Refugees Update
Jul. 26th, 2014 11:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamer_easyO frabjous day! Sort of. The 157 asylum seekers held at sea for four weeks will now be transferred to the Curtin detention centre in Western Australia, where medical and legal assistance will be scarce.
Unlike the previous boat's passengers, these asylum seekers will not be sent to Sri Lanka. India has offered to take back its nationals and possibly take back Sri Lankans who were living in India; the asylum seekers will remain in Australia while Indian officials interview them. (IIUC correctly, this is to avoid having Australian officials interview them, which could activate our legal obligation to process their refugee applications.) However, there are legal doubts about whether the asylum seekers can be sent back to India.
This may prevent the full bench of the High Court from hearing the challenge to the legality of the government's detaining them at sea in the first place. My assumption is that the government knew it would lose that challenge, and therefore lose yet another weapon to use against refugees, as happened in the case of the cap on permanent protection visas.
In other news, the inquiry into child detainees on Christmas Island continues to reveal the suffering of mothers and children, including the serious psychological problems caused by detaining children. Eyewitness accounts confirm that the "minor self-harm incidents" described by the government were in fact suicide attempts by mothers. You know, I can't believe I'm sitting here in front of a heater, drinking coffee and typing these words. OK, also, witnesses to the violence on Manus Island claim that they have been tortured and threatened in an attempt to make them withdraw their statements. Meanwhile the government and private security contractors are squabbling over who should pay the millions in compensation to the injured detainees and the PNG police still haven't interviewed any suspects in Reza Berati's murder.
I end in a desperate attempt to stay sane with parodies of the new Border Force logo.
Unlike the previous boat's passengers, these asylum seekers will not be sent to Sri Lanka. India has offered to take back its nationals and possibly take back Sri Lankans who were living in India; the asylum seekers will remain in Australia while Indian officials interview them. (IIUC correctly, this is to avoid having Australian officials interview them, which could activate our legal obligation to process their refugee applications.) However, there are legal doubts about whether the asylum seekers can be sent back to India.
This may prevent the full bench of the High Court from hearing the challenge to the legality of the government's detaining them at sea in the first place. My assumption is that the government knew it would lose that challenge, and therefore lose yet another weapon to use against refugees, as happened in the case of the cap on permanent protection visas.
In other news, the inquiry into child detainees on Christmas Island continues to reveal the suffering of mothers and children, including the serious psychological problems caused by detaining children. Eyewitness accounts confirm that the "minor self-harm incidents" described by the government were in fact suicide attempts by mothers. You know, I can't believe I'm sitting here in front of a heater, drinking coffee and typing these words. OK, also, witnesses to the violence on Manus Island claim that they have been tortured and threatened in an attempt to make them withdraw their statements. Meanwhile the government and private security contractors are squabbling over who should pay the millions in compensation to the injured detainees and the PNG police still haven't interviewed any suspects in Reza Berati's murder.
I end in a desperate attempt to stay sane with parodies of the new Border Force logo.
