dreamer_easy: (refugees)
Small numbers of refugees continue to escape Manus Island and Nauru for the United States. Despite this excellent news, thousands are still being left behind, in increasing desperation. Also in good news: last year, Australia accepted a record number of humanitarian arrivals.

Last Friday, a group of refugees on Manus Island were attacked, allegedly by members of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force.

We keep refouling people - deporting them to danger. This Tamil asylum seeker, who may be tortured in Sri Lanka, is just the latest example. Meanwhile on Manus, asylum seekers whose applications have been rejected are being told that they cannot be deported because of the danger to them in their home countries, but that they cannot settle on either Papua New Guinea nor in Australia. Plus the US is not taking people from its list of Muslim-majority countries. Where are these refugees supposed to go? The moon?

I've wanted to comment for some time on the latest group of our fellow Australians the rest of us are supposed to fear and hate: Sudanese immigrants. As it turns out, the supposed rash of crimes by "African gangs" was - I can't do better than Overland's headline: Total and utter racist bullshit. "Right from the beginning, the whole ‘African gangs’ beat-up relied on errors, distortions and flat-out lies."

dreamer_easy: (refugees)
Good news first: First Dog on the Moon on the rescue of cartoonist "Eaten Fish", who is now safe in Norway.

Manus refugee attacked for second time amid tension over Australian centres (20 December 2017, 10 am). This is the refugee who has never received the necessary treatment for the machete injury to his arm; he was attacked in Lorengau's market.

Manus Island protesters block access to refugee accommodation, supplies (ABC, 19 December 2017). They preventing food, medicine, and medical help from reaching the refugees at the East Lorengau detention centre, and are prevented refugees from leaving. Behrouz Boochani Tweeted on 20 December that the blockade had ended.

'I will kill you': video contradicts Peter Dutton's claim refugees on Manus were lying about being threatened by locals (GA, 11 December 2017). #TellUsTheTruth

A Moonlight Tour of the Damned (Mark Isaacs, 11 December 2017). The writer's visit to Manus. “Chauka [solitary confinement at Manus] was Australia’s Guantanamo prison. I was put in there three times. I slept in a shipping container. There was no air-conditioning, no breezeway, no door, no toilet door, no shower curtain, so the guards could watch you at all times. The bed was made out of wood. One time, they handcuffed me for seventy-two hours.” I also want to highlight this: "There are attempts to beautify the narrow corridors of shipping container bedrooms: love hearts painted on doors, colourful landscape murals, and little gardens." It gives the lie to the claims that the centre was in disrepair because of the detainees.

The next time someone tries to shift the spotlight away from the mistreatment of refugees by talking about homelessness in Australia, point them to Manus detainee Walid Zazai's Christmas message from manus to homeless people of Australia.

A Tamil man has been forcibly returned to Sri Lanka, where he is at risk of torture and rape, after missing the crash deadline to apply for protection in Australia. 29 Sri Lankan asylum seekers were flown back after their boat sank near the Cocos Islands.

Australia is wilfully damaging the health of children on Nauru to make a point – and it is appalling
(SMH, 12 December 2017). "When we visited Nauru as paediatric specialists three years ago, we were asked to see 30 of the 100 children being detained on the island. Among them was a six-year-old girl who had tried to kill herself and a two-year-old boy with such severe behaviour problems a doctor had prescribed anti-psychotic medicines. Their parents were in despair. They had fled persecution, trying to save their children from harm, but had ended up imprisoned on a remote island, without hope. We left with the view that these were the most traumatised children we had ever consulted on, far worse than children we had seen in Australia, Africa, Asia or Europe. Three years later, 43 of those children remain on the island."

Calls to adopt child abuse inquiry's recommendations on immigration detention (GA, 18 December 2017)

'This republic breaks all borders': a dialogue with Behrouz Boochani on Manus (SMH, 23 December 2017). Profound and inspiring philosophical, political, spritual. His manifesto is this Letter from Manus Island. Here's a review of Boochani's movie Chauka, Please Tell Us The Time, shot by mobile phone.

