia for 15 years when she was arrested for overstaying her visa. Her husband, from whom she is estranged, is also about to be deported. She will probably never be allowed back into Australia to see her children. She will have to pay an $80,000 bill for her stay in Villawood on top of expensive visa fees.
Court grants injuction to halt student's deportation
The girl was taken to Villawood detention centre last Friday and was at the airport this afternoon, waiting to be deported. Justice Richard Conti has told the court it is extraordinary that the Immigration Department waited two-and-a-half years before detaining the girl in the middle of her exams. He made interim orders preventing the girl's removal from Australia until her case is heard fully next week.
Fijian woman deported after 15 years in Australia
Ms Naikelekele and 3 of her children (Lomani, Mereani and Glen) have been living at the Villawood Detention Centre in Sydney for the past 2 years and were joined this year by her two older children Sally, 12 and Jope, 10 (Australian citizens) who had been attending the Macarthur Adventist School in Sydney for the past 3 years. Sally and Jope have now been prevented from attending this school despite repeated appeals by school principal Jill Pearce. Ms Naikelekele will leave behind her children this Saturday, rather than risk losing their rights to claim Australian citizenship. With a three year re-entry ban and a debt for her detention of between $60,000 and $80,000, there will be little chance for her to return to Australia.
Deported mother to lose her kids
A SINGLE mother will be separated from her five Australian-born children when she is deported at the weekend, after the Federal Court ruled in favour of the Howard Government's plan to forcibly remove her to Fiji. But plans to deport two of the five children were overturned when the court granted an injunction pending the outcome of a citizenship case involving the pair.
Aussie kids's mother fights deportation
Lawyers for a Fijian mother of five are seeking a Federal Court injunction to stop her and two of her children being deported. Sereana Naikelekele, who has been living at Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre since 2002, was served a deportation order for her and two of her children by immigration officials. Ms Naikelekele has five children aged three to 12. But only two of her children are included in the deportation order - Lomani Koroitamana, four, and Mereani Koroitamana, six.
MORE CHILDREN IN DETENTION SINCE ELECTION
ChilOut is outraged to learn that the number of children in detention has increased since the federal election. Enough is enough - ChilOut calls on the Minister for Immigration to amend the Bridging Visa regulations so that all children in detention can immediately be released with their families. As around 60,000 students around Australia sit for their HSC today, there's one who will not be joining their ranks. Velicia was supposed to be sitting for her HSC exams this week. But on 27 October she was taken to Villawood - in the middle of her HSC - despite an undertaking from the Department of Immigration that she would not be detained.
Kids move into detention centre
Three Australian children have given up their freedom and moved in with their mother at Villawood detention centre. Eleven-year-old Sally Koroitamana and her brothers, Jope, 10, and 3-year-old Glen now live at the centre with their mother Sereana Naikelekele and younger siblings Lomani and Mereani, who were born in Australia but are not classified citizens. Sally and Jope were previously being cared for by their father, but moved into Villawood when he was also detained. It's a situation their mother claims is doing them irreparable damage, despite her insistence that they remain with her.
Family detained over two years
A FIJI-BORN woman living in a Sydney detention centre with three of her five children since 2002 is fighting for her family's right to stay in Australia.
Cruel policy splits families
On October 13, Mohamed’s bridging visa expired. He was asked to go into the immigration department’s compliance office by himself the next day. Carissa refused to let him, terrified that they would deport him. Carissa phoned Vanstone’s office, and was reassured by the man she spoke to that Mohamed’s deportation didn’t affect her or her children, because they were all Australian citizens and could remain here. Carissa couldn’t believe her ears, and told him exactly how the stress of potentially losing her husband had affected her, explaining that she had a miscarriage. To her horror, the man told her he didn’t care.
Children punished by Australian law
Born in Fiji, Sereana Naikelekele has lived in Australia for almost 16 years. She is married to Maika Koroitamana and has five Australian-born children. Her eldest child, 12-year-old Sally, is a citizen. Her youngest, three-year-old Glen, is also a citizen. Jope, who turned 10 on August 26, is due to receive a certificate confirming his citizenship. In July 2002, when Sereana was working to support her family, but without a permit, she was dobbed in to the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) and taken to Villawood detention centre. Two months later, her three youngest children, Glen, who was then only one and still being breast-fed, two-year-old Lomani and four-year-old Mereani, were brought to join her, because their father had been struggling to look after all five of the children on his own. For the past two years, Sereana has been fighting to get out of detention and for her right to stay in Australia.
After the party it's back to Baxter
It was a time for celebration on the weekend at the first birthday party of baby Mazhar.
Proud dad Ali Bakhtiyari was allowed time away from the Baxter Detention Centre to attend the party on Friday and was "beaming" to see his children. It was the first time Mr Bakhtiyari had spent time with Mazhar and his other five children in the Dulwich house where his wife, Roqia, lives. Father Greg O'Kelly, headmaster of St Ignatius College – which Alamdar and Montazer Bakhtiyari attend – said the event was heartwarming. "It was lovely, they were all holding the baby and helping him cut the cake," he said.
Human rights 'at a crossroads'
Australians were witnessing an unprecedented increase in the state's capacity to directly intervene in the affairs of an individual, he said. However, there were no counter-balancing measures that provided proper oversight of the integrity of the process. The Government also came under fire from Dr Ozdowski for continuing to hold children in detention. He said the single biggest human rights issue facing the nation was the lack of a domestically enacted, actionable bill of rights.
Bill of rights needed now, says QC
Mr Burnside told the Australian Lawyers Alliance national conference that the Government had breached "baseline" values in laws that validated inhumane treatment of refugees. Denying he was a "rusted-on leftie", Mr Burnside said he had previously opposed a bill of rights as unnecessary. Mr Burnside, who has acted for asylum seekers in the Federal and High courts, said lawyers had to face the fact that sometimes upholding the law was a betrayal of justice. "Any society which has legalised the mistreatment of innocent and defenceless people is a great challenge for lawyers," he said. "We face a stark choice. We can lend our arm to enforcing immoral laws or we can try to change those laws. We can't advise people how to break them, but we can help people resist them."
