News Archive for May 2004 to January 2004
"A last resort?" HREOC's report of its National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention was tabled in Parliament, on Thursday, 13 May 2004. Read media releases and news reports...
Read later reports June 2004 onwards...
Stormy history comes to an end
When the last 17 detainees were transferred from the Port Hedland detention centre last weekend they left behind a tumultuous history which included arson, hunger strikes, rooftop protests and the occasional marriage. [...] One of those closely involved with the detainees was Sister Mary Keeley, who spent three years teaching them English. She started the lessons for mothers of 38 families under a tree in the secured yard.
Last man on Manus wins freedom
Yesterday the stateless, Kuwait-born Palestinian won his freedom. An email message from the Australian Immigration Department informed him: "You have been granted a visa and you will be here next week." [...] His solicitor, Eric Vadarlis, who had launched a Federal Court action to compel the department to process Mr Sisalem's application for asylum, said it was fantastic news. "It is a victory for common sense. The poor man gets to get on with his life and the Australian public gets to save $23,000 a day." [...]
However, Senator Vanstone's spokesman confirmed that the centre, which cost $4.3 million to run over a six-month period, would remain open although it will soon be empty.
Bakhtiari release ruling due next week
The Federal Court in Adelaide is expected to decide next week whether to grant the five Bakhtiari children an interim release from immigration detention.
Last Manus Island detention centre occupant granted visa
For nine months Palestinian born Aladdin Sisalem has been the sole occupant of Australia's detention centre on the island, north of Papua New Guinea. The Immigration Department today confirmed he was given a visa following an application by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees earlier this month.
Refugees reunited after four years still fear for the future
Michelle Alfaro, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees officer in Jakarta who handles separated spouse cases, said there were still many families stuck in limbo with no prospect of seeing their loved ones.
Court hears Bakhtiari boys were suicidal
The Federal Court in Adelaide has heard that the two Bakhtiari boys were suicidal after the High Court placed them into community immigration detention. [...] Centacare's Pauline Frick told the court they felt like their whole world was a detention centre and they were at risk of self-harm and suicide.
Bakhtiari boys win right to appeal
Lawyers for Alamdar Bakhtiari and his younger brother Muntazar have won the right to appeal the British refusal to grant them asylum in the British Court of Appeal.
Child detainees get British hearing
Mr Boylan said a key to the boys' case was that British law included the European convention of human rights, which contains an article forbidding "torture or inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment".
"Pushing the kids back to the Australian detention authorities subjected them to probably not torture, but to inhumane and degrading treatment and punishment," Mr Boylan said. "The way the boys were treated during that time at Woomera the English lawyers believe was a pretty obvious breach of the European convention. "There's also some thinking that Jack Straw made a mistake by thinking that the international convention of human rights is part of Australian law, which it is not. "That's why we can breach it. "The nub of it is that the English lawyers are fairly sure that the way we treat children detainees will be a breach of their convention."
British minister to face court over Australian asylum seekers
Asylum seekers rejected by Britain after Australian breakout win appeal
Boy detainees at centre of British human rights case
In July the Court of Appeal in London will be asked to declare Mr Straw in breach of the Human Rights Act for failing to protect the children from inhuman and degrading treatment at the hands of the Australian Immigration authorities.
The lawyer who represented the boys during their attempt to seek asylum, Eric Vardalis, says it will be a good opportunity for the boys to state their case, but it will also force Australia to justify its policy of locking up children.
Refugee status for slash boy
HREOC - which heard evidence the boy cut himself with a razor and tried to hang himself with a sheet - has called for all children in detention to be released in four weeks.
Refugee status for suicidal boy's family
AFTER being held in detention for more than three years, a family of three - including a boy who attempted to kill himself and a father whose mental health has deteriorated since being locked up - have been accepted as refugees. The Iranian family arrived at Ashmore Reef, off the northwest coast of Western Australia, in April 2001. [...] The family, who were granted refugee status on Tuesday, were the last of the families mentioned in the report to remain in detention.
