27 men detained in Broadmeadows’ Melbourne Immigration Transit Centre (MITA) ended their hunger strike on Wednesday evening. This group of 25 Tamils and two Burmese Rohingyas had gone ten days without…
Four-year-old Ar Zin stared at my bag. He knew there was something special inside.
The classroom full of 30 Burmese refugee children was so hushed that I could each child’s breath, and Ar Zin’s eyes…
With immigration detention recommencing in Nauru, we must monitor the welfare of asylum seekers.
AAP image/Department of Immigration and Citizenship
The Houston Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers was set the task of reducing deaths of asylum seekers following the mounting loss of life on the seas between Indonesia and Australia. But it remained blind to…
Humans as well as animals are affected by climate change. A treaty could keep them safe and reduce forced migration.
AAP
Climate change will lead to significant human displacement. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other groups warn that the effects – including rising sea levels, heavier floods, more…
The new government campaign misses the mark.
Australian government
With 5,459 attempted boat arrivals to Australia in the first half of 2012, an increase of 894 since last year, it is no wonder the prime minister is desperate to demonstrate she is combating people smuggling…
Asylum seekers arrive in Malta after being rescued at sea.
EPA/Justin Gatt
You wouldn’t know it by listening to Question Time, but Australia is not the only country experiencing asylum seekers arriving by boat.
Italy and Malta find themselves on the frontline of policing external…
There is a fairer and more humane way of dealing with asylum seekers.
AAP/Department of Defence
After two weeks of assessing the evidence, discussing policy and reporting on fieldwork, The Conversation’s asylum seeker expert panel has made its findings.
Using information from our research repository…
35 years of refugee journeys, charted on an interactive map.
Welcome to our new infographic, displaying global populations of refugees from 1975-2010, as part of The Conversation’s expert panel on asylum seekers.
Using UNHCR data compiled by the United Nations…
Our panel will consider options to prevent deaths at sea.
AAP/Basarnas
The Conversation has brought together a team of six academic experts to tackle one of the thorniest issues in Australian politics – asylum seeker deaths at sea.
Over the next few weeks, they’ll be examining…
Detention on Nauru is not the answer – and neither is the Malaysian solution.
AAP/Rural Australians for Refugees
Recent debates on asylum seeker problems have revolved around two approaches that are not going to work.
The opposition’s Nauru solution is not going to get people off boats. It is part of the process…
Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre.
DIAC
Welcome to The Conversation’s research repository on asylum seeker issues.
When public debate has ground to a halt over something as serious as lives lost at sea, it’s time to look to what the evidence…
Rohingya asylum seekers from Burma in a temporary shelter at Aceh, Indonesia.
EPA/Hotli Simanjuntak
Last week Australia’s politicians determined to “do something” to stop people risking their lives at sea on asylum boats headed for Australia.
The government wanted a bill from independent MP Rob Oakeshott…
Refugees on boats en route to Australia are seen by many Indonesians as our problem, not theirs.
AAP/Karlis Salna
If the lead stories in the digital and print media are anything to go by, Indonesians have little interest in the recent asylum seeker boat sinkings and the accompanying loss of life. Over the past couple…
Refugees stuck in Malaysia are not a means to an end – their rights as individuals are inviolable.
AAP/Karlis Salna
There’s a knock on the door. It’s late, and it has been a wild and stormy night. You wonder who could possibly be outside in this weather.
Opening the door you find a young man collapsed on your doorstep…
A boat carrying asylum seekers arrives at Christmas Island today.
AAP/Rossbach/Krepp
As I write this, mainstream political parties are locked in a futile battle to determine whose deterrence-based policy will prevail.
Debates like the one we saw yesterday in the House of Representatives…
While politicians debated a bill in Canberra, 150 asylum seekers' lives were at risk.
AAP/Australian Maritime Safety Authority
When asylum seekers die at sea there are too many things we don’t want to talk about.
Following the news of another asylum boat capsizing yesterday, at 2pm the federal Parliament began with a sombre and…
Refugees are created by wars and persecution. People flee their homes because their governments will not, or cannot, protect them from harm and allow them to live in peace.
