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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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Angelina Jolie and the Refugee Warehouses
What makes someone like Angelina Jolie take an interest in the lives of refugees? What makes anyone take interest? In this video Angelina visits refugees in Afghanistan. It’s clear that there is no “foreignness” in how she relates to them. She sees them as people who are suffering, and to whom we should respond.