[...] An Iranian Christian convert asylum seeker forcibly deported to Iran last week has told refugee activists in Australia he was arrested on his return to Tehran. The man, 36, who phoned a contact in Canberra yesterday, said he was interrogated for more than 24 hours before being charged with leaving the country without appropriate permits.
Download and print petition in support of Iranian Christians facing deportation...
Read letter from Sister Anne Higgins...
Love behind the razor wire ends up in a play
An Iranian actor who spent almost two years in an asylum-seekers' detention camp where he fell in love with one of the guards is telling his story in a new play that could embarrass the Australian government over its tough immigration policies. "Through The Wire" traces the ordeal and romance of Shahin Shafaei, a 30-year-old actor and playwright, who fled Iran after the Ministry of Culture banned his work.
Memorial to mark sinking of SIEV X
memorial to the 353 asylum seekers who died on the ill-fated SIEV X voyage will be unveiled in Hobart on Tuesday on the third anniversary of the tragedy. Tasmanians for Refugees spokesman James Boyce said the memorial, a bench at Cornelian Bay, would provide a quiet place to remember the 146 children, 142 women and 65 men who drowned when their overloaded boat sank en route from Indonesia to Australia on October 19, 2001.
The tragedy that Australia refuses to remember
Amal Hassan Basry, an Iraqi survivor of the tragedy who now lives in Melbourne, says at least three women gave birth as the boat sank. The tragedy induced the births prematurely. Amal recalls the events of that day with great clarity. She knows the exact moment the boat capsized: 3.10pm. Many watches stopped at that time. "Because I was waiting for my death, I saw everything," Amal has told me. "I was like a camera. I can still hear the shouting, the screaming. I see the people going under. The gates of hell opened up." Today is the third anniversary of the tragedy, which claimed 353 lives.
Lawyers Welcome Human Rights Ruling
Lawyers today welcomed a Court of Appeal ruling which declared that the Human Rights Act can apply outside the UK in certain circumstances. The same court, headed by the Master of the Rolls, Lord Phillips, also pronounced on when British officials have a duty under the Act to refuse to hand over people to a host state. Judges said the duty arises where it is “clearly necessary in order to protect them from the immediate likelihood of experiencing serious injury”. But because of the newly-defined criterion, two children of asylum seekers in Australia failed in their claim that officials at the British Consulate in Melbourne abused their human rights by refusing to help them and ordering them out of the building.
Where Do We Go From Here Now? – reflections and a proposed strategy, on the occasion of the third anniversary of the sinking of SIEV X
If we now shrug off the 353 deaths on SIEV X as past history, if we complacently or fearfully say "what’s done is done", and turn our backs on the need to establish proper accountability, worse will follow.
Asylum-seeker now a national hero
The teenager, who fled Afghanistan at 15, received the Rescue Medal, just one rung below the highest award, the Bravery Cross, for his attempted rescue "under extreme or difficult circumstances" after the asylum-seeking vessel Sumbar Lestari caught fire and sank in November 2001 off Ashmore Reef. Despite a disabled arm and being almost unable to swim, he spent almost an hour trying to save fellow passenger Nurjan Husseini.
Concern over education access for children detained in Australia
Education authorities in the Australian state of New South Wales are concerned over school access for two Fijian children in a Sydney immigration detention centre. The two children, an 11-year-old girl and her 10-year-old brother, are Australian citizens, but have failed to return to the school which they have attended for the past three years. They are currently living with their mother and three siblings at the Villawood detention centre. The principal of the Macarthur Adventist School, Jill Pearce, says she has asked the detention centre to allow the children to return to school, but has not received a reply.
Asylum law wins over child charters
The decision will be seen as a victory for the Howard Government's hardline stance on immigration, forged by former immigration minister Philip Ruddock, who introduced temporary protection visas and the Pacific solution for boat arrivals, and for the mandatory detention system introduced by the Keating Labor government in 1992. Labor immigration spokesman Stephen Smith promised yesterday to remove children from detention if his party won power in tomorrow's election, with the Australian Democrats and Greens vowing to back the necessary legislation.
Court backs detention of children
Justice Michael Kirby said the suggestion there had been some oversight or failure of Parliament to consider the immigration detention of children was fanciful. "Detention is the deliberate policy of the Australian Parliament, repeatedly confirmed," he said. "In default of a constitutional basis for invalidating it, it is the duty of this court to give effect to the act, whatever views might be urged about the wisdom, humanity and justice of that policy." The decision led to calls from refugee advocates for a bill of rights and to enshrine international conventions in law.
Children need Bill of Rights, says top jurist
THE treatment of refugee children in Australian detention centres, the abuse of children in the care of state authorities and a society approving of children's physical punishment underlines the need for a Bill of Rights, according to the former chief justice of the Family Court. [...] Criticising both current and past Liberal and Labor governments, Mr Nicholson said the recent Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission report on detained children was a "devastating indictment of successive Australian governments and their treatment of children in detention".
High Court proves we need a change of government: Greens
“There are current 86 children in detention, in breach of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. But the High Court’s hands are tied.” “The only way to get those kids out of detention is to change the Migration Act. To do that we need to change the government.”
Child detention is legal: High Court
In an unanimous decision, the High Court held it was within the power of the Commonwealth to legislate for the detention of children as well as adults. It said the Migration Act did not distinguish between unlawful non-citizens who were above and below the age of 18 years. The court also rejected a claim the Migration Act was invalid because children lacked the capacity to request their removal from Australia.
Law sanctioning child abuse must change: Democrats
The Australian Democrats today vowed to work to introduce laws making it illegal for children to be held in immigration detention. The promise followed a High Court ruling today that it was legal to lock children in immigration detention. [...] "The system of detaining children is child abuse and there is no excuse for child abuse. "This is another reason why we need federal child protection laws to give children some protection against severe breaches of their rights contained in laws such as the Migration Act." [Democrats leader, Andrew Bartlett]
High Court: Legal to hold children in detention
[T]he court, in a unanimous decision, has found the government has the right to make such laws and the children were lawfully detained under the Migration Act. The court acknowledged, though, that Australia may be violating international conventions. It is the second time the High Court has dismissed a challenge to the detention of children.