Under international law, as…
We all know moving is hard. It’s even harder when you don’t want to go. But it can still be a positive decision.
United Nations
Who are the “climate change migrants” we hear about with increasing regularity in the media and in global and regional policy forums? Are they the victims of devastating environmental forces – the result…
Some Australian refugees develop “protracted asylum seeker syndrome”.
Alex E. Proimos
There’s a common misconception within the Australian community that asylum seekers arrive by boat. In fact, most asylum seekers arrive here by aeroplane with valid travel documents and reside in the community…
Refugees can be detained indefinitely if they do not pass security clearance.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Last night, Lateline reported on a five-year-old refugee who faced the prospect of being separated from his father forever. His father had failed an ASIO security assessment, which under current policies…
Falun Gong protestors outside the Chinese consulate in Sydney in 2008.
AAP/Dean Lewins
UPDATE: The Chinese nationals have now elected to stay in Australia, where they will seek asylum.
A group of ten Chinese people fleeing persecution in their home country has presented Australian authorities…
The government’s obligations to immigration detainees are very similar to those of prisoners.
AAP/Dean Lewins
A training manual instructing immigration detention centre guards to use force to incapacitate detainees was leaked this week. It included techniques to kick, punch and target pressure points on detainees…
The AFL is throwing everything is has at Greater Western Sydney.
AAP/Paul Millar
The 2012 AFL debut of the GWS Giants is the culmination of efforts by the powerful, cashed up body that administers Aussie Rules to make inroads into the rugby league-obsessed, poor and predominantly refugee…
How can we stop people putting themselves in peril?
AAP/Josh Jerga
Last weekend, an overcrowded fishing boat sank off the coast of Indonesia with more than 200 asylum seekers on board.
In Australia, the political blame game started soon after with both sides trying to…
Increasing our refugee intake will remove the incentive to get on boats.
AAP/Josh Jerga
Another refugee boat has sunk. Several hundred people have drowned. Why do they keep trying to come? What should our response be?
If you are an optimist with no sense of history, you would be forgiven…
Asylum seekers held in detention centres like Villawood have been protesting that the current system doesn’t work.
AAP/Dean Lewins
With the collapse of offshore processing, and the likely increase in boat arrivals into a politically charged environment, a cross-road may have been reached regarding asylum policy in Australia.
Now…
Shooty Vikadan died in Villawood Detention Centre before the Commonwealth Ombudsman could review his case.
AAP/Torsten Blackwood
The asylum seeker who committed suicide in Villawood detention centre this week should have been interviewed by the Commonwealth Ombudsman to establish whether he should have been released into the community…
Tuvaluans' home and their human rights are threatened by climate change.
AAP
The Pacific Island State of Tuvalu recently reported that it had just days of water supply left for its population of 10,000.
The Government has declared a state of emergency and rationed each household…
Julia Gillard and her Immigration Minister Chris Bowen haven’t had the best of weeks.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The Malaysia Solution isn’t quite dead, but its vital signs are certainly not good. With a steely look in her eye, and barely concealed anger, Julia Gillard blamed Opposition Leader Tony Abbott for “trashing…
Without reform of the Migration Act, the governments plan for processing refugees offshore would be in tatters.
AFP/Saeed Khan
Later today the Australian Government plans to put the Migration Legislation Amendment (Offshore Processing and Other Measures) Bill 2011 to a vote in the House of Representatives. Without it, the government…
The Australian Ambassador is doing everything he can for the Australian boy detained in Bali, but Indonesian children aren’t so lucky.
AFP/Sonny Tumbelaka
This week the nation has been in an uproar over the arrest of a 14 year old Australian boy in Indonesia, accused of buying drugs.
TV news reports discussed the terrible conditions of the prison, where…
Prime Minister Julia Gillard wants Tony Abbott to put up or shut up on offshore processing.
AAP
Prime Minister Julia Gillard today announced the Government would seek to legislate in order to revive the “Malaysian Solution” ruled illegal by the High Court earlier this month.
