Refoulement for Hazara refugees in Indonesia

The most basic right that all refugees and  asylum seekers have is that of non-refoulement – that is, not to be returned to the danger they are fleeing.

Countries that are signatories to the UN Refugee Convention are bound by international law not to do so.

Almost without exception, Afghan Hazaras who reach Australia are determined by the Australian Immigration Department to have legitimate claims to protection as refugees.

If Australian can keep them from arriving, however, then other things can happen. And they do. Especially when, like Indonesia, the countries they are attempting to transit are not Convention signatories.

Thanks to Pamela Curr for alerting me to the following news report, roughly translated (by Google) as follows:

Metrotvnews.com, Tangerang: A total of 26 illegal immigrants from Afghanistan, Tuesday (24/11), were deported by the Immigration Officer Banten Province. They were caught when going to Australia in the waters of the Sunda Strait, Pandeglang. All the immigrants, 14 adults and 12 children, were deported through the International Airport Soekarno-Hatta. They secured the Police Air and Air Jakarta for not having an official immigration documents. (RAS)

View the news clip, with vision of a Hazara family being deported, at Metro TV News.com

Something you don’t want to do? Get a marginalised migrant

Happy Sunday Funday!
What would we do without marginalised migrants to do our dirty work?

(From KnoxNews.com)

Australians just don’t care much about the asylum seeker issue

I was at an academic conference last week, and it struck me how it seems that the default attitude is ‘doom and gloom’.

Racism? Marginalisation? The gap between rich and poor? Australian xenophobia? Yep, they are all rampant, you could think.

I am writing a PhD thesis about the success of integration of Hazara holders of Temporary Protection Visa holders into Australian society.

It’s a good news story.

And every so often I worry that it is not dark enough to be taken seriously.

But I am a natural optimist, and always am amazed by how many Australians welcome new settlers, and not by numbers who don’t want them.

The blogger at PoliticalOwl brought my attention to the most recent Morgan survey of what Australians see as the important issues, and the good news is that only 7% of Australians rate asylum and refugee issues as the most important problem facing Australia.

This is up from 1% last May, and 0 last November – but still – I see it as good.

‘Pollyanna’ Possie

Should we hire the Taliban to stop the boatpeople?

Pamela Curr of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre sent me this comment in an email today, and I think it is worth posting verbatim:

“We have the Indonesian Navy interdicting and shooting at boats on the high seas, now the Sri Lankan Navy are also doing our bidding- what’s next? Getting the Taliban to bomb the Hazaras as they struggle on foot and donkey through the mountain passes to Quetta where they might set out for Australia.”

Meet a people smuggler: video from Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera seems to have got closer than any other news service to the business of people smuggling.

Crikey featured this video today that shows Afghan asylum seekers arriving in West Timor, on a boat bound for Australia, and an interview with a smuggler.

The passage from West Timor is apparently the shortest to Australia, but still takes 72 hours on a fishing boat.

We learn that about 50 people are involved in each operation – at $US 10,000.00, that’s $250 each – if it’s divided equally. Not a get rich quick scheme – or get rich easily, especially for the boat operators who know that there are regularly boats that don’t make it.

The immigrant journey: a funny music video

Finding something funny about migration/refugees/racism is not easy, let alone doing it once a week.

But it is Sunday Funday once more, and so the Possie has searched and searched, and found this music video of the immigration journey of two Mexican migrants in the US.

You may guess from my tone that it is not the best video we have seen – but pretty good.

Until the last minute which gets a bit dumb.

Watch until then – and enjoy!

Khan, there’s no asylum seeker panic unless you make one

Is it something I ate? I am forced to agree once again with Andrew Bolt!

I noted that Amnesty International secretary general Irene Khan says Australia has a ‘panic mentality ‘about asylum seekers.

“There’s a lot of panic here when you think there are 3000 asylum seekers arriving in Australia,” she told SBS. Panic mentality consuming Australians

There is not a panic.  There are some arguing that we are being flooded. There are others arguing that we should take more. The people with most to say on the issue are politicians who are trying to gain political mileage out of the issue.

