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Keywords: Detention

  • INTERNATIONAL

    Rebuilding Japan

    • Jack de Groot
    • 23 March 2011
    2 Comments

    As airstrikes are launched against Libya, controversy grows around Australia's detention centres, and NSW prepares for its election, Japan will inevitably slip off our news radar. The rebuilding work of grassroots agencies will continue for years to come.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Riots and refugees

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 22 March 2011
    6 Comments

    The reintroduction of the Complementary Protection Bill to Parliament this week ought be welcomed. Given the protests in Christmas Island, it is clear that the mandatory detention policy is also overdue for reform.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Blame detention centres, not detainees

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 21 March 2011
    37 Comments

    Those who defend the humanity of asylum seekers are often dismissed as bleeding hearts. It is tempting to respond by referring to those who defend the existing regime of detention as bleeding minds. The recent events in remote detention centres are deplorable, but predictable.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    One day at Villawood

    • Ben Coleridge
    • 16 November 2010
    8 Comments

    Soon enough there was a group of children in the yard and a soccer game was about to begin. First we had to decide the teams. I asked one small boy, whose family was from Sri Lanka, which country he wanted his team to be. 'Australia,' he yelled back.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Asylum seeker decision tests Government sportsmanship

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 12 November 2010
    6 Comments

    A litmus test for the health of a democracy is what a Government does when it loses cases in the highest court in the land. The first consequence of yesterday's High Court decision regarding the cases of two Tamil asylum seekers is that many cases will need to be reconsidered.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Refugees jammed in ASIO bottleneck

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 20 October 2010
    7 Comments

    'Karim' is calling every second day now. His protection visa application was lodged six months ago and he was interviewed four months later. He was brutally tortured in his home country and has lived with debilitating trauma ever since. He now thinks his case will be refused because of the long delays in processing.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Serious business for children

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 15 October 2010
    4 Comments

    The suffering of children opens a door into the hardness of society. Think about the experience of the Stolen Generations, the detention of asylum seeker children, the sexual abuse of children. Societies try to close doors that open on to vulnerability.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Kids in custody

    • Graham West
    • 06 October 2010
    9 Comments

    Young people should be held accountable for their actions. But that does not explain how almost 80 per cent of those on remand in a detention centre in NSW will not end up with a custodial sentence. If custody is a last resort, how can we get the balance wrong 80 per cent of the time?

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  • RELIGION

    On keeping a distance from governments

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 27 September 2010
    7 Comments

    Groups concerned for asylum seekers are now faced with bad Australian policies on asylum seekers like the regional processing centre and a harsher regime of detention. They should reject the policies but cooperate with governments to minimise the harm caused to asylum seekers by them. 

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Time for detention reform

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 24 September 2010
    9 Comments

    The recent tragic death of a man in Villawood Detention Centre has again raised questions about the need for Australia's harmful detention policy. Strong leadership is required to reform the process and abandon the 'race to the bottom' we saw during the election. 

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Memories of refugees

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 21 June 2010
    5 Comments

    I remember the 250,000 Cambodians in Site Two by the Thai border, and among them Chea, the sister of a friend, who died when the camp was shelled. I remember the many who spent years in Australian detention centres, and the sadness of watching as the light went out of the eyes of those detained for more than six months.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Refugee backflip misses what matters

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 12 April 2010
    23 Comments

    The decision to suspend the processing of future asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka does not respect the dignity of asylum seekers. Now that the Government has bent to the populist winds fanned by an opportunistic Opposition, there are grounds for fearing the claims of asylum seekers will be judged in a way that unduly reflects the interests of the Australian Government.

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