UNHCR Fact Sheet on Situation of Refugees and Asylum-Seekers on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea (UNHCR, 15 December 2017)

Does Australia run the most generous refugee program per capita in the world? (RMIT / ABC Fact Check, 21 December 2017). SPOILERS: No. Or, as Fact Check puts it, Misleading. #TellUsTheTruth

As others see us: UNHCR says Australia abandoned refugees, must clear up the mess it made (Eye Witness News, Jonhannesburg, South Africa)
dreamer_easy: (refugees)
So many bookmarks...

The Refugee Council of Australia has advice on How you can help people who’ve been to Nauru or Manus (#letthemstay), who have been abruptly denied the welfare they are entitled to. You can also donate to Sydney's House of Welcome.

Government to relax secrecy rules for detention centre workers in 'humiliating backdown' (ABC, 14 August 2017) Whistleblowers will no longer risk two years' jail if they talk out loud about abuse and neglect.

Federal Government broke promises over refugee resettlement deal with US, UNHCR says (ABC, 24 July 2017) | UN says immigration officials helped screen Manus and Nauru refugees for family reunions (SMH, 26 June 2017). "The agency said it only agreed to help administer the deal between Canberra and Washington to resettle refugees from Nauru and Manus Island in the United States on this understanding so that families were not separated."

ACT offers to resettle refugees held in 'inhumane' offshore detention centres
(GA, 24 August 2017)

Three pregnant refugees and nearly 50 others denied medical transfers from Nauru (GA, 21 August 2017) | Pregnant refugees refused abortions on Nauru must be brought to Australia, says AMA (GA, 23 August 2017)

Australia's offshore detention centres 'terrible', says architect of system
(GA, 16 August 2017) "Paris Aristotle says ‘what has been put in place is not what was recommended’ and there is not a ‘skerrick of evidence’ it deters asylum seekers from boarding boats."

And the boats keep coming: Five people smuggled to Australia by boat, Australian Federal Police alleges (ABC, 27 August 2017) | Boat carrying alleged people smugglers and Chinese men landed on Queensland island (GA, 30 August 2017). It's not clear if the people on board, who have been returned to China, were seeking asylum (the guvmint says they weren't, which leaves us none the wiser).

Peter Dutton loses appeal over detention phones (SMH, 17 August 2017) "The federal government has lost an appeal over a court ruling that determined guards don't have the right to confiscate the mobile phones of people being held in immigration detention." | High court upholds Australia's right to send asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea (GA, 17 August 2017)

Unwelcome visitors: Challenges faced by people visiting immigration detention (Refugee Council of Australia report, 2 August 2017)

We're quick to label refugees as either 'good' or 'bad', but they're all entitled to protection (GA, 28 June 2017) "Despite what he told the court, he knew full well that hitting his wife was a serious crime (as it is in Syria)... The family wouldn’t have come without him, so do you deny them all asylum? How, exactly, would that have protected Raghda?"

A little heartening news: Samim Bigzad: UK Government's attempt to deport Afghan asylum seeker fails after pilot refuses to take off (The Independent, 29 August 2017). Activists had a quiet word with passengers, who had a quiet word with the cabin crew, who had a quiet word with the pilot. Thank you all. Unfortunately, Australian activists did not have the same success in the case of a sick Iraqi man deported last month.

Many of those seeking asylum in Australia are Rohingyas from Myanmar. After recent massacres, many more will try to engage Australia's human rights responsibilities. Elsewhere: Sri Lanka leads the world for torture, again (Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, 19 August 2017)

Australia has 'golden opportunity' to help shape world refugee debate, says report (GA, 31 August 2017) "... if there are large environmental issues, if there’s a war in Papua New Guinea, if Isis takes root in in the Philippines, there could suddenly be large numbers of people trying to come to Australia, and it should be in your interest to make sure that the international refugee regime responds more effectively."

Australia resettles Cuban refugees found clinging to lighthouse off Florida Keys (GA, 22 August 2017) Welcome!

