Asylum Seeker Resource Centre blog

    • 22 SEP 10
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    Attitudes towards asylum seekers: Findings from the third Scanlon Foundation Survey

    Attitudes towards asylum seekers: Findings from the third Scanlon Foundation Survey

    The third Scanlon Foundation Survey, entitled Mapping Social Cohesion, was released last week.  Authored by Professor Andrew Markus of Monash University, the report charts the attitudes of Australians around a number of population issues.  The survey’s exploration of Australian attitudes towards refugees and asylum seekers makes for interesting reading. The results highlight the gulf in

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    • 21 SEP 10
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    Government concedes it will not send asylum seeker children to school

    Government concedes it will not send asylum seeker children to school

    On 10th September, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) issued a media release stating that 34 school-aged children currently detained in Darwin would begin attending classes the following Monday after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between itself and the Northern Territory Department of Education and Training.  The NT News picked up

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    • 20 SEP 10
    • 1
    The cruelty and indignity of mandatory detention

    The cruelty and indignity of mandatory detention

    When Professor Louise Newman took the unprecedented step of speaking out plainly on Lateline last week about the impending mental health crisis in Immigration detention centres, the reaction was zero. As the antipathy towards asylum seekers grows, carefully nurtured through successive elections by our politicians, Australia is reaching a position which allows any cruelty and

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    • 20 SEP 10
    • 0
    Afghan asylum seekers: who they are and why they seek asylum

    Afghan asylum seekers: who they are and why they seek asylum

    If the Scherger Air Base becomes an Immigration Detention Centre (IDC), the people most likely to be locked up there are Hazara people from Afghanistan. Hazaras are a minority group in Afghanistan who have been persecuted for centuries but more recently this has degenerated to a form of genocide under the Taliban. Hazaras are readily

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