Up to 10,000 asylum seekers expected to head to Australia

A  massive influx of up to 10,000 refugees is expected to head to Australia, Indonesian authorities have warned. 10,000 Indonesian refugees eyeing Australia

About 1,500 asylum seekers have already arrived in Indonesia from Malaysia by boat this year and registered for refugee status, while the same number again are believed to have arrived and not registered, Fairfax newspapers report.

While the federal opposition blames changes to asylum seeker policy for the increase, Dr Roslyn Richardson of Charles Sturt University, said asylum seekers know little about Australia before their arrival here.

Dr Richardson said strong deterrent messages from Australia did not cut through.

In her study, the reasons 27 refugees gave for coming to Australia centred on its comparative cheapness and accessibility. Asylum seekers knew little of Australia, let alone its immigration policies.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute says the key to reducing the number of people coming here is to help improve living conditions in poorer countries. It has released a new report recommending that Australia expand its aid program in the Asia-Pacific region and do more to try to slow population growth in countries like East Timor and Papua New Guinea. Warning on wave of boat people

A report released by the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner earlier this month showed a 28 per cent increase in the number of people seeking asylum globally over the last year. The same report found that, at the end of last year, there were 42 million people worldwide forcibly uprooted from their homeland by conflicts. But the number has already grown substantially since the beginning of this year with more large displacements in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Somalia totaling well over 2.3 million people.

“The global economic crisis, gaping disparities between North and South, growing xenophobia, climate change, the relentless outbreak of new conflicts and the intractability of old ones all threaten to exacerbate this already massive displacement problem”.

Increased numbers of asylum seekers are not only making news in Australia: the Norway Post reports that

“The number of asylum seekers arriving in Norway is again on the increase. In the first five months of this year 6595 persons applied for asylum, compared with 4324 in the same period last year. In May alone, 1490 applications for asylum were registered, according to the Immigration Directorate. This compares with 996 applications in May last year. Increased number of asylum seekers

Asylum seekers: what works to keep them out?

I am sorry to repeat myself, but it seems to be necessary in the light of the interception yesterday of another boat of asylum seekers carrying nearly 200 asylum seekers Navy intercepts 194 on asylum boat

John Ray, who calls his blog International Immigration Watch, is still convinced by the opposition arguments that Prime Minister Rudd’s ‘soft’ asylum laws are responsible

John recalls Shadow Immigration Minister Sharman Stone as he begins his post:

“Wishy-washy Leftist laws and regulations have revived the flow that the conservative Howard government stopped. The boatloads of “refugees” heading for Australia are getting bigger and bigger

There has been quite a bit of research asking the question: what works in controlling the arrival of asylum seekers.

Here are the results:

Policy changes have minimal influence on flows of asylum seekers (Holzer, Schneider and Widmer 2000; Robinson and Segrott 2002; Cornelius, Martin and Hollifield 2004).

Policies that restrict access to territory and tighten refugee status procedures are responsible for any deterrence effect, not those restricting integration or socioeconomic conditions (Hatton 2008, 28).

Northern European countries have many times more asylum seekers than we do, and are even more desperate for solutions, but European commissioner Franco Frattini admitted that ‘when thousands of people are ready to die in order to gain a future in Europe, it means that the fortress is indefensible” (Migreurop 2006).

It was not until interdiction was increased and ‘migration zones’ excised from northern Australia that the numbers of asylum seekers arriving by boat decreased.

Under the Rudd government interdiction has continued – indeed, it has been increased. The ‘migration zones’ still stand.

The main reason flows of asylum seekers decreased under the Hoard government? They decreased around the world.

Have a look at this:

Thanks to Pollytics for this figure.

(If you would like information about the sources cited – just make a request in the ‘Comments’)

They take our f******* potato sorting jobs!!

It’s Sunday Funday! This is a very funny standup spot from Doug Stanhope (pardon my ignorance, but I had never heard of him before!)

He tells the truth about prejudice towards immigrant workers – and, be warned, uses some juicy language to do it!

Enjoy.

more about “They take our f******* potato sorting…“, posted with vodpod

Floating new solutions for asylum seekers?

The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, yesterday introduced a Bill to enshrine in law measures that prohibit the detention of children in detention centres and ensure people don’t languish in detention for years on end.

