immigration
One of the most direct ways that exclusion on the basis of citizenship occurs is by denial of access to territory. Denial of freedom of movement. What this can mean to the potential immigrant is denial of the right to work, the right to safety and to education. Thousands of irregular migrants have lost their lives seeking to cross international borders.
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Migrant Rights? Not our problem …
Despite being urged to do so, Australia will not ratify the Migrant Workers Convention: one of the major human rights treaties of the world. The Australian Human Rights Commission and countries taking part in a review of Australia’s human rights performance under the UN universal periodic review, urged Australia to consider ratifying the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (Migrant Workers Convention). Australia will not even consider this recommendation. The Australian government response stated that “it views the existing protections for migrant workers as adequate” and that Australia “does not intend to become a party to ICRMW”. Australia has many migrant workers simply…
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Lush – cosmetic or real
By Rahila Gupta. The EU is on the point of turning its back on the Schengen agreement. Welcome to the World Passport: ‘this document confirms that its bearer is a human being, and not an alien’. Rahila Gupta reports on the campaign for open borders From 23 May, Lush, the ethical cosmetics business will run a week-long campaign for open borders, distribute a broadsheet on immigration produced by the group No One is Illegal (NOII) and stock the inspiring book Open Borders by Teresa Hayter throughout their network of 90 stores in the UK. The campaign itself will kick off with Aaron Barschak and members of NOII attempting to board…
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Why Global Citizenship?
1. Introduction Plutarch said: … nature has given us no country as it has given us no house or field. … Socrates expressed it … when he said, he was not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world (just as a man calls himself a citizen of Rhodes or Corinth).[1] Plutarch urged his audience to become conscious of a wider reality and to exercise their imagination to overcome a narrow, localised conception of their identity. That is the role of my global citizenship claim too. Plutarch and Socrates did not conceive of the world as a globe,[2] as I do: I have travelled across the world;…
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No One is Illegal
“You who are so-called illegal aliens must know that no human being is ‘illegal’. That is a contradiction in terms. Human beings can be beautiful or more beautiful, they can be fat or skinny, they can be right or wrong, but illegal? How can a human being be illegal?” Elie Wiesel, holocaust survivor, nobel peace prize recipient. If you search for the phrase “No One is Illegal” – you’ll see that its an idea that’s catching on. People are finding the idea relevant in places such as Vancouver, the UK, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Melbourne, Tubingen, Poland and Sweden. Organisations such as change.org and colorlines are speaking out against use of…
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More than one thousand deaths since 2000
On 15 December 2010, 50 people are believed to have drowned when their asylum seeker boat was smashed, only metres from safety, on the shores of Christmas Island. Some of the bodies of those who died will never be recovered. In protests by asylum seekers that followed, children held in detention are seen holding up placards asking: “The children died. Why?” [1] Yet the children and adults that died on 15 December are (horrifically) only a small fraction of deaths associated with “border security”. Sometime in 2010, the known number of deaths associated with Australia’s border controls passed 1000. This number in turn is only a small fraction of the known global toll associated with similar border security policies which are playing out on borders…
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Government should take lesson from Christmas Islanders
It appears from all reporting that what makes the tragedy that occurred on the morning of Wednesday 15 December, 2010 on the shoreline of Christmas Island all the more tragic is that human beings had to watch (and listen) helplessly whilst fellow humans died just metres away. The stories of the traumatised witnesses have painted a horrific picture of what it must have been like … the rope that was dragging a victim from the water going limp; a man most desperately wanting to jump into the waves and rescue a little girl but being held back by others who realised the futility of the attempt; and the realisation that a baby and mother who had…
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Villawood Detention Centre: Death of David Saunders – third Death in Three Months
Villawood Detention Centre continues to be a place of death with the third death of a detained man in three months. David Saunders, a 29 year old British national held for “visa breaches” was found dead at 3.20 am in the morning on 8 September. Mr Saunders was held in the high security wing and is reported to have been wanted in Britain on criminal charges. The cause of his death is not immediately known, although refugee advocates say he committed suicide. Media report that the man “did not arrive by boat”. Presumably he arrived by plane (there being no other way of arriving in Australia). Why the mode of his arrival is considered…
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The Crisis of Human Rights: Discrimination Against Non-Citizens
The basic idea at the heart of human rights is that all human beings are equal: equal in rights – equal in human dignity. This idea is universally accepted and believed. At the same time another idea – the idea that we are separately citizens of different countries is also a feature of the modern world – and the way it is practised has led to enormous discrimination and violation of human rights. In reality people, as a matter of law, have different fundamental rights even though we believe that all human beings are equal. In a recent paper titled “Human Rights in the Age of Migration: An Empirical Analysis of Human…
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Villawood Protests
What is a “protest”? In the context of democracy we think of them as citizen action – citizens speaking to their government – expressing their dissatisfaction with a policy or state of affairs. What then are we to make of the actions of a few non-citizens protesting on the roof of the Villawood detention centre in Sydney Australia? The protest started with the leap to his death of Josevata Rauluni 36 from the same roof on 20 September 2010 – who did not wish to be deported. A needless tragedy – for what harm could have come to Australia to extend to this man the hand of welcome? On our…