Afghan children lose High Court battle against detention
Mr Vadarlis says he does not believe Australians would approve laws that allow the mandatory detention of all children. "Under this decision, they'll be there until either they're released on a visa which in most cases is unlikely or returned to their country, and they can't go back because there is so much trouble happening back home, or until they die," he said.
Amanda Vanstone: pragmatic or compassionate?
It has been a remarkable 12 months, with 417 visa applications being dispensed from the minister's office. But does all this make Amanda Vanstone a more compassionate, a more reasonable person than Philip Ruddock, indeed a subverter of the Howard hardline on refugees? The short answer is no. Nothing in what she has done subverts the policy, or even significantly changes it. She has simply adjusted its implementation to match the changing political environment.
Couple take out ad to raise issue
When Ben Lochtenberg arrived in Bunbury on a cattle boat from Indonesia on his 11th birthday, the local community warmly welcomed him and the other 500 boat people. [...] Six decades on, Australia's policy of keeping child refugees in detention centres has disgusted Mr Lochtenberg, the former chairman of chemical company Orica, and his wife Margaret, prompting them to take out a full-page advertisement in today's Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
Detainees on election hunger strike
Up to 200 detainees at Sydney's Villawood immigration detention centre have launched a four-day hunger strike to ensure they are not forgotten in the election lead-up, a refugee action group said today. [...] The group's members would not eat again until Saturday's federal election, but would sit together, many through the night, in a show of solidarity.
Will refugees unseat the love rat?
The strong turnout at the recent Parramatta candidates' forum on refugee issues showed community concern about current policies on asylum seekers. Anthony Meggitt, Chairman of the Parramatta Refugee Action Group, believes that the refugee issue may be a decisive factor in the marginal seat of Parramatta this election: 'It is a very strong refugee oriented area. Lots of people, from a whole host of different countries, work and live in Parramatta. I think that makes a huge impact.'
PM's poll pitch: Labor will minimise choice
[John Howard interviewed by Peter Hartcher]
On asylum seekers
Are you disappointed that there are still 56 children in detention?
Look, I would like to see all children out of detention but not at the price of weakening the policy and sending the wrong signal to prospective future illegal immigrants.
There are still 16 kids on Nauru and 11 on Christmas Island.
Yes. Well, that is not easily solved because of the complexity of the return arrangements. There's only one child of a boat person in detention on the mainland. But the overwhelming message that comes out of all of that is that our policy worked. The boats have stopped coming. The Pacific solution has been very successful despite what people think.
Are you expecting any solution to the remaining children any time soon?
We're working it and we'd like to, yes. We don't enjoy having children in detention. Nobody does. But we enjoy even less the policy that allowed for Australia as an open target. This couldn't have gone on.
The issue politicians hope will just go away
While there may be too few who care about decent treatment of refugees to cause a big swing in Saturday's election, there are seats where the candidates are being forced to take a lot of notice -- especially as AJA is running ads in local papers urging people to "vote for a country we can be proud of again".
Lib MP contradicts refugee policy
A senior Liberal MP today contradicted the Coalition government's tough stance on asylum seekers, declaring children and their families should be removed from immigration detention. Trish Worth, the parliamentary secretary for health, also believes all asylum seekers should be released from detention after 90 days following health and safety checks.
Showbiz hits centre stage 'to end the lies'
A giant rubber rat dubbed the "Lying Rodent" loomed over a large and noisy crowd in Sydney yesterday – a crowd that ignored the rugby league grand final and the beach to voice its opposition to John Howard and his policies. The End the Lies march and rally, which organisers estimated attracted about 9000 people, was one of the last opportunities for musicians and artists to speak out against the Coalition before the election. [...] Among the crowd were representatives of 75 organisations and individuals, including three survivors of the Siev X children overboard tragedy, in which 353 people died. They had come to give a human face to the disaster, said Kayser Trad, a director of the Lebanese Muslim Association.
Thousands attend 'Lies' rally in Sydney
Police estimates put crowd numbers at the End the Lies Sydney rally, which marched from Town Hall to Belmore Park, at about 6,000. Protesters represented a broad range of political agendas and came from an even wider range of political and social organisations.
Similar rallies took place in capital cities and regional centres across the country ahead of next Saturday's federal election.
Thousands march against Howard
Thousands of people from a variety of community and political groups took to the streets today as part of a nationwide 'End the Lies' campaign to oust the Howard government.
A cage fight
CHILDREN'S author Paul Jennings said watching the distress his grandson showed, seeing him locked in a cage, drilled home the seriousness of conditions for asylum seekers in Australia. Mr Jennings was among those who spent time enclosed in a cage on Warrnambool's Civic Green on Saturday to raise awareness of issues surrounding refugees in detention.
Church head attacks morals
In what many will see as an intervention in the last week of the election campaign, church head Peter Carnley made a scathing attack on the "so-called war against terrorism" and the Government's treatment of asylum seekers.
Artists call for truth in government
People in the arts strove to "bring to the world, images and entertainment that reflect the integrity of the Australian community", the letter said. But the "deceitful behaviour" of the Government, its commitment to an illegal war, misinformation about the behaviour of asylum seekers, and its "disgraceful imprisonment of children" had all "greatly besmirched Australia's international image".
Thousands turn out to protest against detention
Organiser Tim Petterson, from the Refugee Action Committee, estimated the crowd, which spread from the steps of the State Library across Swanston Street for one block, at between 5000 and 10,000 people - while police estimated 1000 to 2000 people attended. "We're really pleased and think it's a fantastic turnout," he said. "There is a real sense of a hope in being able to change Australia's unjust refugee policies. This rally sends the message to all the political parties in Australia that we are unhappy with our treatment of refugees and there is a real need for them to lift their game." Demonstrators held banners that read "Tampa Lies Stole the Last Election" and "We want a Prime Minister who won't Tampa with the truth".
