Anyone who wants to design a solution to the asylum seeker dilemma needs to start by understanding it’s not the product of a single phenomenon: there are five issues, all connected. To create a workable…
Asylum seeker children who have tried to get to Australia by boat since the PNG agreement was announced will be sent to Manus Island.
“You cannot send children aged under seven to Manus Island because of the issues of inoculation - you can’t do it.” - Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison, press conference, 21 July. Scott Morrison…
People die trying to come to Australia to join our society. Have we lost sight of what we value most?
AAP/Dan Peled
We are never completely contemporaneous with our present. History advances in disguise; it appears on stage wearing the mask of the preceding scene, and we tend to lose the meaning of the play. Each time…
Opposition leader Tony Abbott and immigration spokesman Scott Morrison hope Australian voters prefer their policy.
AAP/Dan Peled
Just when you thought being “tough on borders” couldn’t get any more serious, along comes the Coalition’s Operation Sovereign Borders. It’s got all the right elements of a plan: it’s an operation (with…
Do people smugglers actually have a business model that can be broken?
EPA/Made Nagi
The people smugglers business model is phrase that has entered the Australian political lexicon if only through sheer repetition. It has barely left the lips of prime minister Kevin Rudd or immigration…
Where does the Australian ‘fear’ of asylum seekers arriving by boat come from?
AAP/Scott Fisher
There’s a Latin word: misericordia. It’s usually translated “mercy” or “pity”. Thomas Aquinas took misericordia to be a kind of grief at the suffering of others as if that suffering were our own. Alasdair…
Chris Bowen and Kevin Rudd are facing the challenge of paying for their new policies while minimising political “nasties”.
AAP/Lori Neilsen-Carr
Now Kevin Rudd has ticked off emissions trading and unveiled his PNG solution on boat arrivals, he’s turning his full attention to trying to neutralise the “debt and deficit” issue. In other words, he’s…
The deal between Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill (centre) and Kevin Rudd delivers a a package of much-needed assistance to the poor country.
OIN BLACKWELL/AAP
At first glance, the deal between prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Peter O’Neill transferring all Australian-bound asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea appears to deliver many benefits to that small poor country…
Asylum seekers are often left traumatised by their journey. Will they be able to receive appropriate mental health treatment when processed and resettled in PNG?
EPA/Adrian Elang
It is currently unclear how Australia and Papua New Guinea will ensure a protective and supportive resettlement environment for refugees under the recently announced Regional Resettlement Arrangement (RRA…
“The difficulty for asylum seekers now [to legally challenge the Papua New Guinea asylum seeker deal] is that the Migration Act… provides much broader discretion for the minister.” - Dr Michelle Foster…
Governments face many competing demands when trying to create practical, effective asylum seeker policy.
EPA/Tubagus
Many of us want to believe that there is a just and moral solution to the asylum seekers issue. For two decades arguments based on a variety of interpretations of what justice and morality may involve…
A female Iranian asylum seeker arrives in Australia. What does this image tell us and can we trust our own eyes?
DIAC
The history of Australian asylum seeker policy is studded with iconic if often distressing imagery. In the most recent addition, officials at Christmas Island filmed and photographed a young Iranian woman…
Kevin Rudd’s asylum seeker policy will resettle refugees in PNG. So what will their life actually be like?
AAP/George Curry
Prime minister Kevin Rudd’s plan to resettle asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea is already being compared to John Howard’s hard line on the Tampa, which won Howard the election in 2001. It might be good…
Can Rudd’s asylum seeker policy be considered a ‘success’ if it only speaks to Australian self-interest?
EPA/Tubagus
If prime minister Kevin Rudd’s recent decision to process and then resettle all onshore asylum seekers in PNG is to be considered in any way a “success”, then it raises the question of what constitutes…
“More than 1000 asylum seekers have perished at sea since Labor relaxed its policies in 2008 - a move it now concedes was a mistake.” - The Australian, 18 July. Asylum seekers drowning on their way to…
Kevin Rudd could look to the processes in Europe for a properly regional solution to asylum seekers.
EPA/Adrian Elang
The recently-signed deal between Australia and Papua New Guinea on refugees is being promoted by the Australian government as a “regional settlement arrangement”. But it is really? And how does it compare…
Will Kevin Rudd’s PNG plan be the ‘silver bullet’ to end the people smuggling trade, allegedly practised by the likes of Afghan national Sayed Abbas?
AAP/Karlis Salna
The empirical test of the Australian government’s refugee resettlement agreement with Papua New Guinea will be whether there is a decline in the numbers of small fishing boats overloaded with desperate…
Asylum seekers coming by boat to Australia is on the increase but do they make up 20% of our migration program?
“The numbers have spiked. Twenty per cent of Australia’s immigration program now comes to our shores courtesy of people smugglers… You’re dealing with a very different situation when you’ve got what could…
After years of grappling with asylum seeker policy, Kevin Rudd has announced that boat arrivals without visas will now be resettled in PNG.
AAP/Dan Peled
Most Australians will judge Kevin Rudd’s newly announced plan to deny asylum seekers who arrive by boat the right to settle in Australia to be a success if it leads to a reduction in the number of boat…
Kevin Rudd’s agreement with PNG on asylum seekers binds Australia to Peter O'Neill’s government, rather than being a true regional solution.
AAP/Dan Peled
The precise details of the refugee resettlement deal struck between Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd and his Papua New Guinean counterpart Peter O'Neill are yet to be revealed. But what we do know…