Detention
Since August 13 the Government has been forced to pack almost all its asylum seeker deterrents into the rickety vessel called Off-Shore Processing. Today the Government had to acknowledge its policy craft had sunk.

Any discouragement of asylum seekers it might have carried has disappeared. In fact, the prospects for boat people look somewhat brighter. Nauru and Christmas Island have been overwhelmed by asylum seeker arrivals since August 13, and Manus Island in P-NG is only now open for business and soon will be full.
So Immigration Minister Chris Bowen today announced that two on-shore centre in Tasmania and Victoria would be re-opened as detention facilities and more asylum seekers would be sent into the general community.
Continue reading "The last shred of Gillard’s deterrent policy has ripped" »
As questions are raised about the readiness of Manus Island to receive asylum seekers and debate rages about whether the “no advantage” test is harsh enough, it becomes increasingly clear that we are in the process of writing pages of history that future generations will wish they could erase.

These pages will sound strangely familiar to some written in the years prior to 2007 – tales of hunger strikes, children in detention, riots and protests – that a nation sought to expunge in the election of a leader promising a new approach towards asylum seekers.
In those days, the images of lips sewn together, the suicide attempts and the destruction of people’s mental health together became unconscionable to the electorate. Today, political reality, the media environment and public opinion have conspired to lead us down a path we have trod before, and not enjoyed treading.
Continue reading "A land where the vulnerable are expendable" »
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marley says:
@Fred - you make some good points, but ignore others. The asylum seeker movement here is unusual, in that it does not involve people from more or less contiguous territories (unlike Afghans in Pakistan or Syrians in Turkey). We are the endpoint for a highly organised criminal smuggling activity and… Read more »
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marley says:
The point is, with people who arrive by ‘plane, we know, in most cases, who they are, and where to deport them to if their refugee claim fails. One of the reasons for the high success rate of boat arrivals is not that they’re genuine refugees, but that it’s virtually… Read more »
Australia’s treatment of asylum seeker children and our successful program placing minors in community accommodation was misrepresented and maligned in the inaccurate piece by Sophie Peer on The Punch yesterday.

In October 2010, Prime Minister Julia Gillard and I announced a program to move the majority of asylum seeker children into community accommodation by the middle of 2011.
At that time there were around 700 children in immigration detention facilities and, despite the marked increase in boat arrivals that followed, we met that commitment and today continue to move children and vulnerable people into the community as quickly as possible.
Continue reading "Counterpunch: our asylum kids policy is working well" »
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MK says:
Franklin, it makes me sad to see you praising the Howard Government’s treatment of refugees. Weren’t you ever aware of what went on in Woomera and Baxter to name the two worst centres? Baxter had cement walls that blotted out the landscape. All that could be seen by the prisoners… Read more »
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Maureen Keady Put MK on the comment says:
If you read a little more widely you’d see why asylum seekers are knocking at doors all over the world and a small minority of them are coming to Australia. The “why” is the point! The sensationalist media is playing this for all it’s worth for their own purposes. Likewise… Read more »
Imagine an Australian child is orphaned overseas. The local Government appoints him a legal guardian. The first thing the guardian does is take the boy to jail-like conditions in a remote location where he will stay indefinitely.

Would our headlines call this barbaric? Would there be outcry: children shouldn’t be treated this way? Surely he needs a comforting environment, surely there’s a better place for the boy than a detention centre? Why does he need to be so far from people who speak his language, people who could give him some support? Doesn’t he need a carer, maybe a counselor more than a guard?
It would no doubt be a scandal.
Continue reading "Locking up children is not making us safer" »
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Mark/Fox says:
Yes correct Espea. Because you have taken responsibility and tried to deal with someone elses problem. We have our own problems and we should learn from the mistakes of others. Stop the boats! The best news I have heard is that they have arrested people who are heavily involved in… Read more »
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Mark/Fox says:
The point was to not let them come into this country in the first place! Read more »
I’ve just returned from two weeks visiting some of Australia’s most remote detention facilities. In eight different centres across Christmas Island, Curtin, Perth and Darwin I met with hundreds of asylum seekers caught up in Australia’s policy of indefinite detention.
If people in Australia were able to replicate my harrowing trip and come to any conclusion other than detention is a cruel, expensive and unnecessary farce of a policy, I would be shocked. Unfortunately, one of the problems with these centres being so remote is that most Australians will never get this opportunity.
So let me tell you what I saw.
Continue reading "A harrowing look inside Australia’s detention centres" »
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Patrick says:
Everyone must be warned bfeore coming to the United States. Even if you have a visa, you are putting yourself at risk of Homeland Security ICE officers. I have a best friend that is from Paris France here on an education visa to finish his degree. He has been here… Read more »
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Ray says:
OK, Alex Pagliaro what is your alternative to mandatory detention? Let all them in if they arrive? Please tell me next time you are having a party at your place (or even if you are having a meal you think I might like). I do agree that the whole process… Read more »
Late this morning another group of refugees clambered on top of the roof at Sydney’s Villawood detention centre in protest.

And while the Minister for Immigration Chris Bowen managed to get yesterday’s group down by refusing to “give in to their demands” maybe it’s about time we stopped cushioning the issue with industrial size mattresses and faced them head on instead.
Ian Rintoul is one person looking for a better solution. As a spokesperson for the Sydney based Refugee Action Coaliton, he’s described the situation as “desperate” and that most detainees, having spent between 12 to 16 months in Christmas Island prior to coming to Villawood, “see no future”.
Continue reading "It’s time to get down from the roof on Villawood" »
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Cut to the chase says:
1. Chase the media away 2. Deliver ultimatum. “Get off the roof or suffer the consequences” 3. Stun grenades and tazers 4. Problem solved Read more »
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Tragedy of the commons says:
Fed Up is right. The problem with do-gooders is, though they are well intended, their empathy knows no bounds. If they had their way, our borders would be thrown wide open to anyone who wants to come here. The problem then, and now, is that we become so preoccupied with… Read more »
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