The Migration Amendment (Immigration Detention Reform) Bill 2009, introduced in parliament t yesterday, and passed on the ‘voices’ will give legislative effect to the Rudd Government’s New Directions in Detention policies announced in July last year.

The detention policies announced in July 2008 that provide the framework for the Bill are:

1. Mandatory detention is an essential component of strong border control.
2. To support the integrity of Australia’s immigration program, three groups will be subject to mandatory detention:
   a.         all unauthorised arrivals, for management of health, identity and security risks to the community
   b.         unlawful non-citizens who present unacceptable risks to the community, and
   c.         unlawful non-citizens who have repeatedly refused to comply with their visa conditions.
3. Children, including juvenile foreign fishers and, where possible, their families, will not be detained in an immigration detention centre (IDC).
4. Detention that is indefinite or otherwise arbitrary is not acceptable and the length and conditions of detention, including the appropriateness of both the accommodation and the services provided, would be subject to regular review.
5. Detention in immigration detention centres is only to be used as a last resort and for the shortest practicable time.
6. People in detention will be treated fairly and reasonably within the law.
7. Conditions of detention will ensure the inherent dignity of the human person. Bill to abolish detention debt passes first hurdle

Meanwhile, Jack Smit of Project Safecom has an ‘exclusive tip-off’:

“Immigration chiefs are worried stiff this morning about overcrowding on Christmas Island on the back of Unannounced Boat Number 15 just having been intercepted, and they’re whispering about chartering a ship and mooring it off the Christmas Island shore.

“Forget about Chris Evans’ commitment, given at ANU last year to release people from detention after initial health and security checks. Immigration will not allow him to actually give those folks bridging visas with work rights so they can fly off the island into the Australian community and find

How much do they owe us for tormenting them?

“Do we charge drug dealers? Serial paedophiles? Sadistic murderers? Multiple rapists the cost of their detention?”

Coalition MP Petro Georgiou asked these questions of federal parliament yesterday, in a speech on the proposed legislation to drop the invoices for torment given to asylum seekers.

“The charging of people who arrive on our shores seeking protection, the cost of their detention is part of the way in which we have demonised them and presented them as being worse than criminals.” ‘Dark chapter’: Georgiou to cross floor on asylum bill

Mr Georgiou is one of the few MPs who stood up to John Howard over the treatment of asylum seekers, in what he calls the ‘dark chapter in our history’.

While he named the Keating Labor government for introducing the measure, he acknowledged that under his party treatment of asylum seekers and conditions of detention became much harsher. Do we still need to worry about immigration detention?

He was close to tears when he recalled that the party had endorsed the policies with no resistance.

“It cannot and it should not be denied that we did go along, we all did,” he said.

“The votes from the Parliament shows. Going along had its consequences.

“Vulnerable men, women and children were harmed by the legislation we voted for and by the practices and abuses they’ve spawned.”

The quietly spoken MP says detention bills often become another form of torture.

“This dark chapter is about the incarceration of men, women and children behind razor wire in isolated locations,” Mr Georgiou said.

“It is about the imprisonment of innocent people for periods longer than criminals convicted of serious felonies.

“It is about the demonisation of people fleeing persecution. It is about the denial of psychiatric attention to sick people to whom the Government owed a duty of care.

“No advanced society should allow on its statutes a law that so degrades and humiliates fellow human beings who are legitimately calling on our protection.

“We have an obligation to our own and to future generations to support this bill. I will support the bill and I commend it to the House.”

From 2006 to 2008, detainees were billed $54 million but the Commonwealth recovered less than $2 million. Charging people for locking them up

The Opposition’s immigration spokeswoman, Sharman Stone, says that revoking the fees will bring more boatloads of asylum seekers. Cutting detention fees makes us ‘soft touch’

Indian students still want to study here despite bashings

An immigration consultancy based in India and Australia reports that the recent spate of attacks on Indian students studying in Australia has had no impact on the number of people from India applying for an Australian visa.

Naresh Gulati, the CEO of Oceanic Consultants, which helps Indian students secure Australia visas, says it has seen no fall in applications from Punjabi students. Gulati says:

“Australia is the most conducive, friendly and non-racist place that really encourages students to settle there. My whole family is living there and we have not faced any kind of racial attack or discrimination so far.”

Another Indian migration consultancy, GlobalVisas.co.in, are also reported as saying that the attacks have had very little impact on visa applications.