'Benefits on both sides': Armidale revealed as new home for Iraqi and Syrian refugees
(SBS, 11 August 2017)

The latest ABF bungle: Border Force illegally sent two Australian citizens to Christmas Island (GA, 5 July 2017). It'd be funny if they weren't playing with people's lives.

From the invaluable Snopes: Are Refugee Tuberculosis Rates in San Diego 'More Than 100 Times Greater' Than the National Average? SPOILER: no. Meanwhile, President Trump's "Muslim ban" has left refugees, including about 100 unaccompanied children, stranded. (The President's general hostility to migration is already damaging the US economy.)

When Hospitality Was the Norm and Multiculturalism Was a Good Thing (Yes!, 20 June 2017)
dreamer_easy: (refugees)
Student who protested against asylum seeker's deportation on flight found guilty (GA, 2 September 2016). I think Jasmine Pilbrow's defence was solid - that the man's life was at risk, that it was an emergency - and I'm disappointed the judge didn't agree. Crowdfunding has covered the costs she was ordered to pay, plus much more for help for refugees in Australia, and is continuing. On ya Jasmine. <3

Contractor IHMS fined $300,000 as official audit finds serious failings in asylum seeker healthcare (SMH, 1 September 2016)

Government told IHMS to cut health care costs for refugees in onshore detention centres: report (ABC, 2 September 2016)

Wilson Security pulls out of detention centres after Nauru, Manus protests (Australian Financial Review, 1 September 2016)

Ferrovial 'liable for crimes against humanity' (GA, 25 July 2016)

Ferrovial forced to run Nauru, Manus detention centres until late 2017 (Australian Financial Review, 10 September 2016)
dreamer_easy: (refugees)
Manus Island police presence stepped up as second challenge heads to court (GA, 8 June 2016). "Detainees say changes to regime are only cosmetic and they cannot move freely in the compound or leave without permission."

More on the 16 June hearing in Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court: Orders to close Manus detention likely before the Australian election (Refugee Action Coalition Sydney, 8 June 2016). Possible outcomes include "the release of all detainees into the custody of the Australian government."

Catching up on links:

Cocos Islander 'heartbroken' after women, children board plane with blacked out windows (ABC, 7 May 2016) | Asylum seekers deported from Cocos Islands arrested by Sri Lankan police (GA, 7 May 2016)

Immigration Department strikes secret compensation deal with Save the Children over Nauru expulsions (ABC, 6 May 2016)

Seven in 10 Australians think the government should do more to help refugees (GA, 19 May 2016)

When people smugglers were seen as heroes, and we welcomed the dispossessed (GA, 14 May 2016)

New Zealand reveals the emperor's new clothes (5 May 2016). Australia argues that the refugees on Manus are PNG's responsibility, yet vetoes their transfer to New Zealand. So who's in charge?

Doctors as an arm of border protection? That's a step too far (GA, 10 May 2016). "Why are you giving her antibiotics? Shouldn't you be deporting her instead?"
dreamer_easy: (refugees)
Iranian refugee tried to burn herself to death from despair over indefinite detention on Nauru, husband says (ABC, 31 March 2016) This is Fatima, a mentally ill refugee who locked herself inside her family's accommodation and set it alight. She has now "been placed under the care of the Immigration Department controlled mental health unit on Nauru", a phrase which frankly gives me chills.

Marital rape no longer allowed and suicide, homosexuality decriminalised at Nauru (SMH, 27 April 2016) Which is good news, but rapes of refugees go unprosecuted and gangs beat gay refugees.

Resettling refugees in Papua New Guinea: a tragic theatre of the absurd (GA, 20 May 2016). "Lae is considered the most dangerous city in Papua New Guinea. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s website advises Australian citizens 'to exercise a high degree of caution in PNG because of the high levels of serious crime', with particularly high crime rates in Lae, where 'bush knives (machetes) and firearms are often used in assaults and thefts'. Yet, somehow, Australia has chosen this city as the ideal place to resettle refugees."

