It’s critical that the Australian government take a new direction in refugee policy and move beyond its tired rhetoric of deterrence as a justification for detaining refugees on Nauru and Manus.
Ancient Rome and its empire had the concept of asylum at its heart. Its legacy provided inspiration for centres of power around the world, but today outsiders are no longer welcome.
Immigration has featured as an issue in every Australian election since 2001. But the numbers often tell a different story from the political posturing.
Parkland, Florida, where 17 people died in a school shooting on Valentine’s Day 2018, was already a place of highly secure, gated communities, so the survivors instead united against guns and hate.
Since the Tampa affair in 2001, successive governments have been anxious to be seen as “hard-line” on asylum seekers, but the cost – to people and the country – has been too high.
Originally designed to display service times or bible quotations, church signs are becoming a site of political commentary, tackling everything from pill testing to refugee rights.
If the government really intends to “reopen” Christmas Island in any major way, it could find itself spending a lot of money there on few if any people.
A refugee law expert on a week of ‘reckless’ rhetoric and a new way to process asylum seeker claims
The Conversation44 MB(download)
Today on Trust Me, I'm An Expert, a refugee legal expert busts myths about how proposed medical transfer rules would work, and described some of this week's border security rhetoric as 'reckless'.
A bill to allow for asylum seeker on Nauru and Manus Island to be transferred to Australia for medical and psychiatric treatment has passed both Houses. How will it change things for those detained?
The government will turn up the dial by announcing “contingency plans” against fresh arrivals. Morrison is already moving on to the claim that Shorten couldn’t be trusted to be strong on turnbacks.
Australia’s immigration department doesn’t keep a record of the number of people applying for asylum at airports. This means there is no oversight over the treatment of those seeking protection.
If the government feels it is on the rack over the amendments, Labor also is in an awkward position, and at least one of the independents finds herself in the spotlight.
A. Naomi Paik, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Alleged ‘enemy combatants’ held at Guantánamo Bay who went on hunger strikes to protest their indefinite detention were force-fed by the US military. Today, ICE is force-feeding immigrant detainees.