The Aussie Possie has published posts as the ‘Indian bashing’ story developed, and to view just two click here: Spicy opinions about Indian bashings and Is Australia racist: how the world sees the bashings of Indian students

Children suffering in secret on Christmas Island

Jack Smit, from WA Human Rights group Project Safecom, claims that Christmas Island harbours more secrets than Woomera and Baxter

Jack claims that there are ‘86 locked-up kids’ there, but that the Immigration Department

“ manipulatively leaves blank the field “children” in their overview of men, women and children in the various detention centres around the country (figure 1 of the weekly PDF File update), and it even goes further, blatantly misleading the public by stating (figure 7) that there are ZERO children in immigration detention centres.”

Amnesty International Australia says that

“Eighty six children, including 59 unaccompanied minors, are currently being held on Christmas Island. The detention arrangements in which children are kept, such as the ‘construction camp’ facility which currently holds 68 children, is inappropriate for children even for the briefest period. The ‘construction camp’ consists mostly of metal, concrete and gravel, with small claustrophobic bedrooms and no ways to communicate with the outside world. A further eighteen unaccompanied minors are currently held in community detention.

“Although the Federal Government has committed to no longer keeping children in detention centres, these alternative detention arrangements with their restrictive conditions and lack of services have similar detrimental psychological impacts on children.” Christmas Island is no place for children

Jack Smit claims that the situation is worse than it was in the days of Woomera and Baxter detention centres, because there is no public overview of conditions on Christmas Island .

“What happens on Christmas Island stays on Christmas Island, a vastly different scenario than at the time of the shocking treatment at the Woomera and Baxter detention centres where a large section of the citizenry was informed about what took place inside Australia’s refugee jails,”

Racism works! Cross-Race Cooperation

Here is Sunday Funday’s TV ad : a South African effort to show us what cross-race cooperation can REALLY achieve!

Thanks to Sociological Images at Contexts org for sharing this ad with the blogosphere.

more about “Sociological Images » Modeling Cross-…“, posted with vodpod

Bashings of Indian students: Does Mr Plod need a new map?

Greg Sheridan wrote an excellent article this week in the Australian Better policing could quell racist attacks

Sheridan says that he has spoken to many Indian students over the past few weeks, and found that

“None I spoke to thinks of Australia as pervasively racist. None has become anti-Australian. But they have real grievances about these attacks and the responses to them, and they overwhelmingly believe there is an element of racism in the attacks. They also report sporadic incidents of racial harassment below assault.”

Sheridan says that the answer is not ’clever diplomacy’ or denials of racism, but much more simple:

Making Melbourne and Sydney’s trains safe to travel on at night.

Sheridan claims that the reason that this is not happening is because

“Our policing practices have been badly warped by the industrial relations dynamics of police unions and the under-investment in police numbers.”

But I think that the reason goes more deeply than that. Since working with new settlers in Australia I have got to know quite a few police, and have been impressed with their efforts to understand their cultures and their determination to be available to them, and to overcome any negative reactions that might be the result of having lived in places where police corruption and violence are usual.

Have you ever tried to be the hand of impartial justice with your children, for example, and also loving and kind?

It takes a rare and highly developed person to be able to do this. Most of us muddle along. Can we expect an institution to do it?

Should the police go back to their old-fashioned roles of cold justice, and let other institutions provide human kindness?

Are the police losing their way because their roadmap is impossible to follow?

See Spicy opinions about Indian bashings Racism? Maybe we need to eat it If you prophesy a race war, will it happen? The debate continues while another Indian bleeds

From those who have little, much is asked

Today is World Refugee Day.

In a statement to mark the day, Refugee Council CEO Paul Power said:

“Australia’s geography and its restrictive visa policies mean that the numbers of asylum seekers reaching this country are small in global terms.

“Given that the great majority of the world’s refugees seek asylum in countries within their immediate neighbourhood, a strong commitment by Australia to refugee resettlement is highly appropriate.

“There is a strong need for Australia to continue to advocate for other nations to increase their commitment to refugee resettlement.  In 2008, just 0.8% of the world’s refugees were resettled.

“These figures put recent debates about asylum seekers arriving by boat in perspective, showing that people movements to Australia are tiny in global terms.

2008 Global Trends, UNHCR

World Refugee Report 2009 USCRI