The Wall: Ex-East German guards patrol new asylum seeker wall

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 [...]

Let’s stop talking about asylum seekers and do something – want to come to Indonesia with me?

James Hathaway is something of a hero of mine (yes, I know, I’m a nerd).
He is the sort of academic expert you refer to almost as you would holy writ – “if he says it it must be so”- for issues of refugee and international law.
He has been dean of Melbourne University Law School for [...]

“Indonesian Solution” is sickening, degrading: new report

 
What does the ‘Indonesian Solution’ look like?
And why do people try to escape by risking their lives on rotten boats?
Jessie Taylor has today released a comprehensive report on immigration detention facilities in Indonesia.
She visited 11 facilities in July 2009. Her report, Behind Australian Doors: Examining the Conditions of Detention of Asylum Seekers in Indonesia, is [...]

Asylum seeker boat blast: Who dunnit?

The inquiry into the blast on the boat that killed five asylum seekers off north-west Australia earlier this year was caused by arson, the Northern Territory Police inquiry has found. Sabotage behind refugees’ boat blast: Australian police
I receiver the following email from Pamela Curr this morning, who says that the inquiry in fact raises more [...]

Indonesia offers cash to asylum seekers

The Indonesian government is offering Afghan asylum seekers financial inducements trying to return home.
It is very likely that those ‘inducements’ are being in  turn financed by Australia Asylum seeker crowd control: Australia and Europe hire 3rd world bouncers
In a recent interview, Hariyadi Wirawan, Indonesian international relations expert, told Radio Australia that instead greater effort must [...]

Asylum seekers: malicious arithmetic and game show rhetoric

The Australian Federal Opposition is in deep trouble, to put it mildly, and is searching for an issue to raise its popularity with the Australian public. Vilifying asylum seekers worked for the Howard government, so the Opposition is wheeling that one out.
In the past week, three boats carrying suspected asylum seekers have been intercepted off [...]

Australia no longer charges for jail

A Liberal senator yesterday crossed the floor to help seal parliamentary approval of a plan to stop charging asylum seekers and immigration detainees for their mandatory detention.
The bill will remove the requirement that persons held in immigration detention in Australia be liable for the costs of their detention. The Bill will also extinguish all immigration [...]

Potoroos love asylum seekers

An oldie, but a goodie
Happy Sunday Funday!
(There hasn’t been much news of asylum seekers in the last week – I hope no news is good news. Enjoy!)

Malaysians do Australia’s dirty-work: Rudd goes to encourage them

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is beginning a week-long overseas trip in Malaysia, where he will hold talks on people smuggling with the Malaysian  Department of Home Affairs.
He and Foreign Minister Stephen Smith “will have very serious conversations about the joint efforts on how to stop it”. People smuggling first on PM’s overseas checklist
Just one day [...]

If there’s 10,000 by boat, how many by plane? The asylum seeker ‘crisis’

10,000 asylum seekers by boat? Let alone the plane people!
The opposition keeps telling the Rudd government to take the situation seriously, so here goes:
The temporary protection visa and other punitive measures have been proven to be ineffective – as well as horrific.
Germany experienced a sudden drop in asylum seekers when the Schengen agreement introduced regulations [...]