Lawyers mount Australian Federal Court appeal for child asylum seekers
Lawyers are seeking an interim order which would free the five children from immigration detention and into the custody of Centacare, arguing their indefinite detention is unlawful. Justice Bruce Lander asked Michael Abbott Q-C, acting for the children, how such an order would change the children's day-to-day lives. He replied they now require constant supervision by people acting as wardens. The case has been adjourned until Friday so the children's lawyers can prepare evidence to demonstrate how their lives are currently restricted.
Release Bakhtiari children, lawyers tell court
The five Bakhtiari children should be released from detention while their father continued legal action to remain in Australia, the Federal Court was told today. Lawyers for the children said the federal government had undertaken to abide by a United Nations recommendation not to deport the children and their mother until Ali Bakhtiari had exhausted his appeal rights against the government's refusal to grant him a temporary protection visa.
Detention centre shut
WESTERN Australia's Port Hedland detention centre was empty yesterday after the last group of asylum seekers was moved out.
Amnesty report criticises Aust, US
In its report on Australia, Amnesty says: "National security was invoked to justify the erosion of human rights safeguards in draft laws on 'anti-terrorism' measures and refugee rights. "Domestic violence against Aboriginal women and children and indefinite detention of child asylum seekers were prominent themes in the domestic human rights debate."
School refugee kits under fire
"It's glossy propaganda," [Labor immigration spokesman ] Mr Smith said. "There's nothing wrong with providing factual information to our schools for the education of our children, but you've got to provide the good facts with the bad facts.
It's time to put away the big stick
The fact is that, agree with it or not, the Howard Government's tough line on border protection has worked - primarily because of the deployment of the Australian Navy to interdict people smugglers. In other words, the Prime Minister could easily declare victory in the battle against people smugglers - and then proceed to exhibit empathy to the relatively few asylum seekers who remain in detention (at considerable cost to the Australian taxpayer). There is also scope to give permanency to refugees who have been granted temporary protection visas (TPVs).
Libs consider softening on refugee visas
South Australian Liberal MP Patrick Secker, the member for the southeast seat of Barker, said yesterday there was no doubt the people involved were genuine refugees. He called on the Howard Government to overturn laws designed to deter boatpeople so TPV holders could apply for citizenship after five years.
"It gave the message out there that we are not a soft touch, but a few years down the track the TPV holders that are coming through are being shown to be good citizens," Mr Secker told The Australian.
Nauru detainees 'should be freed'
The call was made by more than 200 people who gathered on the banks of the Brisbane River to farewell two yachts bearing eight Australians, sailing for Nauru on a voyage of support for the 260 asylum seekers still on the island. [...] Australian Democrats leader Andrew Bartlett said all remaining detainees on the island, including about 50 Iraqis, should also be freed.
Interview with Senator Amanda Vanstone on Seven Sunrise
Mark Riley: You don't like children being in detention, do you?
Senator Vanstone: I don't think anybody does. Nobody does. I wish that people who were coming here would come here lawfully, come by plane or by safe boat and not come with people smugglers, who are just terrible people.
Most Nauru refugees to be resettled
Senator Vanstone today told Channel Seven that, to date, 131 Afghani asylum seekers on Nauru had been granted refugee status - just over 50 children, 60 men and the remainder women. "Most of those will be resettled in Australia," she said. "That shouldn't be a surprise to anyone; we've always said where people are judged to be refugees, we're a very welcoming country."
Horrors behind the wire in Australia's detention camps
[...] A new report from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission opens a horrifying door into life behind the wire, particularly for children. It tells of violence and despair, cruelty, the destruction of families, self-mutilation and suicide, and the infliction of severe, long-term psychological damage.
Visa holders to get second chance
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone is believed to have instructed her department to prepare legislation allowing holders of controversial temporary protection visas to apply for permanent residency. The move signals a shift in the Howard Government's rigid requirements for an estimated 9000 asylum seekers granted TPVs after arriving by boat without identification papers.
Protesters get cold shoulder from Vanstone
About 25 members of Albury-Wodonga branch of Rural Australians For Refugees waved posters in Hovell St as Senator Vanstone arrived by car but she dashed straight into the centre. [...] Fr Boyd said the point of the protest was to draw attention to the continued detention of children and to urge the Government to convert temporary protection visas to permanent status.
