Immigration, refugees
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FRANCES RUSH: Reflections on the year for people seeking asylum
Last year was a very challenging year for people seeking asylum and the many Australians who support them…. Continue reading »
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ARTHUR SING.- Thailand also cruelly treats asylum seekers. It has it’s own Black Hole of Calcutta.
Manus and Nauru remain a focus in Australia for everyone concerned about the cruel treatment of refugees and asylum seekers and rightly so…. Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI: Re-emergence of Dodgy VET Colleges
Since January 2018, the Australian Skills Quality Agency (ASQA) has cancelled the registration of around 450 private VET colleges. This is after years of such cancellations being relatively rare. A spokesperson for ASQA has said this reflects an improved “ability to better target regulatory activities on providers demonstrating the highest risks to VET in Australia”…. Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI: Dysfunction in Home Affairs officially confirmed
The dysfunction in the Home Affairs Department that has been long reported on (see here, here, and here) has now been officially confirmed in a survey conducted by the Australian Public Service Commission…. Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI. A Cruel Government Setting Regional Migrants Up for Exploitation and Failure
On 16 November 2019, the Government’s much touted new regional migration visas took effect. One of these is a five year provisional visa that requires the migrant to be nominated by a state/territory government. To secure permanent residence, the provisional migrant must live and work in the relevant region and earn at least $53,900 per… Continue reading »
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MADELINE GLEESON. Behrouz Boochani: Still in limbo (The Interpreter 28-11-19)
The Kurdish-Iranian journalist left Manus Island after six years, but the bureaucratic hurdles still lie before him…. Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI: Asylum Applications from China and Malaysia
Government has argued the surge in asylum applications from Chinese and Malaysian citizens is just part of normal growth in the caseload (see here). Nothing could be further from the truth. The surge is entirely the result of poor policy such as the staffing cap, Home Affairs rushing implementation of e:visas for Chinese nationals to… Continue reading »
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The invisibility of Asian–Australians is a national scandal. The silence on this scandal is a disgrace
As I read through the opinion articles in The Canberra Times and The Australian on Saturday 9 November, I grew increasingly exasperated at the total absence of any Asian voice. I then did an online search of opinion articles in the Fairfax media (The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald), plus The Daily Telegraph. As far… Continue reading »
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FRANCESCA BEDDIE. The Golden Country, Australia’s Changing Identity.
I follow migration matters closely, so Tim Watt’s survey of the White Australia Policy and subsequent immigration policy was familiar territory. For those who don’t, there is much to recommend in the story he tells and his demonstration of the economic benefits of skilled migration. But his analysis has flaws…. Continue reading »
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MAX COSTELLO. Who’s right about Medevac airlifts to Australia – the doctors or Peter Dutton?
The government’s traditional scare campaign having failed to work – because Medevac transfers have not re-started the ‘people smuggler’ boats – a very frustrated Home Affairs Minister Dutton is running a new ‘repeal Medevac’ line: he says the Medevac law is a con because no transferees are in hospital. But it’s his own Australian Border… Continue reading »
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CAVAN HOGUE: Why is Mr Dutton afraid of Australian children?
The Australian women and children facing danger in Syria are not being brought home because it can’t be done or because they would be a threat to Australia but because of cheap domestic politics. As H.L. Mencken observed: “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be… Continue reading »
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BRUCE DUNCAN. Mr Morrison, please do not abandon innocent Aussie children in Syria.
How will the Morrison government respond to the desperate plight of some 65 women and children detained in a camp in Syria? Relatives are pleading with our government to bring their family members safely home, but it appears immobilised by fear of a political reaction. How good is that?… Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI: Prime Minister fudges regional migration figures
In a speech at the Migration and Settlement awards (23 October 2019), Prime Minister Scott Morrison crowed about the number of regional migration visas issued in the first quarter of 2019-20. Now Immigration Minister Coleman has announced the target will be increased from 23,000 to 25,000 and that Perth and the Gold Coast will be… Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI. Pezzullo in Denial
At Senate Estimates this week, Home Affairs Secretary Mike Pezzullo denied the record number of (largely non-genuine) asylum applications under his watch is a crisis. This is like the black knight in Monty Python’s Holy Grail insisting losing his arms and legs was just a flesh wound. But more seriously, Government allowing Pezzullo to get… Continue reading »
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‘It’s no crime to be a refugee’.
