The wall.It’s been in the news a great deal recently, as Berlin and the world commemorate the 20th anniversary of the falling of the wall that divided East and West Berlin.
The new wall hardly makes it to the news at all – that is, the walls, both physical and virtual, that have been erected all [...]
Posts Tagged as ‘human rights’
November 11, 2009
The Wall: Ex-East German guards patrol new asylum seeker wall
September 14, 2009
Which goods are produced by children and slaves?
(I am breaking my own rule here, because this item is not about maginalised migrants- but I felt it was too important not to publicise as widely as possible. And, indeed, the Australian 457 visa has come dangerously close to producing forced labour Chinese slave labour in Australia )
Change.org reports that the US Department of Labor [...]
September 10, 2009
Men not protected in new ‘honour killing’ laws
In Australia, some victims of torture or inhumane treatment currently do not qualify for the protections that refugee visas provide.
The government has just announced that the law is set to change.
Under the new protection provisions women at risk of genital mutilation and so-called “honour killing” if returned to their home countries, would be eligible to [...]
August 19, 2009
Complaints of racism from Australian Somalis
Voice of America (VOA) reports that young Somali immigrants in Australia say they face racism and feel unwanted.
Four men from Somali backgrounds were charged with planning a suicide attack on an Australian army bases earlier this month.
VOA reports that community groups say that Somali refugees often are stuck in a kind of “no-man’s land” between [...]
August 14, 2009
The lawlessness of Immigration Departments: be very scared!
Suaad Hagi Mohamud is a Canadian citizen. Early this year a Kenyan airport official decided she wasn’t the woman whose photograph appears in her passport. (It had something to do with her lips!)
An official the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi agreed and was immediately declared an impostor and Kenyan authorities were asked to prosecute her. [...]
August 13, 2009
Australian immigration officials investigated over child abduction
In March 2001 an Iranian man and his four-year-old daughter arrived in Australia by boat. They were in South Australia’s Baxter detention centre in January 2003 when there were allegations of sexual contact between the man and his daughter.
Those allegations were discredited.
The man was then accused of aggressive and abusive behaviour and then placed in [...]
August 7, 2009
Remove your hat! It’s the immigration department!
The Sydney Daily Telegraph reports that a female bus passenger was at first denied, and then delayed from boarding while wearing the niqab (a veil that fully covered her face). The driver is alleged to have asked the passenger to take off her “mask” because it was “against the law to wear it on board”. [...]
July 24, 2009
Whole lives lost in shoddy, degrading refugee camps
Many refugees spend an entire lifetime in a refugee camp.
The recently released World Refugee Survey shows that millions of refugees spend anywhere from 10 to 60 years in
“shoddy, degrading refugee camps, where they are unable to move freely, work to support their families, or live anything resembling a normal life.
“In some cases children are born, [...]
June 21, 2009
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 [...]