What our leaders are not saying
Refugees -- along with the Labor talismans of Aboriginal reconciliation and the republic -- were also not touched upon in Latham's Labor launch. The Coalition, apart from one half-hearted press conference, has hardly raised the issue of border protection. Yet at the 2001 election Howard's declaration that he would decide who stepped on to Australian soil was central to his campaign launch. Similarly, neither side really wants to talk about asylum-seekers. Howard seemed to turn the last round of allegations -- that he was told before the last election that claims about children being thrown into the water were false -- into a positive by declaring he "stopped the boats". Labor, which has virtually an identical policy on refugees in most of the important areas, has not pursued the first of the three R's during this election. Latham's ALP conference address in January showed where he stood on asylum-seekers and Labor's Left agenda was stranded.
Doubt over deportee claims
"I am advised the Edmund Rice Centre would not co-operate with the department in relation to the preliminary report. That does make further inquiries extremely difficult," Senator Vanstone said. However, the centre's director, Phil Glendenning, said: "It's not true and it's silly. We have co-operated fully." Department officials had been fully briefed and shown supporting documents in Geneva and Sydney. The Australian Democrats leader, Andrew Bartlett, said: "I don't know how the Government can dismiss it when they haven't done the research themselves."
Hazara leader runs for Qld Senate
An Afghani leader in Australia aims to attract the Islamic vote when he stands for the Senate in Queensland as an independent in the upcoming election. Hassan Ghulam, who migrated to Australia 19 years ago and now lives outside Brisbane, has become a vocal critic of the government's policies on immigration and detention. His role as a refugee advocate evolved gradually after he became known as a spokesman for Afghani people through his role as the president of the Hazara Ethnic Society of Australia, a persecuted ethnic minority in Afghanistan. His reputation soon spread to other refugee communities and detainees on the island of Nauru, who still contact him every couple of days seeking his help.
Refugees and elections
Anybody expecting the Labor Party today to pursue a small target strategy (with regard to refugee issues) during the election campaign and then, if elected, close the detention centres, give permanent residence to all TPV holders, declare an amnesty for illegals, triple Australia’s refugee intake, and substantially increase its contribution to the UNHCR ought to have a good look at the policies of previous Labor governments.
Candidates ranked on refugee policy
An advocacy group has produced rankings of candidates' stances on refugee policy which could play a pivotal role in tight marginal seats on October 9. A candidate survey by The Justice Project group will be used to develop how to vote cards - which could prove to be crucial in some seats where the issue is dominant. Justice Project spokesman and prominent lawyer Julian Burnside, QC, said the rankings were expected to have a considerable impact.
MP contradicts refugee policy
Federal Labor backbencher Anna Burke has contradicted her party's policies on refugees, saying that asylum-seekers should be released from immigration detention after health checks. Breaking from Labor's policy of mandatory detention, Ms Burke, who holds the marginal Victorian seat of Chisholm, also said that asylum-seekers should be entitled to work in the community and to receive Medicare, while awaiting the outcome of their claim for refugee status. Ms Burke's surprising statements were contained in answers to a survey of 35 federal electorates, including 27 marginal seats, by refugee advocacy group The Justice Project led by prominent Melbourne barrister Julian Burnside QC.
View candidate rankings from The Justice Project...
The shape of the argument
How could there be so little interest in the evidence presented to the Certain Maritime Incident enquiry? So little curiosity about what happened to the sailors and asylum seekers caught up in the naval blockade of the boats? How so little protest from the media - virtually none - at finding itself banned from Operation Relex and from Australia’s gulag on Nauru? So little curiosity to examine why, after going to such extreme lengths to keep these Afghan and Iraqi refugees out of the country, Australia was forced in mid-2003 to begin bringing them ashore? I can tell you the answer there. It’s because the rest of the world -apart from New Zealand - told Australia to fuck off. It’s a big story with a humiliating payout for the Howard government. It’s barely rated a mention in the media.
Save child detainees: former judge
Modest amendments to the fortress-like Migration Act could give children in detention the urgent access to welfare agencies they need while retaining the Howard Government's commitment to mandatory detention, a former Family Court judge said yesterday. A sometimes emotional Richard Chisholm, who resigned from the Family Court in June to re-enter academia, said the subject of children in detention was so deeply distressing that "it seems extraordinary to me that I should have to be making these proposals".
Why are the children still locked up?
Soon after I began visiting the Maribyrnong detention centre in 2001, I took in my son, who was then seven years old, and introduced him to children his age and younger, including some who had been born in detention. My son was uneasy at first. The detention centres are prisons. We had to enter through a series of locked doors. However, he befriended some of the children and became a regular visitor. Whenever we left the prison and stepped out into the fresh night air, my son would ask the simple questions we should all be asking our Prime Minister as he travels the campaign circuit. Why are the children in there? Why are they locked up? He could not understand it. Neither can I. This is why I will not be supporting the re-election of the Howard Government. [Arnold Zable, writer and spokesman on refugee issues for Melbourne International PEN.]
Refugees sent back to danger: claim
In their push to get rid of detainees, authorities "often took a reckless" view of the dangers they faced once deported, the report, by researchers from the Edmund Rice Centre and the Australian Catholic University, said. "Some were locked up and badly treated immediately on arrival in countries from which they had fled for various political and religious reasons," the report, Danger to Danger, said.
Deported to Danger
Researchers from the Edmund Rice Centre the ACU have interviewed 40 rejected asylum seekers in 11 countries. Of the 40, the report found that only 5 were safe after being deported from Australia. In addition to the 40, another 10 were found to be in so much danger that it was not safe to interview them. “We were deeply shocked by the stories of these people. It is clear from this study that Australia has been putting people into situations where their lives are at risk once they have been removed from the country. This represents refoulement and is contrary to international law’, said Edmund Rice Centre Director Phil Glendenning. The report also found that the risks to deportees were increased by Australia engaging the services of private security companies, giving information and documents to authorities overseas, and paying overseas government officials to accept deportees, inviting the accusation of corruption. “What we have found here will shame most Australians who subscribe to the values of respect for the rule of law and the sense of a fair go. We call upon a re-elected Howard Government or a newly elected Latham Government to change this policy and ensure that Australia meets our international obligations and return the policy to one where the safety of people is not neglected”, Mr Glendenning concluded.
