Last week the ASRC published a blog revealing how the The Sunday Telegraph was fuelling myths that asylum seekers were unlawful queue jumpers who cheat Australia’s otherwise generous and orderly refugee program. The Telegraph was at it again last weekend (06 Nov 2010) with an article by Piers Akerman who wrote, “Gillard has been forced
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This past week the Immigration Department released new refugee selection criteria, applicable only to Afghan asylum-seekers. Under the new guidelines it is set to be significantly more difficult for Afghan nationals to be recognised as refugees, having to prove they face a ‘real chance’ of persecution, rather than one that is not ‘remote or far-fetched’.
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“Come by boat and get a visa.” That was the headline in an article published in last weekend’s Sunday Telegraph (31 Oct 2010). To reinforce the message is a picture of an intercepted vessel headed for Christmas Island. Accompanied by a couple of uniformed Australian officials are a dozen huddled asylum seekers seated next to
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The revised Budget Estimates just released by the Gillard Government show that the Government continues its wasteful spending on it’s failed policy of mandatory detention. The amount of tax payers money committed to expanding Australia’s detention centres and the inhumane Christmas Island is staggering. The money to be spent next year on Christmas Island alone
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A recent report in the Sydney Morning Herald sheds some light on the human cost of Australia’s policy of mandatory detention for asylum seekers arriving by boat. In the year up to June 30 there were 39 instances of self-harm recorded in detention – a fourfold increase on the 10 cases recorded in the previous
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