Detention
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" »
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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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 »
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Craig says:
The answer is simple: go back to the policies which worked before Krudd changed it. i.e temporary protection visas and offshore processing in Nauru. If you dangle a carrot, people will come in ever increasing numbers and that is what is happening. The last thing Australia needs is boat loads… 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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