Home is where the hurt is
Matthew's first political mistake was to be born into war-torn Angola as a member of the Bakongo tribe whose members' lives are made doubly dangerous through ethnic discrimination. His second was to join the Youth Party that opposed the ruling regime during the African nation's long civil war, leading to his persecution when he refused to act as a government spy. His third error was to think that Australia would give him asylum. Instead, he was bustled straight from the airport to immigration detention for 3 years. When he was thrown into jail for participating in a protest, he was raped twice. But these horrors are just a prelude to his story as told in a new report Deported to Danger?, which has traced the fate of 40 rejected asylum seekers Australia sent packing - often back to the countries from which they originally fled in fear of their lives.
Report slams Govt treatment of rejected asylum seekers
The ABC's Lateline obtained a copy of the document, compiled by the Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education, which says the Howard Government has allowed political agendas to dictate its refugee policy, rather than the rule of law.
The report says 35 out of 40 deportees interviewed are now living in danger, and another 10 are in so much danger it was not safe to interview them. Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone says she will look at the report's findings, but stressed it seems similar to an interim report by the same organisation, which she has already dismissed.
Home is where the hurt is
Matthew's first political mistake was to be born into war-torn Angola as a member of the Bakongo tribe whose members' lives are made doubly dangerous through ethnic discrimination. His second was to join the Youth Party that opposed the ruling regime during the African nation's long civil war, leading to his persecution when he refused to act as a government spy. His third error was to think that Australia would give him asylum. Instead, he was bustled straight from the airport to immigration detention for 3 years. When he was thrown into jail for participating in a protest, he was raped twice. But these horrors are just a prelude to his story as told in a new report Deported to Danger?, which has traced the fate of 40 rejected asylum seekers Australia sent packing - often back to the countries from which they originally fled in fear of their lives.
Meet the women who have John Howard worried
[T]he anger of these women is incandescent and their outrage overflowing. What riles them are failures of compassion, honesty and morality - they see these as traditional Liberal values and they believe they have been abandoned. [...] If anyone exemplifies the incongruities that sometimes emerge in modern politics it is Ms Swansson, the former Liberal staffer who is preparing to vote Green but is also an avowed monarchist. Her message for the PM? "You are dishonest, morally corrupt and you will do anything to remain in power. I want you to know that I know that."
Out of detention into their own hell
Heavily sedated, Parvis Yousefi stays in his bedroom all day, every day.
After three years and two months in South Australian immigration detention
centres, he has now created his own prison in a rented flat in suburban
Adelaide. He takes a mix of drugs to cope with his constant fear and confusion:
5mg a day of the anti-psychotic Olanzapine; 20mg of the anti-obsessional
Fluoxetine; and up to three tablets daily of the tranquiliser Diazepam. At
4.30pm, his 13-year-old son, Manucheher, will return home from school. Like his
father, he takes an anti-psychotic. As the child's mother, Mehrnoosh, explains,
the prescription Neulactil is more suitable for children. In the words of their
former GP, Simon Lockwood, this family were "broken" during their
lengthy stay in the desert immigration detention centres of South
Australia.
See also The
damage detention has done.
Academics join call for honesty in government
A group of academics from almost every public university in Australia today joined the chorus of professionals calling for truth in government. Previously, 43 retired defence chiefs and senior diplomats and 54 doctors and medical specialists have issued statements criticising Australia's role in the war in Iraq and calling for greater honesty. Today, about 380 academics, including 160 professors, urged the Prime Minister, John Howard, and the Opposition Leader, Mark Latham, to restore the nation's reputation as an honest broker.
Inside Baxter
An Age investigation into conditions at the purpose-built two-year-old Baxter Immigration Detention Facility has found that despite greatly improved amenities, it faces many of the serious problems that plagued Woomera and led to its closure. They mostly stem from aggressive, disruptive, self-harming behaviour by depressed and isolated detainees who cannot cope with the mental stress of indefinite long-term detention.
The third man
As for the issue that provoked the most heated debate over the past three years, the Government's treatment of asylum seekers, Costello is an unapologetic defender of the Government's record. "Our policy is now giving priority to those people assessed on the basis of need and I think this is far more humane than letting people select themselves," he says. "My feeling is what we did, we had to do. I think it was successful. I wish the legal process had been quicker. I wish that we'd been able to get, by now, and we nearly have, all the children out of detention. And I wish that we could have run an orderly refugee program for really needy people."
Transcript of interview on TOP FM with Hon Alexander Downer, MP
MINISTER DOWNER: [...]I think we’ve been incredibly tough on illegal immigration, and by the way, some of your listeners will, may
think well you have been, but you’ve been a bit inhumane, and I’d like to just say something
about that.
COMPERE: I tend to think that we’ve been a bit tough. I think with kids, I think with
women, I, most, 93% of them end up being released on a visa …
MINISTER DOWNER: Yeah, well there are two things to say about that. First, if we
blink and give an opening to the people smugglers, if the people smugglers are able to say
Australia’s gone soft on this issue, we can start business flowing again, we’re gonna have
people crammed in, paying money, and being crammed into little and dangerous boats – like
SIEV X, which sank with 350 lost souls – we’re going to encourage those sorts of hazardous
and dangerous journeys. Let’s send a strong message. Secondly, we’ve, with the detention
centres, I know a lot of people think this is tough, but these people who are not found to be
refugees, do not have to stay in detention centres. They are perfectly welcome to go home.
But they choose to stay rather than go home.
Voters-overboard risk for three Libs
Private party polling on both sides has detected a mood shift on the debate that defined the 2001 federal election. While only three Liberal seats are seen to be directly at risk -- Wentworth, Deakin and Adelaide -- Government ministers in safe seats have been comparing notes on the rumblings from formerly rusted-on supporters.
'Doctors' wives' to cut loose
"In our own way, we're conservative types but we're incensed," said Ms Chaikin, who is planning to vote for Labor and the Greens, in protest against the Coalition's treatment of asylum-seekers, the children overboard affair, the Iraq war and the environment.