Cambodia revives Australia refugee deal with planned Nauru visit (ABC, 25 May 2016) | First refugees sent to Cambodia under $55m deal have left (ABC, 27 May 2016)

Australian police accessed phone records of asylum whistleblower (GA, 24 May 2016). This is scary as hell. After the death of Manus detainee Hamid Khazaei, the Department of Immigration asked the AFP to investigate where the media had got their information about the lethal mishandling of his case. Dr Peter Young was a target because he had criticised asylum seeker medical care in the press. Police examined his phone records and grilled his colleagues.

Australia’s Offshore Cruelty (The New York Times, 23 May 2016). "The Australian treatment of refugees trying to reach this vast, thinly populated country by boat follows textbook rules for the administering of cruelty. It begins with the anodyne name for the procedures — 'offshore processing' — as if these desperate human beings were just an accumulation of data."

There's been such a response to Immigration Minister Peter Dutton's baseless remarks about "illiterate and innumerate" refugees which have been (correctly IMHO) understood as disparaging all migrants from a non-English speaking background. For example, this passionate editorial in The Age: Time to embrace the potential refugees offer Australia (The Age, 22 May 2016) "The refugees I meet at the ASRC are not some racist's caricature. They are the doctor I know who speaks nine languages, and the young man who is studying a double degree in law and business after arriving by boat as an unaccompanied child without a word of English. They are everyday mums and dads willing to do anything, often the jobs no Australians will touch, just to put food and dignity on the table for their families. They are my heroes, my role models and this nation's future."

Boat migrants 'turned back to jail', despite Vietnamese promise (SMH, 24 May 2016) The same fate befell asylum seekers who were returned last year.

'Like returning a lamb to a den of lions’: Deo Nuyu's fight to stay in Australia (SMH, 1 June 2016)

Asylum seeker forcibly returned by Australia says his refugee claim was ignored (GA, 18 May 2016). "Sri Lankan asylum seeker says he was only asked his name, where he was from and why he came when he arrived at the Cocos Islands by boat."
dreamer_easy: (refugees)
Asylum seekers flown back to Sri Lanka from Cocos Islands (SMH, 6 May 2016)

Bad Blood (Four Corners, 25 April 2016). "The Australian Government contract to provide healthcare to detainees has already cost taxpayers more than a billion dollars, but doctors say the medical care provided offshore in Manus Island is dangerously inadequate."

Manus Island: 'Pathetic' bureaucratic response blamed for asylum seeker Hamid Khazaei's death (ABC, 25 April 2016) This is one of those cases where reading about the Nazis gives me an uncomfortable feeling. They killed deliberately, but they also killed through criminal neglect. Australia's detention regime has different goals to the Nazis, and the sheer scale of horror can't be compared. Nor are we starving people or working them to death. Nonetheless, deaths are the inevitable result of our indefinitely imprisoning people in physically dangerous camps with poor nutrition and medical care.

Human Rights Watch: Papua New Guinea 'must tell UN its plan' for closing Manus detention centre (GA, 5 May 2016) This is a useful overview of the detention centre, and of PNG and why it's a bad place to rehome refugees.

Norfolk Islanders propose hosting processing centre for asylum seekers (GA, 5 May 2016) Interestingly, the proposal is for community detention, not detention centres. Opponents' chief concern has been the impact on the tourism industry. Islanders are also wisely suspicious of the Australian government's track record when it comes to promises made to its offshore processing centres.

Young Liberty for Law Reform report: Detention centre staff say careers and lives were damaged by speaking out (GA, 27 April 2016)
dreamer_easy: (refugees)
Hazara asylum seeker says he is being sent back to Afghanistan (GA, 23 April 2016)

Desperate refugees arrested trying to return to Manus Island centre (SMH, 22 April 2016) "Three refugees who have left Manus Island to try and rebuild their lives in Lae after being granted refugee status have returned to the island, saying they feel safer in the transit centre."

Catching up on links:

Asylum seekers fear forced repatriations as Julie Bishop continues talks with Iran's Foreign Minister (ABC, 16 March 2016) | Iran would welcome back asylum seekers 'with pride', Iranian Foreign Minister says (ABC, 16 March 2016) Fortunately, the Minister said that it would only accept "voluntary" returnees. Unfortunately, that means the only way to get rid of them is to keep up the torture.

