Refugee Update
Feb. 20th, 2016 10:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamer_easyFirst, some good news from elsewhere in the world: a Syrian refugee family's cat was reunited with them in Norway after getting lost in Greece.
Doctors to propose boycott of Australian immigration detention system (GA, 19 February 2016). More on Sunday's AMA forum.
Malcolm Turnbull's new push to resettle refugees on Nauru and Manus Island in third countries (SMH, 19 February 2016) Specifically Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. This is hopeful news: the PM is seeking some sort of solution. However, he is less keen on accepting New Zealand's offer to resettle refugees, supposedly since this will encourage people smugglers, but IMHO probably because it would be incredibly embarrassing to have our next-door neighbours doing the right thing. Also IMHO, the PM gives away the real reason for "stopping the boats" when he worries that not only did a thousand people drown trying to get here under Labor, but 150,000 asylum seekers actually did turn up.
Catching up on links:
People who have already been assessed as refugees, and have been left waiting for their permanent visas, have been told to reapply for temporary visas. (SBS, 15 December 2015) "More than 4,000 people who arrived in Australia before August 2012 are caught in limbo between Gillard government-era policies and a succession of legal changes since." Paging Mr Kafka.
Controversial Border Force takes control of detention centres, turns them into 'jails' (SMH, 3 December 2015): "...one badly ill man with poor kidney function was restrained during a visit to a specialist doctor, which prevented him from giving a urine sample because "the guards would not undo the handcuffs". Another man was forced to undergo a hand X-ray while wearing handcuffs and women leaving the detention centre for a medical appointment or counselling were forced to undergo pat-downs... 'women guards run their hands over their breasts, their bottom, their legs,' ... this had induced panic attacks in detainees with a history of being sexually abused... children leaving the centre to attend school were accompanied by uniformed guards... 'Not only are people more routinely being handcuffed but... while they are outside the centre, a staff person has to have a physical hand on the individual when taking them to counselling... You can only imagine the increased stress and pressure that puts on somebody.'" Clearly, asylum seekers are being deliberately punished onshore as well as offshore, part of the government's illegal strategy of deterrence.
Doctors to propose boycott of Australian immigration detention system (GA, 19 February 2016). More on Sunday's AMA forum.
Malcolm Turnbull's new push to resettle refugees on Nauru and Manus Island in third countries (SMH, 19 February 2016) Specifically Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. This is hopeful news: the PM is seeking some sort of solution. However, he is less keen on accepting New Zealand's offer to resettle refugees, supposedly since this will encourage people smugglers, but IMHO probably because it would be incredibly embarrassing to have our next-door neighbours doing the right thing. Also IMHO, the PM gives away the real reason for "stopping the boats" when he worries that not only did a thousand people drown trying to get here under Labor, but 150,000 asylum seekers actually did turn up.
Catching up on links:
People who have already been assessed as refugees, and have been left waiting for their permanent visas, have been told to reapply for temporary visas. (SBS, 15 December 2015) "More than 4,000 people who arrived in Australia before August 2012 are caught in limbo between Gillard government-era policies and a succession of legal changes since." Paging Mr Kafka.
Controversial Border Force takes control of detention centres, turns them into 'jails' (SMH, 3 December 2015): "...one badly ill man with poor kidney function was restrained during a visit to a specialist doctor, which prevented him from giving a urine sample because "the guards would not undo the handcuffs". Another man was forced to undergo a hand X-ray while wearing handcuffs and women leaving the detention centre for a medical appointment or counselling were forced to undergo pat-downs... 'women guards run their hands over their breasts, their bottom, their legs,' ... this had induced panic attacks in detainees with a history of being sexually abused... children leaving the centre to attend school were accompanied by uniformed guards... 'Not only are people more routinely being handcuffed but... while they are outside the centre, a staff person has to have a physical hand on the individual when taking them to counselling... You can only imagine the increased stress and pressure that puts on somebody.'" Clearly, asylum seekers are being deliberately punished onshore as well as offshore, part of the government's illegal strategy of deterrence.
