Immigration, refugees
-
I stand at the door and knock.
Pope’s Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees January 17, 2016 Dear Brothers and Sisters, In the Bull of indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy I noted that “at times we are called to gaze even more attentively on mercy so that we may become a more effective sign of the Father’s Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Australians who fight in overseas wars.
Repost from 02/03/2015 The government has been concerned, as many of us are, about Australians fighting for IS in Syria and Iraq. The government is threatening to revoke the Australian citizenship of dual nationals who involve themselves in this war. Whether this will be successful is a very moot point. It is asserted by many Continue reading »
-
Vale Malcolm Fraser
Repost from 21/03/2015 I am sure that Malcolm Fraser’s concerns for human rights were always there. But as he grew and matured, that concern flourished and became obvious to all. He became our moral compass on human rights. I was first conscious of Malcolm’s concern for human rights when I listened to his speech in Continue reading »
-
Bob Kinnaird. Foreign worker exploitation.
To reduce foreign worker exploitation, enforce employer sanctions laws 2015 produced a never-ending stream of stories of exploited foreign workers on all kinds of temporary visas. They include overseas students, working holiday and 457 ‘skilled’ visa-holders. Nearly all temporary visas and some permanent residence visas are implicated. A Senate committee on Australia’s temporary work visa Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Radicalism and terrorism.
Repost from 15/10/2015 Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is talking a lot about his government’s commitment to counter radicalisation in the Muslim community. The NSW Premier and Police Commissioner also keep talking about countering radicalisation. At least this is preferable to the endless talk we had before about a ‘death cult’ and ‘team Australia’. But radicalism Continue reading »
-
John Menadue and Peter Hughes. Slogans vs Facts on Boat Arrivals, Part 2
Reposted from 23/09/2015 Tony Abbott did not stop the boats In this blog yesterday (22 September 2015) we pointed out that Tony Abbott kept the door open for tens of thousands of boat arrivals by opposing legislation that would have enabled implementation of the Malaysia Arrangement in September 2011. By this action, he helped turn on Continue reading »
-
John Menadue and Peter Hughes. Slogans versus facts on boat arrivals. Part 1
Reposted from 22/09/2015 How Tony Abbott helped to keep the door open for people smugglers. The ABC provided us with excellent coverage of the Turnbull-Abbott shoot out, but the various commentators still swallowed the myth that Tony Abbott stopped the boats. That is a great piece of spin, but the reality is different. This blog Continue reading »
-
Culture and Religion, Defence and Security, Immigration, refugees, Media, Politics, Religion and Faith, World Affairs
Magical thinking about ISIS.
Adam Shatz is the contributing editor at the London Review of Books. He lives in New York. In this article he says ‘The attacks in Paris don’t reflect a clash of civilisations, but rather the fact that we really do live in a single, if unequal world, where the torments in one region inevitably spill Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Drownings at sea.
Repost from 22/04/2015 The recent tragic loss of 800 Libyans in the Mediterranean has given once again an opportunity for the Government to infer that Australia’s refugee policies are designed particularly to stop people drowning at sea. It is self-deception or worse for the Government to suggest that its policies towards refugees have been motivated Continue reading »
-
To solve the Syrian Crisis, we need to overcome these three obstacles.
In the Huffington Post on 9 December, Seyed Hossein Mousavian describes the three issues that need to be addressed in order to solve the Syrian crisis. For link to this article, see below. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/seyed-hossein-mousavian/syria-crisis-obstacles_b_8740514.html?ir=World?ncid=newsltushpmg00000003 Continue reading »
-
How a photographer of refugees finds the stories that get left behind.
‘I feel an obligation to give something back to the people I photograph.’ See link to stories and photos from the Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/alessandro-penso-interview_5672f66fe4b0648fe3028939?ir=World%253Fncid%253Dnewsltushpmg00000003 Continue reading »
-
Culture and Religion, Defence and Security, Immigration, refugees, Politics, Religion and Faith, World Affairs
The Refugees and the New War.
In the New York Review of Books, Michael Ignatieff draws a link between failure of Western policy in the Middle East, it’s failure to counter ISIS and the resulting refugee flow into Europe. He says ‘ISIS wants to convince the world of the world’s indifference to the suffering of Muslims; so we should demonstrate the Continue reading »
-
Andrew Ailes. Does Charity Begin At Home?
Christmas comes but once a year, When in the northern hemisphere, The cold winds blow, the sun goes down, Now every day some children drown. The Christmas story’s full of hope, Yet life and death hang by a rope. It’s not the sword of Damocles, It’s shipwreck in the angry seas. The icy waves show Continue reading »
-
Allan Patience. Fighting Holy Wars in the Middle East
How do we deal with Daesh? The Islamic State (ISIS) has proven to be a brutally formidable force in Syria and Iraq. As we saw recently in Paris, it has spread its vicious tentacles into Europe. It is highly probable that we’ll see it erupt in North America and very possibly again here in Australia, Continue reading »
-
Walkley Award for refugee advocate, Safdar Ahmed.