PM accused of double standards
The Federal Government has been accused of double standards by granting an exemption to the refugee son of killed Iraqi leader Izzedin Salim to visit his family.Mr Hujaj described the decision as the best consolation he could get in his time of grief. "I was not expecting this would happen so I am extremely thrilled. I am very grateful to the Government to be able to go and come back," he told an interpreter. "It's probably the first time someone in my position could travel like this."
Tampa final chapter as 12 get approval
The review by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees follows its recognition of 10 Afghans as refugees in February and means that only 22 who arrived on the Tampa remain on Nauru. They will stay there while the UNHCR negotiates with countries to resettle them. Democrats leader Andrew Bartlett welcomed the news but said that if any of the 22 came to Australia, the saga would continue because they would be given temporary visas.
Dehumanisation - humans respond
The writer Ahmad Shah Abed left Afghanistan to avoid forced recruitment by the Taliban. "They started collecting young lads again and many people were killed," he writes. He is in a psychiatric hospital after three years in detention in Port Hedland. Mary Yousefi, an Iranian secretary still in Baxter after three years, writes: "My son finds it hard to sleep and when he does he has very bad nightmares and wakes up screaming." [...] These stories come from Another Country, a collection of refugees' writing published this week, giving voices to people usually not heard. They show the consequences of the Federal Government's actions, which were examined in detail in the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's report on Australia's immigration detention policy regarding children.
Refugees' story hits Australian stage
"My view is that every country has the right to protect its borders but treating people like this � especially kids � I can't understand under any circumstances," [Majid Shukur, who plays the father] says. Shukur says In Our Name has been provoking powerful reactions from audiences, many of whom have been reduced to "tears of shock, shame and pity". "To give people some information about what really happened in those detention centres is very important, because it is the right of Australian people to know the truth," says Shukur. �We've had great feedback, and you can see that many people in the audience want to do something about it now � either letters to the government, donating money, or attending rallies � and I think that's a great thing."
In Our Name is currently showing at Sydney's Belvoir Street theatre.
Labor calls for scrapping of 'Pacific solution'
Government should close Nauru camp immediately
"Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone has finally acknowledged the legitimacy of the claims of the Afghan asylum seekers but not before putting them through the hell of detention on a Pacific island out of scrutiny of the Australian people and media," Senator Brown said.
Baxter prepares for detainees' transfer
Detainees have begun being transferred from the soon-to-be mothballed Port Hedland Detention Centre in Western Australia to the Baxter Detention Centre near Port Augusta in South Australia.
Waiting for freedom
He came to Australia in 1999 from Iran and was held in Port Hedland and Villawood as an illegal immigrant for more than four years. Since his release, he has been trying to make sense of his life, those four lost years and what he will do now that the bars are gone. One thing is constant - his poetry, which he writes to exorcise, or at least make peace with, ghosts.
92 Afghans on Nauru win refugee fight
BON VOYAGE to all those of FLOTILLA OF HOPE�
The Flotilla of Hope indeed carries our hearts, our concerns for those who languish in the detention centres of the Pacific Solution, and our grief�for those who�have perished under the�Southern Cross. Stavros Georgopoulos of Hopecaravan,�who has turned the dream of a Flotilla into a reality, is also a patron of JANNAH THE SIEVX MEMORIAL.
Activists leave for Nauru
Human rights activists sail from Sydney for Nauru with presents for children in the immigration detention centre on the island and messages of peace for their families.
Refugee campaigner calls PM a zombie
"I just want to say one thing about John Howard, he is a zombie," he said. "He's a zombie because he has a dead heart. No conscience. Now going to Nauru is not just for the refugees. We have no grievance with the Nauruan people. "The Nauruan people are beautiful people. They have been forced, absolutely forced to take on this concentration camp in Nauru."
About face: Afghans on Nauru to be let in
Despite tough rhetoric at the last election that none of the "illegals" would set foot in Australia, it appears most will now be allowed in, Government sources said yesterday.
Fifteen Afghans granted refugee status
Fifteen Afghan asylum seekers on Nauru have been granted refugee status, after a review of their cases, and most of them will be resettled in Australia.
