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Articles on Asylum seekers

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Asylum seekers are transferred to Manus Island. Is there a different way of dealing with people who arrive in Australia seeking refuge? AAP/Eoin Blackwell

Asylum Solutions: reinstating the right to seek asylum

Have you ever wondered why asylum seekers would choose to spend $5000 for passage on an overcrowded, dangerous, and potentially fruitless boat journey from Indonesia rather than spend it on a first class…
Rather than mandatory detention of asylum seekers, Australia could save money by allowing more in and asking them to fill jobs in Australia that need doing. AAP/DIAC

Asylum Solutions: saving money with a more humane response

The major political parties in Australia are engaged in a competition to outdo each other in their promises to mistreat boat people. The theory is that this will deter others from seeking protection here…
Relations between Australia and Indonesia may become strained as allegations of spying and failure to follow protocol on the Australian side are released. EPA/Mark Irham

Spies, Zionist agents and the ‘PNG solution’: Australia through Indonesian eyes

Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd’s so-called “PNG solution” to the asylum seeker issue has attracted much comment from within both Australia and Papua New Guinea. It has also stirred the pot in Indonesia…
As long as push factors such as ongoing civil war in Syria continue, asylum seeker issues will plague Australian politics. EPA / STR

Asylum Solutions: temporary visas with a difference

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.

FactCheck: can children under seven 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

Barry Jones: asylum is the greatest moral challenge of our time

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

Tough guys: Operation Sovereign Borders vs the PNG Solution

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 myth of the people smugglers’ ‘business model’

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

Drowning mercy: why we fear the boats

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

Grattan on Friday: Boats done – the economy’s next on Rudd’s agenda

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

Colonialism, sovereignty and aid: what refugees mean for PNG

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

Rudd’s PNG plan could worsen asylum seekers’ mental health

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…
Governments face many competing demands when trying to create practical, effective asylum seeker policy. EPA/Tubagus

Asylum seekers: effective policy is based on evidence, not emotion

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

Worth a thousand words: the imagery of asylum seeker politics

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

What life can a resettled refugee expect in PNG?

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

Defining ‘success’ in the asylum seeker debate

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…
Kevin Rudd could look to the processes in Europe for a properly regional solution to asylum seekers. EPA/Adrian Elang

What would a truly regional asylum arrangement look like?

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

How will people smugglers react to the new Rudd asylum plan?

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…

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