Taliban tortures Abbott government deportee (The Saturday Paper, 4 October 2014) | Hazara asylum seeker to be forcibly deported from Australia to Afghanistan (GA, 14 March 2016) | Australia’s folly returns Afghan Hazaras to torture and death (The Conversation, 15 October 2014) | Afghan minister for refugees and repatriation warns against forced returns (Kabulblogs, 28 February 2015)

Refugee: 'I fear that I will die' in Cambodia (SMH, 20 March 2016) (video)

Federal Government repatriates former military interpreter to Iraq, despite fears his life is in danger (ABC, 10 November 2015)

Asylum seekers could be forced into warzones under laws proposed by Federal Government, human rights lawyer David Manne warns (ABC, 21 October 2015)

633 asylum seekers turned back under Sovereign Border in last 18 months, Peter Dutton confirms (ABC, 6 August 2015) The twenty boats included 46 Vietnamese asylum seekers who were sent back to the country they were fleeing after being secretly held at sea for a month. Another must have been the boat that made it within 200 metres of Christmas Island before being towed back out to sea. (At least they made it back to Indonesia.) Another would have been the boat with 65 asylum seekers from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, includng a pregnant woman. More recently (March 2016) a boat containing Bangladeshi asylum seekers was turned around.

btw: Turnbacks under way when Indonesian waters breached, FOI documents reveal (GA, 11 March 2016). "Disclosure of previously blanked-out details from review of six Australian breaches of Indonesian territory puts end to two years of speculation."

Asylum seekers should not be sent back to Sri Lanka yet, say religious leaders (GA, 8 June 2015) | AFP providing support to Sri Lankan government department accused of torture (ABC, 4 August 2015)

Refused asylum seekers face personal data disclosure by immigration department (GA, 13 April 2015)

ETA:

Detention of 157 Tamil asylum seekers on board ship ruled lawful (GA, 28 January 2015) Our obligations still apply despite High Court win (SMH, 19 January 2016). "The High Court decision on the detention of Tamil asylum seekers at sea turned on a technical reading of statutory provisions, not an assessment of Australia's international refugee and human rights obligations." | Australia's high court questions legality of asylum seeker boat turnbacks (GA, 29 January 2016)

(Behind a paywall, but you get the gist:) Sinhalese asylum seekers' on-water claims accepted by UN (The Saturday Paper, 31 January 2015) "Asylum seekers sent back to Sri Lanka after Scott Morrison’s ‘on-water’ interviewing have been confirmed as refugees by the UNHCR."

Government defends decision to send four men back to Sri Lanka whose boat was intercepted as part of 'people smuggling venture' (ABC, 20 February 2015)
dreamer_easy: (refugees)
Asylum seeker, 70, pleads with Peter Dutton not to go back to Nauru (GA, 27 February 2016). The Iranian asylum seeker is the oldest woman held in immigration detention. She suffers "chronic pain, nightmares, frequent fevers, leg problems, and poor eyesight. A 2015 document noted: 'she hits herself constantly to try and deal with the pain.'" She is currently in Wickham Point immigration detention centre with her two adult children, who also face danger if returned to Nauru. The family's story is another one of medical neglect and pointless bureaucratic cruelty.

Guards' conduct in Nauru getting worse (Julian Burnside's blog, 23 February 2016).

An open letter from Australia's legal community urges an end to offshore detention. (24 February 2016)

And despite everything, the boats keep coming: Asylum seeker boat turned back to Sri Lanka: Dutton (SBS, 23 February 2016) "We are dealing with possible ventures regularly," admits the Minister.

A Canadian news story on Australia's refugee camps (The National, CBC, 24 February 2016)
dreamer_easy: (refugees)
Royal Australian Navy personnel open up about trauma of seeing asylum seekers die at sea. Officers state that Navy vessels are being told not to board asylum seeker vessels until they reach Australian waters, and that one vessel sank as a result, with loss of life. One says that "Our vessel was delayed 15 hours for a boarding on one occasion and we got reports in from surveillance aircraft that that vessel had sunk 13 hours ago. All we found was probably a line about 70 miles long of bodies. We fished them out for as long as we could, 'til we were full. And that wasn't uncommon."

