Australia, like all coastal states, is under an absolute obligation to undertake rescue at sea wherever and whenever necessary. It is not, however, immediately apparent that this is the case. A question…
Current immigration policies promote uncertainty, fear and disempowerment, which contribute to mental illness.
AAP
The recent overhaul of Australia’s immigration policies aims to protect the lives of asylum seekers by removing any advantage of arriving by boat. Whether this goal will be achieved remains unclear. But…
The first group to arrive at Manus Island since facilities were reopened flew in on Wednesday.
AAP/Department of Immigration and Citizenship
The latest announcements about boat-people involved heading further down the wrong track: a track marked out by the Howard government for political reasons, and sold to the public using dishonest rhetoric…
Chris Bowen’s new policy on bridging visas takes the Pacific Solution further in the wrong direction.
AAP/Dean Lewins
It is clear enough that the Gillard government’s revived Pacific Solution has not stopped the boats: it has not even slowed them. In 2002, the boats stopped, some months after the Pacific Solution was…
Asylum seekers will now be released into the community with no right to work.
AAP/Department of Immigration and Citizenship
In August 2012, the Report of the Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers created a new myth in the language of asylum seekers and refugees. That was the idea of “the no advantage principle”. It is a variation…
Asylum seekers rest in Nauru accommodation. Many new arrivals will be given bridging visas and processed onshore.
AAP/Department of Immigration
The federal government has announced new visa measures as part of its asylum seeker policy. Bridging visas will be issued to refugees who have been processed onshore, as part of the “no advantage” principle…
Sri Lankan asylum seekers arrive in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Many will attempt the onward journey to Australia.
EPA/Stringer
Until recently most “boat people” seeking asylum in Australia have come from wartime situations or from dictatorships. But this is not the case for the increasing numbers coming from Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka…
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…
The stories of real people are often missing from media reports on asylum seeker detention centres.
AAP
Greater transparency and improved access for the media to interview asylum seekers in detention is required say human rights lawyers, after three separate incidents of self-harm at the Nauru processing…
Tents at Nauru that await asylum seekers as their claims are processed.
AAP/Department of Immigration and Citizenship
The High Court’s decision in the M47 case is likely to be a pyrrhic victory for refugee rights. Last week the High Court ruled that the regulation that allowed the Commonwealth to deny a visa to a refugee…
Leave “wicked” to the witches and let’s get on with the job of policy research.
Witches image from www.shutterstock.com
Wicked problems, so we are told, are everywhere. Climate change, conflict, an ageing population, obesity… the list goes on. The debate over asylum seekers, difficult and important and politically charged…
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…
Both political parties are lining up their elections strategies now, even though an election could still be a year away.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
The former British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson famously said a week is a long time in politics. If this is the case, then you have to wonder how long it will feel if the current Parliament runs it full…
For many asylum seekers the route to Australia is via Ashmore Reef, and fraught with danger.
AAP/Department of Defence
Despite arrivals of asylum seekers by boat being a major political issue for Australia over the last decade, the Indonesian government has not regarded the presence of asylum seekers and refugees with…
Australian troops examine the asylum seeker detention centre on Nauru.
AAP/Alex Ellinghauses
The Houston panel reported on Monday 13 August 2012. The government has committed to implementing all of its recommendations. In fact, one of its recommendations (recommendation 7) has already been implemented…
Was former defence chief Angus Houston the right sort of expert for the asylum seeker inquiry?
AAP/Alan Porritt
It is now well understood that the Gillard government needed to act decisively to resolve the politics of the asylum seeker crisis. Regardless of which side of the political spectrum one fell, the deaths…
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen may no longer be guardian to unaccompanied asylum seeker minors.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The circumstances of unaccompanied minors are barely addressed by the Houston report on asylum seekers. There is one reference to “vulnerable persons”. This is in the context of transferring those with…
The Conversation expert panel and the Houston panel: same terms of reference, different recommendations.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Angus Houston’s expert panel on asylum seekers released its final report yesterday. Charged by the prime minister with breaking the political deadlock on asylum seeker policy, the panel has handed down…
Prime Minister Julia Gillard meets with the Chief of the Defence Force General David Hurley in Canberra.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Greeting the findings of the Houston expert panel on asylum seekers, The Australian front page exclaimed “At last, people put before politics”. This is, of course, ridiculous. The Malaysian solution would…
In asylum seeker policy, the most punitive measures are the most politically acceptable.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Remarkably, in all the 162 pages of the Houston panel’s report on asylum seekers, the word “deter” does not appear a single time. But this does not necessarily indicate a welcome move away from the deterrence-based…