Refugee status accepted
The Federal Government will soon announce that a "significant proportion" of detainees on Nauru have been accepted as refugees.
Immigration Detention in the Budget
2004-05 Budget - Tough and Compassionate
The government will continue to spend $46.7 million on combating people smuggling, irregular migration, capacity building in regional countries, and on assistance for refugees and displaced persons and to promote the return of people who do not need protection.
Our long term detention strategy will see additional capital funding of $134.2 million provided over four years for the redevelopment and refurbishment of Australia's onshore detention facilities including the development of Residential Housing Projects at Villawood (Sydney) and Perth.
2004-05 Budget Fact Sheets
LONG TERM IMMIGRATION DETENTION STRATEGY: $142.5 MILLION OVER FOUR YEARS
RESIDENTIAL HOUSING PROJECTS AND ALTERNATIVE DETENTION ARRANGEMENTS: $27.4 MILLION OVER FOUR YEARS
Portfolio Budget Statements (PBS) for 2004-05
A Fairer Immigration Budget - AUSTRALIAN DEMOCRATS IMMIGRATION BUDGET PAPER
The current system of mandatory detention and the Pacific Solution is economic irrationalism at its worst. The administrative reasons for detention are false and the costs far outweigh the purported benefits.
When detention after school becomes a way of life
Reem Jezan has won Chester Hill High School's citizenship medal for two consecutive years. That's not bad, especially considering that her home is the Villawood detention centre, which is a long way from Australian citizenship.
Media Watch reports on government policy of barring journalists
Ashmore off limits
Border control - media control
DIMIA's "secret" policy
Human rights activists on mission of mercy to Nauru
Human rights activists are embarking on a 4000-kilometre trip to Nauru to draw attention to the "innocent" asylum seekers on the island republic.
Child detention breaches UN convention: human rights report
A leaked final draft report by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) is calling for urgent changes to Australia's immigration detention laws.
Release the children, says report
The report says Australian migration laws and regulations fail to ensure the best interests of the child are a primary consideration in decisions affecting children - including the decision to detain, and the location and the manner of detention.
Detention of children condemned
Father's joy as family reunion comes closer
The long wait is nearly over for three refugees living in Australia whose wives and children have been stranded in Indonesia for about four years.
Living in limbo
All [spouses] were given a temporary protection visa (TPV) in Australia after arriving by boat, spending time in detention centres and finally being released when found to be refugees. When their wives and family tried to follow, they got stranded in Indonesia after their boats sunk, broke down or were towed back from Australia. They ended up at the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, who found they, too, were all refugees. For four years they have been in limbo, waiting for Australia to decide whether they can take the final step and join their husbands and fathers and begin a new life.
Leaks 'add weight' to detention inquiry calls
An Adelaide lawyer trying to secure the release of five children from immigration detention says a leaked document adds weight to calls for a royal commission into Australia's treatment of asylum seekers.
Govt admits �undeniable� damage to kids in detention
Australian Democrats Refugee spokesperson Kate Reynolds MLC (who visited detained families last Saturday) said �given the seriousness of the HREOC findings and the Minister�s acknowledgement that �damage to children of being kept in detention is undeniable�, the Rann Labor government cannot any longer refuse to take any action to get the children out of the prison-like environment of detention centres�.
HREOC denounces Govt policy of placing children in detention centres
According to information in the ACM documents, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission makes a series of damning findings against the Department of Immigration.
Labor says Govt should rethink detention centre policy
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, because they're prepared by ACM and it's off the back of a draft report, we do need to wait until we see the Commission's final report, which we're hopeful the Government will table in the Parliament soon.
Ruddock stands by detention of children policy
TONY EASTLEY: A short time ago I spoke to Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, the former Immigration Minister responsible for Australia's detention centres at the time that this report covers. He says while there were problems, the policy of detaining children is sound.
Ruddock defends child detention
CHILDREN will continue to be held in immigration detention despite a damning report into the practice, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said today. A leaked analysis showed a draft Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC) report was critical of the detention of children, the ABC reported.