These incidents have been keep secret as part of Operation Sovereign Borders. When I said I believed that boats were still leaving Indonesia and that lives were still being lost, it seemed so abstract.

In September, the SBS news program Dateline reported on the torture and rape of asylum seekers returned to Sri Lanka. In late November, an asylum boat from Sri Lanka was intercepted near the Indonesian coastline and 37 asylum seekers were handed over to the Sri Lankan navy and arrested. At least one, Indika Mendis, had previously been tortured by Sri Lankan police, and has reportedly been tortured again by Sri Lankan authorities after his arrest.

Another involuntary returnee, Zainullah Naseri, states he was abducted and tortured by the Taliban after being sent to Afghanistan. However, the High Court prevented the deportation of a second Afghani who had been told he could avoid persecution if he changed jobs.

Cambodia says it will only take "20 or 10 or 50 or 100 [refugees from Australia] or something like this. Not 1000 as people have said", in exchange for an additional $40 million in aid (to one of the world's most corrupt governments). Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says the program will start with "four or five" refugees and build up from there. The UNHCR and Amnesty have condemned the deal and a coalition of human rights lawyers and groups have expressed particular concern for children. Cambodians have protested the deal: sex worker and advocate Sou Sotheavy points out that the country can barely take care of its own people, and says she doesn't expect the refugees will survive for long after they arrive. "Australia has abundant resources while we have few... this is difficult for me to understand."

ETA: This one dates all the way back to August: "While Syrian authorities are committing crimes against humanity including systematic killings and torture, Australia is doing the unthinkable – trying to send Syrians back home."
dreamer_easy: (refugees)
According to Immigration Minister Scott Morrison,despite harsh government policy, asylum seeker boats continue to leave Indonesia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka for Australia. Erm, I mean, twelve boats with 383 passengers have been turned back (or replaced by the orange lifeboats) since December, and another 45 boats have been stopped by other means. Minister Malcolm Turnbull acknowledges that many of those on board would have been genuine refugees. (An opinion piece in The Drum argues that if the turnarounds are effective, then deterrence is unnecessary.)

The cost of the government's weeks-long attempt to stop a boatload of Tamil asylum seekers arriving here during June and July totalled $12 million. The High Court challenge to the government's legal power to have imprisoned the asylum seekers goes ahead in October.

Also pricey: the $330,000 theatrette never used for Operation Sovereign Borders media briefings.
dreamer_easy: (refugees)
Serco, the company which runs Curtin detention centre, claims that high-profile visits such as Senator Hanson-Young's cancelled visit yesterday provoke self-harm incidents. Now, no statistics are kept on actual deaths in immigration detention; given that, I don't believe that any statistics are kept on self-harm incidents in immigration detention. If I'm right (and I have some Googling to do), Serco's assertion is meaningless; the real problem is that high-profile visitors report to the public self-harm and other damage done to detainees, such as the trauma alleged by Hanson-Young.

ETA: I was wrong; self-harm statistics are kept. In fact, there's an extensive report from the Commonwealth Ombudsman from last year - which nowhere mentions any impact from high-profile visitors. Rather, the factors causing self-harm are obvious: past trauma, prolonged, hopeless detention, isolation, overcrowding, and unavoidably witnessing other detainees harming themselves.

While the 157 Tamils were being held at sea, secret negotiations were taking place between the Australian and Indian governments regarding their fate.
dreamer_easy: (refugees)
For some mysterious reason, Greens Senator Hanson-Young has been refused access (at the last minute) to the Curtin detention centre, where the 157 Tamil asylum seekers (including 50 children) are now imprisoned.
dreamer_easy: (refugees)
What will happen next in the High Court case regarding the 157 Tamil asylum seekers will be determined on Thursday. The asylum seekers have been given limited or no access to their lawyers and other legal advice (and, apparently, no clean clothing).
dreamer_easy: (refugees)
Although the 157 people aboard the boat from India are seeking asylum (according to High Court documents), and no officials from any country has interviewed them yet, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has branded them Wirtschaftsemigranten ("economic migrants", as the Nazis called fleeing Jews) because India a "safe" country. India is not a party to the Refugee Convention. Most Tamil refugees there are required to live in camps under constant surveillance and in poor and sometimes dangerous conditions; they report police harassment, and face the danger of refoulement - being sent back to Sri Lanka.