Review of Kavita Puri, Partition Voices: Untold British Stories (London: Bloomsbury, 2019), 297 pp. This is an important, interesting and elegantly written book. ‘It is no crime to be a refugee’, says one of the persons interviewed for the book. The story of refugees is the story of transience, fragility, rootlessness and impermanence. With refugees… Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI. Current surge in asylum seekers is not normal for Australia
Writing in The Conversation, Regina Jefferies and Daniel Ghezelbash argue the current surge in onshore asylum applications is not ‘unprecedented’ because tourists or students often lodge claims for asylum due to circumstances beyond their control. They give the example of the Chinese students after the Tiananmen Square massacre. But Jefferies and Ghezelbash fail to note… Continue reading »
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IAN MACPHEE. Manus Island
As a defence lawyer in criminal cases in New South Wales and Papua New Guinea I saw many prisons, including on Manus Island. Most had a harsh reality that one might expect in jails for convicted criminals. Yet I will never forget some of the cruelty inflicted on prisoners who had misbehaved in NSW jails…. Continue reading »
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BRET STEPHENS. Blessed Are the Refugees (The New York Times 13-9-19)
Under Donald Trump, America is ceasing to be the last best hope…. Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI: Morrison’s Mixed Messages on Migration
A string of immigration related articles in The Australian on 5 September 2019 and on 7 September 2019 again dutifully conveyed the Government’s mixed messages on immigration policy without asking a single question about the inherent inconsistencies and loss of control over Australia’s visa system. The Government continues to promote three very separate messages on… Continue reading »
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The Sri Lankan family – just a case of bloody mindedness
We await further operation of Federal Court processes before the future of the Sri Lankan family being held on Christmas Island is finally known. In the meantime, it’s worth reflecting on why the government has chosen to take such a hard line on this family…. Continue reading »
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REBECCA TAN. How a conservative town in Australia set aside politics to rally for a family facing deportation (The Washington Post, 5 Sep. 2019)
Biloela, population 6,000, is a rural town in northeast Australia. When the town’s first — and only — set of traffic lights was built 10 years ago, residents were sent into a tizzy. Many families still work in coal mines or cotton farms. On weekends, people fish…. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. The continuing litany of lies on boat arrivals and border protection.
I am sorry if I keep repeating what I have been saying for four years but when will we finally accept that we have been consistently conned and lied to about boat arrivals and border protection for a long time. Our national policies on asylum seekers have been built on the shifting sands of government… Continue reading »
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Dysfunction in Home Affairs officially confirmed
The dysfunction in the Home Affairs Department that has been long reported on (see here, here, and here) has now been officially confirmed in a survey conducted by the Australian Public Service Commission…. Continue reading »
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MAX COSTELLO. It was the best of days; it was the worst of days
July 30, 2019 was the best of days for Australia’s immigration detention centre detainees because, at last, a mainstream media outlet revealed that their cruel maltreatment involved apparent criminal offences under Australian law. It was the worst of days, because it revealed that the law’s regulator had not charged Home Affairs over an emblematic asylum… Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI: Government Responds to Dutton’s Visa Chaos on Asylum Seekers
The Government has at last responded to the chaos in our visa system. In response to a question from Senator Keneally, Senator Linda Reynolds has suggested the bridging visa backlog is apparently due to an unexpected surge in visa applications that caught Home Affairs off-guard. Also, in 2018-19 there has been a 12 percent fall… Continue reading »
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BOB DOUGLAS. Changing Australian Refugee Policy: What is realistically and politically feasible?
Is there a new spirit of bipartisanship developing between Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese? As well as discussing a bipartisan approach to the legislation of religious freedom and an indigenous “voice”, might they also consider a new bipartisan approach to refugee policy?… Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI: Government reveals details of its net overseas migration (NOM) forecast
The Government has at last revealed some details of its 2019 Budget forecast for a record breaking level of sustained NOM. The key is a significant increase in the net contribution from temporary visa holders. This would mean the current stock of around 2 million temporary entrants in our population must rise even more rapidly…. Continue reading »
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Thai police seize 51 Pakistani Christian asylum seekers (UCANEWS Reporter, Bangkok, 8 July 2019)
Thai authorities in Bangkok have arrested 51 Pakistani Christian asylum seekers in an incident that has reignited fears among the city’s Christian refugees of another immigration crackdown on illegal immigrants. According to eyewitnesses, immigration authorities arriving in two police vans pulled up outside a low-rent apartment building in Bearing Soi 7 in eastern Bangkok where several Pakistani… Continue reading »
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FRANK BRENNAN. Australia and the refugees who come by boat
We have now all endured our third election in a row when boat turnbacks and the punitive treatment of refugees and asylum seekers featured. The overwhelming majority of our politicians and the overwhelming majority of voters are agreed that the boats from Indonesia carrying asylum seekers transiting Indonesia should be stopped, and the refugees and… Continue reading »
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LISA MARTIN. Tampa refugee taken in by New Zealand wins Fulbright scholarship (The Guardian)
‘Given the chance at a new life, we have grabbed it with both hands,’ Abbas Nazari says. … Continue reading »
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