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
Read more
There are around 150 boys aged 14 to 17 currently locked up in the Darwin Airport Motel who have not left the building since April. These boys are almost all Hazaras, a persecuted minority who are being killed and driven out of Afghanistan by the Taliban. Many of these boys have seen their fathers and
Read more
The Australian government maintains that it does not detain children in immigration detention centres (IDCs). Instead, children are detained in Alternative Places of Detention (APODs) which can be motels or mining camps which SERCO, a global security company, runs. The Asti Motel in Darwin is one such APOD, as are the Leonora Mining Camp, two
Read more
On Wednesday morning a large group of asylum seekers walked out of the Darwin detention centre and stood quietly by the Stuart Highway holding up bed sheets so that passing cars could read such messages as “Give us mercy.” Pamela Curr, campaign co-ordinator, Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, was there: Like many small towns, Darwin leaks
Read more
I often think everyone should ask themselves the basic question that I pose to myself each day: What would I do if I was fleeing for my life and trying to save my family? I know I would do whatever it took. I would get on a boat no matter how dangerous and would pay
Read more