Information Night with Senator Andrew Bartlett
On Monday 3 May 2004, ChilOut hosted an information evening with guest speakers Senator Andrew Bartlett and two of his advisers, Marianne Dickie and Karen Lee. Senator Bartlett and Marianne Dickie spoke of their two visits to Nauru, and Karen Lee shared her experiences of visting the Port Augusta housing project and Baxter detention centre.
Nauru judge reserves verdict
A NAURU judge has reserved his decision in a hearing to test the legality of detaining asylum seekers in the island nation. [...] The hearing before the Nauru Supreme Court ended late on Thursday afternoon. Ms Bogdan said the decision in the case was not expected for at least a month.
Let�s hear it for all the kids, Mr Premier
�The Premier says that he has called on both the Prime Minister and the Minister for Immigration to show compassion for the five children. �We now call on the Premier to lobby the Prime Minister for all families in Baxter to be released to community detention, including the family with a baby boy born just last week.
Children `under guard' for footy, family visits
The boys were accompanied by Centacare director Dale West at the football game. He was appointed by the court to supervise the children. The boys' two sisters yesterday visited their mother and baby brother, who are under 24-hour guard in an Adelaide hotel. [...]
Meanwhile, figures released from Canberra show Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone has steadily been reducing the numbers of children in high-security detention since she became minister in what observers say is partly an attempt to pre-empt a damning report by human rights commissioner Sev Ozdowski.[...]
Alanna Sherry from Children Out of Detention said the reduction in numbers was driven by political expediency rather than compassion. "There's kids in detention now who have been there for two years-plus," she said.
Government visa policies a 'sin'
The Catholic Commission for Justice Development and Peace has accused the Federal Government of discriminatory policy and practice in relation to thousands of asylum seekers living in the community. [...] Mr Purcell said, but for small non-Government funded community organisations operating "on the smell of an oily rag" in housing and advocacy - such as the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Australian Red Cross and the Uniting Church Hotham Mission - there might have been deaths or serious illness.
Read case histories...
Don't return children to detention
It is unlikely that the seven-year-old child of a family facing a return to detention and possible deportation understands why she must be punished because her parents dared to seek asylum in this country. It is certain her baby brother, who lives separately with their mother under constant supervision in a motel unit - at ridiculous and unnecessary public cost - does not.
Minister rebuked by child case judge
The lawyers were seeking an injunction to stop the children being returned to detention. They were freed from Baxter detention centre last August, but the High Court ruled their release invalid on Thursday. But yesterday morning, before the injunction was heard, the suburban house in Adelaide's inner east where the children had been staying was officially made a place of detention. [...] Mr Moore [counsel for the children] said the two oldest boys, aged 16 and 14, would no longer be able to catch the bus to school and could not ride their bikes to see their mother without a guard.
Illegal immigrant children may not be sent home: Howard
[Howard said:] "Just because that decision has come down and it's a very good decision, it clearly validates the whole detention system that is operating in this country, that doesn't mean we have to send the children back to where they came from.
"We want to be compassionate."
Children may go back to detention
The children, two boys and three girls aged between seven and 15, may be allowed to remain in the community if the Federal Government decides to declare their present home, in suburban Adelaide, a detention centre.
Children still pawns in Government�s legal game
�Why are we even fighting this issue in the courts?� asked Dianne Hiles, spokeswoman for ChilOut. �No child should be kept in detention, that�s not a legal issue, that�s plain common sense and decency. The Government has thrown a huge amount of money behind this case, pursuing it to the highest court in Australia, and for what? To keep these children behind bars.�
High Court rules not to protect children from Immigration Dept
The Australian Democrats have expressed disappointment at today's High Court decision, saying it meant the Government's policy of keeping children in detention centres could continue without interference from the Family Court.
High Court ruling on refugee children �barbaric� � Brown
The ruling of the High Court that effectively means five children released from Baxter detention centre can be returned from Adelaide to behind the razor wire is barbaric, Greens Senator Bob Brown said today.[...] �No reasonable human being can agree to this jailing of innocents � the Greens will oppose it at every opportunity,� Senator Brown said.
