dreamer_easy: (refugees)
dreamer_easy ([personal profile] dreamer_easy) wrote2015-03-11 12:42 pm

Refugee Update: As Others See Us

Firstly, update on Nauru: Goodwill letters to asylum seekers on Nauru returned unopened. Julian Burnside was told the letters, from Australians, were being distributed to detainees. This was a lie.

The eyes of the world:

Report of the [United Nations Human Rights Council] Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez (the Méndez Report) has found that "Australia is systematically violating the international Convention Against Torture by detaining children in immigration detention, and holding asylum seekers in dangerous and violent conditions on Manus Island."

Amnesty International's 2015 State of the World's Human Rights report is critical of Australia in three areas: refugees and asylum seekers, Indigenous rights, and counter-terrorism and security legislation.

Human Rights Watch World Report 2015 makes similar criticisms. The director of HRW Australia, Elaine Pearson, noted that "Australia's obsession with offshore processing of asylum seekers means that government is willing to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses in places like Cambodia and Sri Lanka, because Australia feels it needs those countries onside in order to achieve its policy goals".

Fiji PM Frank Bainimarama criticises Australia's regime for resettling asylum seekers in Pacific

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