Here’s a good part of the reason the Afghans are coming

I saw this news item yesterday about Pakistani migrants caught in Hong Kong after sea journey from China, and it got me thinking. Pakistani asylum seekers? (The body of the news item identifies the ‘migrants’ as refugees).
I haven’t heard of Pakistani nationals who are refugees, but Pakistan has (reluctantly) hosted hundreds of thousands of Hazara [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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: [...]

Dutch boatpeople!!

On this day, 16 November 1629, Commandeur Francisco Pelsaert, sailing in the Dutch vessel the “Saardam”, ordered two mutineers from the Batavia Mutiny to be abandoned on the West Australian coast probably at the mouth of the Hutt River, 450 km north of where Perth now stands.
They were provided with food, a boat, trade goods [...]

Temporary protection: Not a safe haven for Sharman Stone!

I was so taken with Sharman Stone’s crazy ‘logic’ that I almost forgot the sick feeling I had when she began to speak yesterday about reinstating the temporary protection visa.
Ms Stone became strident under Steve Price’s straight questioning on the ABC:
That’s what I’m saying. You will not qualify for welfare!
Steve Price: Yes so that means [...]

Tamil refugee boats sunk by Sri Lankan navy

Kohona’s argument is “bizarre”, according to Brahma Chellaney, professor of strategic studies at the Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research and a commentator on Sri Lanka. See Tamils could volunteer as sitting ducks for the Sri Lankan navy: Dr Kohona
The Australian reports today that Professor Chellaney says that the boat journey to India was “far more [...]

Tamils could volunteer as sitting ducks for the Sri Lankan navy: Dr Kohona

Pamela Curr of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre sent an email this morning commenting on the interview on Lateline with Dr Palitha Kohona, Sri Lanka’s permanent representative on the UN.
Dr Kohona denys that Tamils are persecuted and at risk in Sri Lanka.
As well as claiming that the Tamils coming to Australia are just economic refugees, [...]