All the 2015 Walkley Award Winners announced on Thursday evening came from mainstream media organisations except one, Safdar Ahmed. Safdar, who won in the ‘Artwork’ category for his documentary web-comic Villawood: Notes From An Immigration Detention Centre, is a Sydney-based artist and academic in the field of Islamic studies. The work depicts the stories of Continue reading »
-
John Tulloh. Turkey’s new neighbour – DAESH (Islamic State)
President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey must feel like a chess grand master playing several games simultaneously. He has far more neighbours and different cultures to contend with than most leaders: eight in all. They are a mixed bag across more than 2600 kms of borders – Iran, Iraq, Syria, Armenia, an Azerbaijan enclave, Georgia, Bulgaria Continue reading »
-
Spencer Zifcak. UN Human Rights Council Weighs in on Australia
On 21st of March 2000, an Australian delegation appeared before the UN Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in Geneva. The Hon Philip Ruddock, then Minister for Immigration in the Howard Government, led the delegation. The meeting did not go well. Confronted by exceptionally well-informed and assertive questioning by the Continue reading »
-
Arja Keski-Nummi Andaman Disaster – Regional Cooperation on Refugees
Too often in Australia we go cap in hand to the region when we have an asylum seeker or refugee problem. When our problems pass, we lose interest in regional cooperation. No wonder the region often see us as fair-weather friends. But our region faces refugee problems alongside ours. As a good neighbour we should Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Good schools, good teachers, good students and Gonski.
On November 15, 2015, The Sun Herald carried a very encouraging story about St John’s Park High School in Sydney, is principal Sue French and staff, and most importantly – its students. Quoting Ms French, the report said At .. St Johns Park High School, more than 90% of students come from a non English Continue reading »
-
John Tulloh. Europe: The political impact of a dead Syrian.
Ahmed al Mohammad may have a greater impact on Europe than his evil terrorist deeds did in Paris last week. It appears he was a Syrian asylum-seeker who, according to Greek records, passed through Greece last month and made his way through the Balkans to join his cohorts in France. He satisfied whatever checks there Continue reading »
-
Climate, Economy, Health, Human Rights, Immigration, refugees, Infrastructure, Media, SERIES: Freedom, opportunity and security, World Affairs
Michael Keating. The role of government in policy renewal.
In thanking Ross Gittins for launching ‘Freedom, Opportunity and Security’, Mike Keating explains the reasons why he and I decided to launch this series, first online and now in a book. Mike Keating’s book launch notes follow. I will also be posting Ross Gittins’ comments. John Menadue. Thank you Ross Gittins and thanks to you all Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Abbott lectures London on how to ‘stop the boats’.
Tony Abbott has been at it again, this time in London, claiming that he stopped the boats and that Europeans should follow suit. It is an oft repeated untruth that he stopped the boats. His one-liners are not supported by the facts. But the lie is deeply imbedded. Last month, Peter Hughes and I posted Continue reading »
-
Erica Feller. Good democracy is challenged by mass migration.
Mass migration in a globalised world might well turn out to become, not least from the perspective of democracy, one of the overarching and defining challenges of our time. Syria and the exodus of millions of Syrians to neighbouring states and beyond is currently bringing this home in the starkest of ways. The autonomous sovereign Continue reading »
-
John Tulloh. Turkey at a dangerous crossroad.
Spare a thought for Turkey as it goes to the polls on November 1. It straddles Europe and Asia, but it is not sure if it is part of either. Nor is it part of the Middle East, yet it shelters more Arab refugees than any other country there. They number two million – mainly Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Is Malcolm Turnbull sacrificing his principles?
The polls show most Australian voters have welcomed Malcolm Turnbull’s election as Prime Minister. I did. It is very early days, but I am concerned by signs that he is bowing very much to the right wing of his own party and former Abbott supporters rather than spelling out clearly his own policies that we Continue reading »
-
Good Samaritans in Greece
We have been told in Australia that asylum-seekers are so inhuman, that they would even throw their children overboard; that they are all ‘illegals’ and akin to criminals; and that they bring disease and wads of cash. Fortunately, helpers in Greece have taken no notice of this characterisation of asylum seekers. See the link below Continue reading »
-
Misha Coleman. Open Letter to Julie Bishop on Sri Lankan war crimes.
8 October 2015. Dear Ms Bishop Thank you for co-sponsoring the UN Human Rights Committee resolution negotiated by the Sri Lankan Government, which will hopefully provide some answers and finality to the mothers of 146,679 missing people, through the establishment of a domestic war crimes panel. You’ll know that these Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Christian Continue reading »
-
Nauru and the Philippines
Three days ago, on 6 October, I posted a story ‘Nauru and the Philippines‘. That story carried an unconfirmed report that the Australian government was negotiating with the Philippines government for the transfer of 600 asylum seekers in Nauru to the Philippines. Since then there have been several reports confirming the thrust of this story, Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Nauru and the Philippines!
The Nauru government has announced that the remaining 600 asylum seekers in the island’s immigration detention centre will be processed over the next week. This comes after a delay of two years and remarkably slow processing. Why this welcome change? What is afoot? We know that the Australian government is engaged in bilateral negotiations with Continue reading »
-
Frank Brennan. Border control gulags have had their time
What are the chances of Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten agreeing by Christmas that it’s time to close the refugee processing centres on Nauru and Manus Island? Turnbull and Shorten already agree that the boats coming from Indonesia should be stopped. The boats are now being stopped, if need be, with turnbacks, which neither side of Continue reading »