Evocative message of despair through a lens
"The film is not about politics, it is about moral issues... it's about what a leader should be... it's about human beings and humanism. If we only talk in terms of economic rationalism or how much you can earn and whether this government is going to benefit you, then I think we are heading in a very destructive direction, because at some stage . . . all of this will come back to you and haunt you." [Clara Law, Film maker, Letters to Ali]
Australia asks PNG to keep Manus immigration detention centre running
The Manus Centre has been vacant since May this year when its last resident Aladdin Sisalem was granted a visa to live in Australia. The centre can house up to one thousand asylum seekers, and remains on one week operational standby. An agreement for the centre's operation is due to expire late next month, and while PNG has indicated it wants the centre to close, it's understood Australian officials have sought a further two years extension, to allow a new facility on Christmas Island to be completed.
Life beyond rent-a-crowd
I used to wonder why Australians are such a greedy, hypocritical bunch. How could we turn away refugees when there is one square kilometre of this stolen country for each person that lives here? But on that hot day at Villawood I realized that it is not greed that allows the Australian government to lock people in the desert and turn back boats. It is absolute fear of change. I will admire the first Australian prime minister who has the guts to confront the issue of Australia's reception of refugees head on. Who acknowledges the grey areas and works to placate the deeply-rooted fears of most - if not all - white Australians, while at the same time employing a humane, generous and discriminating (not discriminatory) immigration policy. Because I know that for all my opinions and good intentions, I couldn't handle that job. [Marni Cordell]
Witnesses say detainees forcibly moved to Baxter
Detainees at the Maribyrnong detention centre say that people are being forcibly removed to Baxter at short notice without a chance to call family or lawyers. They described the process, which sparked a protest by detainees over the weekend, as "inhumane" and "unfair". Detainees who spoke to The Age yesterday from Maribyrnong said four people were given less than an hour to pack for their transfer to the Baxter detention centre in South Australia on Friday. In one case, a middle-aged Vietnamese man was not allowed time to contact his son and daughter, who live in Melbourne.
Life finally deals Mandaean refugees a good hand
Najieh lost hope of a new life in Australia, of joining her sister, Jila, and 13 nephews and nieces in Sydney. Deportation seemed unavoidable. Like so many detainees, she became depressed, her blood pressure rose, and she became increasingly disoriented and had difficulty remembering. Last month Najieh and Jafar Ascher Sobbi were released from the Baxter detention centre following a high level review ordered by Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone into the plight of Sabian Mandaeans. They are the last of 160 Mandaean men, women and children to be released from detention after their claims of religious persecution in Iran were finally recognised.
Experts set to criticise Aust over children's policies
The way governments treat children is one of the key topics being discussed in Brisbane at the 15th world congress on child abuse and neglect.[...] According to conference organisers, Australia will be criticised for Indigenous policies, children in detention centres and for participating in wars which impact on the young.
Time runs out for asylum seekers
A hunger strike, a High Court action and a direct appeal to Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone are among last-ditch efforts to stop the forced return of asylum seekers to Sri Lanka.
Baxter protest reaches day four
A protest by a group of Sri Lankan asylum seekers at South Australia's Baxter detention centre has ended its fourth day with no sign of resolution. Of the 16 Sri Lankan men at the centre, 11 of them have been holding a peaceful protest in a bid to get Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone to review their cases in light of the deteriorating situation in their home country.
Refuge Australia
Klaus Neumann has drawn many similar stories from the Australian Archives to illustrate his Refuge Australia: Australia's Humanitarian Record. This little, ironically titled book is the first overview of Australian refugee policy and practice from Federation to 1973 and in it Neumann explores the historical origins of current Howard Government asylum and refugee policies with the aim of debunking four ruling assumptions that have surfaced during the current debate: that Australia has traditionally accepted more than its fair share of the world's refugees; that the Indochinese arrivals in 1976 were the first onshore asylum seekers; that governments have always supported international legal instruments to protect and succour refugees; and that the Howard Government pioneered forcible repatriation of refugees and the granting of temporary protection visas.
Detainees readied for deportation
Afghan asylum-seekers on Nauru fear they will be forced to return to the strife-torn country after immigration officers travelled to the Pacific island this week to convince the detainees to leave. [...] Afghans were being "asked to consider their options" but the department would not specify what officers said in the interviews.
Return to sender
A final image in Melbourne filmmaker Clara Law's first feature documentary is a sunset. The pink-edged clouds look like a dragon bringing her babies home. In that single shot, Law encapsulates the story of Letters to Ali. The dragon in this film is Dr Trish Kerbi, a determined, fiery Victorian mother of four. In 2002 she started corresponding with a 15-year-old refugee locked up in Port Hedland detention centre. Kerbi encouraged her children to also write to the boy, whose family is missing, presumed dead. Kerbi's family, including her husband Rob Silberstein, visited the refugee they call "Ali". Slowly, he became a surrogate son.
Les enfants réfugiés divisent l’île continent
Les initiatives citoyennes de " ceux qui disent non " se multiplient depuis 2001 en Australie. Symbole le plus affirmé d’une rouspétance gagnant en crédibilité, l’association ChilOut, groupe de volontaires, " des citoyens australiens normaux ", comme nous décrit sa coordinatrice Alanna Sherry, opposés à la détention des mineurs. "
Reality rebel with a cause
Since 24 year old Merlin Luck made his 'free the refugees' protest on reality tv show Big Brother in June, he has travelled the country addressing diverse audiences and speaking on panels with human rights lawyers and politicians. In scores of media interviews he has sought to increase the public's awareness of Australia's policy of mandatory detention.
Sri Lankan Asylum Seekers Plead for Compassion
Sixteen Sri Lankan asylum seekers marked the third anniversary of their controversial arrival in Australia's migration zone with a heartfelt plea to Minister for Immigration, Amanda Vanstone, in Baxter Detention Centre, South Australia, today. They are asking the Minister to reassess their cases for asylum in light of the rapidly deteriorating situation in their country.
At last, magic for Aladdin
"Yes, I start to be involved within the normal life. I start to think like most people, how to build my life, how to survive, things like that. I start to feel that I am a member of some community or something. I start to believe that I am here." [Aladdin Sisalem].