Government is responsible for welfare of child asylum seekers
Amnesty International Australia appeals to the Australian Government not to re-detain the five children at the centre of today�s ruling, noting that the Family Court ordered their release based on concern for their welfare. In 2003, the United Nations Human Rights Committee determined that the detention of these five children was arbitrary and in breach of international law.
MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURAL AND INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS v B AND B
The Family Court of Australia did not have the jurisdiction to order the release of children from an immigration detention centre, the High Court of Australia held today. The High Court also held that the Family Court did not have any jurisdiction to make orders concerning the general welfare of children held in immigration detention.
Read the case details.
Nauru orders all Australian lawyers home
Nauru judge complains
The Chief Justice of Nauru has lodged a complaint with his Government over the cancellation of visas for four Melbourne refugee lawyers.
Nauru bars boat people's lawyers
Uncle of Nauru justice minister to represent asylum seekers
The uncle [Reuben Kun] of Nauru's justice minister is the para-legal pleader appointed by the minister to represent asylum seekers challenging their detention on the tiny Pacific nation.The news comes a day after the justice minister, Russell Kun, barred an Australian legal team, headed by prominent Melbourne lawyer Julian Burnside, QC, from entering Nauru to represent the detainees in a hearing.
'Unqualified' lawyers to fight Nauru asylum case
Australia aiding and abetting corrupt act by Nauru
Senator Bartlett said the Australian Government is aiding and abetting corrupt behaviour by the Nauru Government by continuing to fund the detention centres, "Australian taxpayers have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to enable Nauru to imprison asylum seekers, an act that has quite likely been illegal from day one.
MEDIA RELEASE - Flotillas of Hope
An order to rescind the visas of Melbourne QC Julian Burnside and his legal team on the eve of their court appearance in Nauru was preposterous said a Flotillas of Hope spokesperson, Lynda Smith. The team, which was to appear in Court today on behalf of nearly 300 asylum seekers, was about to board their plane in Melbourne last night to Nauru, when they received a document signed by Nauru's President and Justice Minister cancelling their visas. However an Australian government solicitor acting for Australia and Nauru was allowed to board the 10pm flight. [...] Flotillas of Hope will depart from the Australian east coast mid May for Nauru and will continue to draw world attention to the plight of these asylum seekers and also the economic situation of Nauru which has resulted after years of phosphate mining.
More on Flotillas of Hope at: www.flotilla2004.com
NZ takes care of Australia's refugee responsibilities - again
Two Iraqi men are leaving Australia today to be reunited with their families in New Zealand. Their wives and children had been detained on Nauru for over two years and were refused refugee status by Australia, against UNHCR's recommendations. The Australian Democrats call on the government to follow international refugee determination guidelines that allow refugee families to live together.
Remembering SIEV X
Australia's secondary school students are being asked to submit designs for a memorial to Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel (SIEV) X, a boat carrying over 400 refugees which sank in international waters on its way to Australia in October 2001.
The project was initiated by psychologist and author Steve Biddulph and Rod Horsfield, minister at Pilgrim Uniting Church Launceston.You can find out more and register your interest to participate by visiting www.sievxmemorial.com.
Baby Ghazal's got a new name: No. 390
Dr Chris Goddard writes: "As part of my work, I have seen prisons and secure units. I have seen children dying of child abuse, with fractures too many to count. I have seen children torn apart by sexual abuse. I have seen things I had to see, that I will never forget, that I found impossible to understand. This time I have seen something that I should never have seen. I have been to see an eight-month-old girl, small for her age, smiling at her parents, soon to be walking, her every move watched by guards."
Refugee fathers may join families
The Federal Government may look at allowing fathers in detention centres to join their families in residential housing projects in Port Hedland, Woomera and Port Augusta. [...]
Alanna Sherry, a spokeswoman for ChilOut, a group devoted to freeing children from detention, said the Government's own statistics refuted Senator Vanstone's numbers. The children on Nauru had been there for more than two years, she said, but had they been on the mainland, they would have been recognised as refugees and freed.
Iraqi TPV holders given hope
Prime Minister John Howard today said Senator Vanstone's decision was a sensible one, given the security situation in Iraq. "Amanda Vanstone has quite rightly indicated in view of the less settled situation in Iraq of recent times there may be a case for examination of those on a case by case basis," he told reporters. "Not in a broad brush, but on a case by case basis.