The plan would see Australia…
We all think we know what a child soldier looks like, but we’d be wrong.
AFP/Georges Gobet
The commander of United Nations peacekeeping forces in Rwanda during the terrible conflict in the early 1990s has put forward legislation in Canada to help former child soldiers seek refuge there.
During…
Julia Gillard inherited a failing government, and made it worse.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The American comedian WC Fields once joked that the best advice in business was “never give a sucker an even break”. Now the High Court has rejected the government’s deal with Malaysia to swap asylum seekers…
Protestors outside the High Court during a previous hearing in Malaysian Solution case.
AAP
The Gillard government’s refugee policy is in disarray after the full bench of the High Court today made permanent injunctions preventing the removal of asylum seekers to Malaysia.
The action was initially…
Australia dispersed refugees who were rescued by the Tampa, and its policies haven’t improved.
AAP/Wallenius Wilhelmsen
The dramatic rescue of more than 400 asylum seekers by the Norwegian vessel, the Tampa, ten years ago set in train a series of events that has since caused immense suffering to so many. It is surely now…
Not a deterrent? This boat arrived on Christmas Island after the “Malaysia solution” deal was finalised.
AAP/Josh Jerga
The government’s controversial “Malaysia solution”, in which Australia “swaps” refugees with Malaysia is being challenged in the High Court this week.
Asylum seekers are being backed by the Australian…
Detention’s extensive harms to children are well documented and extend to all other detainees.
AAP
The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee tabled a report on the Migration Amendment (Detention Reform and Procedural Fairness) Bill 2010 in mid-August, hot on the heels of an announcement…
Campaigners in Sydney protesting against the Malaysian Solution.
AAP
The High Court’s extension of an injunction preventing the deportation of asylum seekers under the so-called Malaysian Solution threatens to present the Gillard Government with a major political problem…
Malaysia’s history with human rights spells disaster for its refugee deal with Australia AAP Image/Karlis Salna.
On Monday, Australia and Malaysia signed a deal that will mean 800 refugees that have arrived in Australia will be swapped with 4,000 verified refugees from Malaysia.
This deal from both Australian and…
Refugees fled the Crusades. This is a detail from St Dominic and the Albigenses by Pedro Berruguete.
Flickr/derechoaleer
Given the often hysterical media coverage of the refugee debate you could be forgiven for thinking that people seeking refuge in other countries is a new phenomenon. Not so. Refugees have been around since…
Australians don’t know enough about Indonesia to judge its farming practices.
AFP/Sonny Tumbelaka
We need to learn more about the countries we are exporting livestock to, or swapping refugees with. Two recent publicly-funded television documentaries have revealed just how little most Australians know…
The AFP is using wrist x-rays to determine whether refugee boat crew members should face a 5-year jail term.
AAP
The current Australian Federal Police practice of using X-rays of the hand/wrist to assess the age of Indonesian crew members of boats bringing refugees to Australia is based on a method developed in the…
Go Back To Where You Came From participants prepare to go on patrol in Baghdad with the US military.
AFP PHOTO/ HO/ 2011 CORDELL JIGSAW/SBS
SBS’ recent three-part series Go Back to Where You Came From is, simply, a manipulative piece of media spin calculated to redress the balance of a media spun too far towards racist insularity.
The intentions…
Participants in “Go back to where you came from” had their attitudes towards refugees challenged.
SBS: Go back to where you came from
Tonight, during World Refugee Week, SBS One premieres Go Back to Where You Came From. Over three nights the series plunges six Australian participants into the intense fear and desperation of the refugee…
Malaysian refugee activist Irene Fernandez protests outside the Australian embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
AAP
The Gillard government’s proposed “Malaysian solution” for dealing with asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat has come under considerable scrutiny.
Under the agreement Australia will send 800…
Australia needs professional migrants to fill skills gaps.
AAP/David Crosling
Australia has been a nation of immigrants since 1788. It has always sought additions to its population to increase its prosperity and economic strength.
But two recent controversies have distracted us…