What the pollsters say
[T]he quarterly survey we do for the JOBfutures organisation showed that as long ago as last September, 61 per cent of the Australian workforce had come to the view that asylum seekers posed no threat to the security of Australia. Successive JOBfutures surveys have also shown a clear trend over the past year towards a more tolerant view of asylum seekers among people in the Australian workforce.
Detainee pleads for a fair go
THE detention of one Kashmiri asylum-seeker for the past six years is estimated to have cost nearly $400,000. [...] The 30-year-old has been refused refugee status and, as India has refused to recognise his nationality, he is effectively "stateless". A recent High Court ruling found unsuccessful asylum-seekers can be held in detention until they are returned home, irrespective of how long this takes.
3 months and children still in detention
3 months after the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity called on the Australian government to release all children and their parents from detention, 108 children reamin in detention, 81 of which are in secure facilities in Australia and on Nauru. Hundreds of people came to Sydney's Pitt St Mall to mark the occassion.
September 10, 2004 - Who cares? We do!
Standing in Pitt Street Mall you'd be excused for confusing us with David Jones' employees. Dressed in black, we 20 or so volunteers from ChilOut mark the three-month passing of a deadline to release children from detention.
Born in Australia, but child's wish to stay denied
A five-year-old girl born in Australia could not stay here because her Indian parents had failed to win residency, the High Court ruled yesterday. The court said under the Citizenship Act, Tania Singh could only be treated as an Australian if at least one parent was a citizen or a permanent or long-term resident. The 5-2 decision is also bad news for the Bakhtiari family, whose case has been a focal point for refugee activists. Justice Michael Kirby said "the same result must follow" for Mazhar Bakhtiari, born last October. His father, Ali, remains in Baxter Detention Centre.
Children born in Australia 'can be deported'
Tania's lawyers argued that despite her lack of Australian citizenship, her birth in Australia necessarily meant she was not an alien, and treating her as such was beyond Parliament's scope. Lawyers for both children hoped that if their challenge succeeded, it would prevent them and their families from being removed. [...] Constitutional expert Mary Crock said the decision, along with a recent judgement on stateless asylum seekers, marked the "death of implied rights" in the constitution under the High Court's present make-up. "They are very literalist in their approach," she said.
Six-year-old Indian girl loses case against Australia
In 2003, Malkiat Singh, sought a High Court declaration that because Tania was born in Australia, the Migration Acts power to remove unlawful non-citizens did not apply to her. However, the Court said that Parliament does have the power to treat someone like Tania, born in Australia, as a non-citizen. Australia is one of the few countries, where citizenship is not granted by birth. The verdict in the Singh v/s Commonwealth of Australia case will have a far reaching impact on migrants born in Australia.
Citizenship is no birthright
Citizenship is only available to a person born here if at least one parent is an Australian citizen or a permanent or long-term resident. The key issue for the court was whether Section 51 of the Constitution, which gives Parliament power to make laws on naturalisation and aliens, empowered it to legislate for the removal of someone in Tania's position.
Australia's six years of shame
Senator for South Australia Natasha Stott Despoja has written to the Prime Minister urging him to demonstrate compassion in relation to Mr Qasim's case and grant him a visa as a matter of urgency.
No crime but life imprisonment
Australia has refused their requests for asylum but the countries of their births will not take them back. Up to 80 other countries have also refused their pleas for a home.
Protests over indefinite detention
A High Court ruling found it was lawful for "stateless" people, such as Mr Qasim, to be held in detention indefinitely. "My mistake was asking for help from a country that didn't want me," Mr Qasim said. "I have asked 80 countries to give me a home, but all have refused."
Six years a detainee, man still after home
Mr Qasim, Australia's longest-serving detainee, continues to be locked up in the Baxter detention centre in South Australia because Australia can find no country to take him. He said the worst thing was the uncertainty. "Even a criminal knows the length of his sentence but I have no such comfort," he said.
A man with no past, no future, no hope
Figures from the Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and ALP immigration spokesman Stephen Smith reveal Australian taxpayers have paid $612,066 to keep Mr Qasim locked up. [...] His last bid for freedom in Australia failed on August 31 when Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone refused to exercise her discretionary power to release him. He will now be held at Baxter detention centre indefinitely – a ruling that has left Mr Qasim despairing for his life.
Sign the Peter Qasim petition...
One of two asylum seekers camps on Nauru closes
One of the two asylum seeker processing camps on Nauru will be mothballed following the departure later today of 22 inmates who have been accepted as refugees by New Zealand.
The camps were set up on Nauru as part of Australia's Pacific Solution program. Sean Dorney reports that the camp known as Top-side will be closed and all 82 remaining asylum seekers will be housed in the remaining camp known as State House.
Last 21 Afghan refugees accepted
Refugee Muhammad Ali Amiri said in an email from Nauru yesterday that he was looking forward to being free of the Nauruan camp. The camp had been his home for three years, almost to the day. "On the 19th of this month, it will be three years that we are in Nauru," he wrote.
"We are ready to go to New Zealand tomorrow . . . it is great we become free from Nauru."
Immigration Minister Paul Swain said New Zealand agreed to take the 21 single male Afghans and one Bangladeshi man after a request from the United Nations high commissioner for refugees.
Playing a different race card
Immigration is an election issue, but there is evidence that Australians are growing more tolerant of refugees.
Fewer on move from world trouble spots
Australia is experiencing a fall in applications for asylum under what the United Nations describes as a sharp drop worldwide in asylum claims. [...] In Australia, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States, the average numbers of monthly asylum claims were the lowest since 1990.
PM targeted over human rights "blot"
The Howard Government had "put a blot" on Australia's record for being fair and generous, Amnesty International secretary-general Irene Khan said in Adelaide last night.
French fury over detainee's death
France has slammed Australia over its treatment of asylum-seekers following allegations a 74-year-old French citizen detained in Sydney's Villawood detention centre was denied medical treatment and later died of a brain haemorrhage.
Howard and Latham test what suits by political cross-dressing
Those [in Liberal Sydney city seats] planning to desert the Liberals say they are not happy with Howard, citing the environment, truth in government and asylum seekers, especially the detention of children.