If someone in Khan’s position says that there is a ‘panic’, however, the comment itself adds to any embers of hysteria.

She has done the voices of reason about asylum seekers a disservice by speaking in this way.

I shall quote a few words of Andrew Bolt’s response-

‘Panic isn’t really the right word, is it, Ms Khan? I’d say we just don’t like having our hospitality abused…’

No Amnesty on Khan’s nonsense

Do you know someone experiencing visa difficulties right now?

I am at the International Conference on Migration, Citizenship and Intercultural Relations in Melbourne at the moment.

Just heard a great lecture from Stephen Castles – much to think about! Castles predicts that by 2050 the birth rate will have decreased in the Global South to the level of that now in the Global North.

Castles asked the audience a  question I have heard asked once or twice before – but it is still a good one: ‘raise  your hand if you were born in Australia’.

Answer for this audience – about one quarter.

My mind wandered (as it usually does, even in a lecture as good as Castles’) and I thought of a question I would like to ask Australian audiences:

‘How many of you have a friend or relative experiencing visa difficulties right now?’

My answer: 2 close relatives, one very close friend, and many other friends.

How about you?

Can you help? I am all at sea about Tamils

Will someone please help me with this?

What is going on with Tamils on boats?

Dr Kohona claims that they are just economic migrants, and could go just 22 miles across the water to Tamil Nadu in India instead, but would not make enough money there. Tamils could volunteer as sitting ducks for the Sri Lankan navy: Dr Kohona

Brahma Chellaney, professor of strategic studies at the Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research, says that Dr Kohona is deluded, And that they can’t get to India because the Sri Lankan navy would short them out of the water. Tamil refugee boats sunk by Sri Lankan navy

Michael Roberts, a dual nationality Australian/Lankan Adjunct associate professor of anthropology at the University of Adelaide says that some Australians have displayed incredulous gullibility about this issue, and that the camps where Tamils are in Sri Lanka are only surrounded by ‘one strand of barbed wire’, have shops and banks and complete medical services, and people are being moved out of them rapidly. Crude Reasoning

David Feith says that “All international media and non-governmental organisations have been locked out of the camps” and that the camps were marked by a “shortage of food and medical facilities.” Tamils’ horrific treatment makes them desperate to leave

Dr Kohona said that 54 NGOs had access to these camps U.N. Ambassador Kohona: Sri Lanka Refugee Situation Improving.

In a media release yesterday Minister Chris Evans said that 119 asylum seekers have been deported from Australia this year because they were not refugees.

“More than two thirds of a group of 50 Sri Lankans who arrived by boat in April have now been returned to Sri Lanka after they were determined not be refugees…

(The latest six) join 30 others from the same boat who returned to Sri Lanka voluntarily after their claims for protection were thoroughly assessed and it was found they had not raised any issues which might engage Australia’s obligations under the United Nations refugee convention.”

Seems to support the economic migrant theory.

But can someone explain why they did not set out in boats before the camps were filled? And why the risky journey to Australia, when it seems that in Tamil Nadu there are economic opportunities also?

I am plain confused.

Need high tech assistance? Try a refugee camp!

Refugees in Dadaab’s camps are crammed in to spaces meant for only one third of the actual population, most don’t have jobs – they can’t get work permits under Kenyan law- and boys are often recruited to become pirates and child soldiers.

And now some of them are earning money with internet-based jobs such as searches, transcription, virtual assistance and app testing, on computers rigged to withstand the heat and dust that permeate the refugee camps. Simple idea – great potential.

Samasource is a non-profit organization that outsources web-based jobs to women, youth, and refugees living in poverty. 520 workers in six third world countries are now working with Samasource.

You can hire a worker or donate to Samasource on their web site, or download the Give Work iPhone app to play a fun solitaire-meets-trivia type of game that helps Samasource-affiliated workers make a few bucks.