refugees
The way in which refugees are excluded is one of the most serious human rights issues facing non-citizens. Refugees may find themselves denied a wide range of human rights including such basic rights as freedom, the right to work, the right to education and the right to safety. Thousands of asylum seekers have lost their lives seeking to cross international borders.
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Latest Deaths in Detention: Mohammed Asif Atay and Meqdad Hussein
Mohammed Asif Atay and Meqdad Hussein are the latest asylum seekers to die in Australian migration detention centres. Both were young men. Mohammed was aged 19. Meqdad was aged 20. Both were Hazara asylum seekers from Afghanistan. Both committed suicide. Mohammed had been detained for 10 months in the Curtin detention centre in South Australia. He had developed depression in the lead up to taking his own life. His death was reported on 29 March 2011. Meqdad was detained at the Scherger detention centre in North Queensland. Meqdad had recognised as a genuine refugee two or three months before his death. He lost hope when the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation issued an adverse security…
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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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Ahmad Al Akabi: Another asylum seeker death in Villawood
Ahmad Al-Akabi, aged 41, had a wife and was a father of three girls aged two, four and seven. He had come to Australia and had hoped to eventually bring his family with him. He arrived by boat. He was from Iraq. He is reported to have been in detention for over a year: first in Christmas Island and then in Villawood (a security facility surrounded by razor wire in Sydney). He had fled Iraq after being attacked by religious militias.[1] It is said that his two applications for asylum were rejected. It is also reported that he had begged immigration authorities to be allowed to go home. His deportation request was confirmed…
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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…
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“Crossing Over” – Harrison Ford stars as ICE Agent
Crossing Over is a 2009 American independent film drama exploring the lives of illegal immigrants attempting to “cross the border” literally and metaphorically to achieve legal status in the United States. The film deals with the border, document fraud, the asylum and green card process, work-site enforcement, naturalization, the office of counter-terrorism and the clash of cultures. The film highlights the dehumanising effects of border controls on both those seeking to cross the border and those involved in maintaining them. It also explores the crossing of cultural boundaries and the real and psychological conflicts that can result. Harrison Ford stars as ICE Special Agent Max Brogan, Ray Liotta plays Cole Frankel and…
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Australia seeks to process asylum seekers in East Timor
In a policy announcement echoing the discredited ‘Pacific solution’ of the previous Liberal Government, the new Australian government has decided to seek to detain asylum seekers in a ‘regional processing centre’ in East Timor. The new Australian policy reflects a general hardening of policies towards asylum seekers in the lead up to national elections. ABC news report ex-Amnesty International chief as saying that this policy will not work. The policy also reflects increasing practice engaged in by European nations of engaging third countries to prevent arrivals of asylum seekers and irregular migrants. A notable example is the detention in Libya of migrants seeking to reach Europe. The Global Detention Project…
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Remote Control Borders: Violating Freedom of Movement
Article 13(2) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says that everyone has the right to leave any country. Increasingly countries are cooperating to violate this human rights by preventing aslyum seekers and others from leaving a country to seek refuge in another country. Some examples are: Egypt: which prevents Africans from leaving Egypt in attempting to enter Israel. On 11 June Reuters reported the killing of migrants on the Egyptian border, who were attempting to leave Egypt. 18 people have been killed this year so far, as compared to 19 for the whole of last year. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE65A0CZ.htm Indonesia: which cooperates with Australia to prevent asylum seekers leaving Indonesia to…
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The Berlin Wall and Barack Obama
In recent days Germans and those affected by the Cold War are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is an anniversary worth celebrating. A chasm between the politics of the west and the communist world dissolved and people that had been kept apart for 40 years were suddenly able to come together. The process has not always been easy and far from perfect, particularly in respect of poverty. Nonetheless walls came down: literally and metaphorically. The White House press release on 6 November leading up to the event says little beyond congratulations: On the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the fall…