No crime but life imprisonment
Peter Qasim and Eidriess Abdulrahman Al Salih are two of 13 stateless asylum seekers who face indefinite detention in Australia. They are currently in Baxter Detention Centre. Australia has refused their requests for asylum but the countries of their births will not take them back. Up to 80 other countries have also refused their pleas for a home. [...]'What is my crime?' asks Peter Qasim. 'I asked for asylum after my father was killed and I was tortured by the security forces in Kashmir. It was a mistake to ask people who didn't want me, but I have already been punished for my ignorance longer than some murderers and my sentence has no end. Please give me freedom, send me anywhere. You can't ask a human being to live the rest of his life locked up.'
Please call me Michael
"The first thing I said is, 'I hope you're quiet'," says the 85-year-old widow. Michael, or Usama, as some of his friends call him, remembers the exchange just a little differently. "I think you said, 'you're not bloody noisy are you?'," he says. They laugh together at this. "I said 'we're all very quiet people here and that's the way we want it'," says Sylvia. Since then, Usama, 33, and Sylvia have found an enduring friendship.
Refugees and bleeding hearts, wedging back
Rural electorates played a key role in the federal government’s recent decision to allow refugees on temporary visas to apply for mainstream migration visas.
Sanctuary Australia: a lost dream?
In the end the Howard Government could not sustain a policy that lacked the compassion and decency that Australians expect to be extended to people in trouble, no matter from where they originate or under what circumstances they arrive. The uncertainty implicit in sending people back to countries such as Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq could not be justified. The question remains, however, of what damage has been done to those people and at what cost to Australia's reputation as a place of refuge from tyranny?
Somehow, we need to make politics cool again
You can have a good time with your mates and still care about the suffering of others, writes Merlin Luck.
Stateless detainees get bridging visas in review
Two stateless men who faced indefinite detention because of a High Court ruling have been granted bridging visas by the Federal Government. They were among nine stateless asylum seekers given the visas after a review of 24 cases by Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone. The review followed a High Court ruling that failed asylum seekers who could not be removed to another country, despite their wish to leave Australia, could be held in immigration detention indefinitely.
See also: Al-Masri Decisions, Media Release, Sen. Amanda Vanstone, Minister for Immigration, 31 August 2004.
Reassessment of Afghani Nationals in Mainland Detention
Minister for Immigration, Senator Amanda Vanstone, today announced the reassessment of asylum seeker claims of Afghani nationals in Australian mainland immigration detention had been completed. 'I announced in July that my Department would reassess asylum seeker claims by Afghani nationals in mainland detention,' the Minister said.
'This followed updated country information being provided to the department by the UNHCR. 'Of the 85 people reassessed, I have decided to allow 57 to lodge new applications for temporary protection.
MP hounded for refugee quarantine analogy
Called on to justify the government's policy of mandatory detention, the parliamentary secretary told the crowd that she hated the thought of anyone being held in detention.
But she said there were "some very practical reasons" for that. "I mean, if you bring a dog into this country or a cat from some countries ...." she said, before being drowned out by a rumble of interjections from the audience.
Quarantine remark 'poor choice': Worth
"It was a poor choice of words," told AAP. "But people who know my stance on refugees, and the work that I have done for refugees in the community, would know that I would never ever make such a comparison." Ms Worth accused her political opponents of dirty campaigning. "I totally reject attempts by my political opponents to misrepresent my position on the treatment of refugees," she said.
Bartlett calls for 'children overboard' eyewitness
"Given that there has not even been an apology forthcoming for these refugees who were seriously defamed by the Prime Minister and senior Ministers, the least they deserve is an opportunity to have their say before the Senate Committee that has spent so much time investigating the matter." [...] "Labor says they will release children in detention- but they will be in mini-detention centres, so-called 'residential housing projects'. These projects are surrounded by fences, cameras and guards – therefore children are still in detention."
Headmaster optimistic over Bakhtiyari claims re-examination
The head of the Adelaide school attended by two boys of the celebrated Bakhtiyari asylum seeker family has expressed optimism that fresh attempts to prove they really are from Afghanistan, not Pakistan, will vindicate the family and lead to a more humane attitude on the part of the Australian Government.
Campaigning over DIMIA broken promises begins
Refugee advocates around Australia, including renowned Canberra-based migration agent Marion Le OAM, are furious about what looks like deliberate stalling of refugee assessment outcomes for Afghanis in the Baxter detention centre by the Department of Immigration, DIMIA.
Police alert sparks boatpeople fear
Indonesian police commissioner Tri Priyo has told The Australian the Australian Federal Police informed his people-trafficking unit earlier this month that Sri Lankan people-smugglers are organising a voyage to Australia.
Lying is not the issue?
Rural Australians for Refugees will make sure that trust is an election issue in all 15 marginal rural and regional seats in NSW, Victoria and Queensland. "Mr Howard may believe that his Government's treatment of asylum seekers in the lead-up to the last election 'is not an issue' for most people, he will find that it is very much an issue for the thousands of rural and regional Australians whose lives have been touched by refugees," RAR national co-ordinator Rob Simpson said yesterday.
Spotlight on detainees less glaring this time
The Government has also been releasing women and children from detention into residential-based detention, in a softening of its border protection policy. [...] Labor would also release all children from immigration detention. It would also release entire families into residential housing, unlike the Government, which only allows mothers and children to live in alternative detention arrangements outside the centres.
Lingering pain of Tampa
Three years ago, Mohammad Asif was plucked from the sea by sailors aboard the Tampa.
On that day, the anniversary for which fell on Thursday, he unwittingly became one of the refugees at the centre of one of the most bitter election campaigns in Australian history.
He spent almost all of those three years in a prison camp in the scorching heat of the tiny central Pacific island of Nauru, as the heated politics played out in Canberra. Now he's working on a building site in suburban Sydney, but the pain is not over. He's desperately hoping that some day he can bring his wife and son from Afghanistan to Australia. "Without family, life is not good," Mr Asif said. "When I go to work I think about my job, but when I go home all I think about is my family. "It is very hard when you have married someone and love her and you have a child to be without them."