Fifty of the 157 are children. The asylum seekers are suing for damages for false imprisonment.
dreamer_easy: (refugees)
The High Court challenge on behalf of the 157 asylum seekers held at sea will now focus on the legality of their being sent to India or Sri Lanka. Their lawyer: "The High Court will be asked to consider whether it is legal for the government to send the asylum seekers back to the country they are fleeing from or to a country where they face a risk of refoulment [ie being returned from India to Sri Lanka]." The interviewing of the asylum seekers by officials from India, a country which is not party to the Refugee Convention, is unprecedented of questionable legality.
dreamer_easy: (refugees)
O 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.
dreamer_easy: (refugees)
The ABC explains:The stories of the 41 asylum seekers returned to Sri Lanka include violent political persecution and terrorisation by criminal gangs. The boat's passengers describe a mixture of good treatment and mistreatment by Australian authorities, including being punched , manhandled, and denied medical treatment. One passenger described the "enhanced screening" process: "I could not understand the language and the line was also very bad. I never had an opportunity to tell them what I wanted."

Reports of attempted suicides by ten women on Christmas Island have been dismissed by the government, with Senator Eric Abetz stating that only as "minor self-harm incidents" Trying to figure out what's really going behind the secrecy blanket is difficult, especially since "self harm" and "suicide attempt" are sometimes the same thing. The Shire President confirms that one woman jumped from a roof; she had been returned to the island against the advice of mental health professionals. He states that nine mothers, each of whom have a baby under one year of age and in some cases other children as well, have expressed their intention to take their own lives: "Each of the nine women are saying that they will do away with themselves because they see that the only way that their children can have a future is to be free in Australia and the only way that is possible is they take their own lives." OTOH, lawyers acting for some of the asylum seekers on Christmas Island state that "We have heard from our clients there that in the last day several women have attempted suicide or harmed themselves. They are in a state of utter despair. They are concerned about the health of their children."

Fourteen women, mostly mothers, are under continuous suicide watch by male guards. Four months ago pregnant asylum seekers on Christmas Island pleaded with visiting medical experts to have their children adopted. Babies on the island were suffering from skin infections and weeping sores.

Four families comprising fourteen asylum seekers, including a six-week old Australian-born baby, have been moved from the Inverbrackie detention centre in Adelaide to Christmas Island. This makes a total of 71 babies on the island.

Although far more adult than child asylum seekers are being held in detention, 23% of children are being detained while 18% of adults are.

Twelve asylum seekers, including five teenagers, have gone into hiding after two of their friends were returned to detention. Woodville High School students are campaigning for the release of the two Vietnamese teenagers.

The destruction of a victim of the Manus Island violence continues.

Last word goes to Gosford Anglican Church:

1404734030444.jpg-620x349[1]
dreamer_easy: (refugees)
The High Court has granted an interim injunction preventing the government handing over any of the remaining 153 Tamil asylum seekers to Sri Lanka, with the case to be heard this afternoon.

ETA: The results of today's High Court hearing: we know there are 153 asylum seekers, and that 21 of them are minors, the youngest of whom is two years old. They're being held on an Australia vessel at sea. The government has promised 72 hours notice before any handover. Sri Lanka claims it has no plans to take the group. The case could take weeks to resolve as both sides make their case. (We also know that the 41 asylum seekers who have been handed over so far faced court in Sri Lanka.)

The UN and international law experts have all criticised the previous handover of 41 asylum seekers as illegal and dangerous.

The father of a three-year-old aboard the second boat has not heard from his daughter or wife for ten days and has pleaded with the Australian government for information about their fate.
dreamer_easy: (refugees)
Send GetUp! a few bucks to help run an ad explaining the consequences of being handed over. Click the link to see the ad and get the details.

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