Canberra blasted over deportation
The Uniting Church and the Democrats have condemned the Federal Government for deporting an asylum seeker to Iran where he could face persecution or torture.
The photo that led to a future
Advocates for Iranian refugee Ebrahim Sammaki had worked for months to have him reunited with his two children after their mother died in the Bali bombing, but it took a chance photograph of the Prime Minister with Sara and Safder to make it happen.
UN hears of refugee aid
A report to be presented today in Geneva to the 60th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights says a "harsh detention policy has galvanised thousands of Australians into action which is quite unprecedented".
Baxter kids fitting in well at local school: principal
The head of the Port Augusta Secondary School says there have been no concerns or protests from the community in the year that children from the local Baxter detention centre have been attending the school.
See also Detainees receive high school awards October 2003.
See also Can Baxter's junior detainees attend school in Port Augusta? February 2003.
For the sake of the families
Only five months ago, Bushra Al Aridhi expected to die in the place she calls the jail - Australia's offshore processing centre on Nauru. Today, she is pregnant with her second child and beginning a new life, with the husband she feared she would never see again, in a timber house overlooking Wellington Harbour in New Zealand's North Island. It's been a long journey from Baghdad. Bushra and her daughter, Hawra, spent two years and three months on Nauru, detained under Australia's Pacific solution, a warning of what others might expect if they tried to to get into Australia illegally. Meanwhile, her husband, Ahmed, endured a miserable freedom in Brisbane; he had his liberty, having been granted refugee status and a temporary protection visa (TPV) by Australia, but under the Howard Government's hardline policy, he had no prospect of ever being reunited with his wife and daughter.
Baghdad, Nauru, Wellington: taking the long way home
Nine men who found refuge in Australia, but no prospect of ever being reunited with their families, now have it all across the Tasman.
Life after Tampa: calling NZ home
The New Zealand Government decided within months of taking the Tampa boys to offer their immediate families permanent resettlement, but the first missions were abandoned because it was considered too dangerous to travel. [...] New Zealand's Prime Minister, Helen Clark, [said]. "We're very proud of them," she said. "We love the kids who came and try to make it work for them. These boys have just responded so well to being here and they'll be great citizens."
A new life for Tampa's brave band of brothers
Increased refugee quota does not undo systemic child abuse
"Yesterday's announcement by Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone that Australia will increase refugee quota is merely a gesture to appease UNHCR Chief Ruud Lubbers who visits the minister this week, and it does not absolve Australia from its ongoing breach of International Conventions", refugee group Project SafeCom says.
Refugee intake to increase by half
Refugee group A Just Australia also welcomed the statement, but said it did nothing to improve the human rights conditions of asylum seekers in detention centres in Australia and offshore. "Until that happens, Senator Vanstone can't claim that Australia is a country that is welcoming to refugees," spokesman Greg Barns said.
Activists hope UN refugee chief will push for asylum seeker solutions
Refugee advocates are hoping the visiting UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, will urge solutions for asylum seekers in talks with the Federal Government this week. Mr Lubbers will meet Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone and senior officials in a two-day visit to Canberra and Sydney starting on Wednesday.
In a garden of dreams
Hassan Sabbagh, the Iraqi who joined the uprising against Saddam Hussein only to find himself building a garden in the Villawood detention centre, is picking up the pieces of his shattered life this week.
Hassan has been released suddenly after four years and three months in Australian detention. Given two hours to leave Villawood, he was told he would receive a visa allowing him to stay in Australia.
Ulverstone youth speaks out for asylum seekers
After meeting numerous government ministers, Joan said she did not feel satisfied with the responses. �I want to tell them that (the detainees are) human, but the government fails to see that side of them,� she said. �They�re just like you and me. �I see them as heroes, because they still care despite it all. �One of the people in our group had been detained and she was not bitter. �She�s only on a temporary protection visa and could be sent back at any time, but all she wants to do is get an education so she can help other people.�
Young put case against child detention
Eighteen-year-old Zahra Shafaq said life in Australia was much better than in her homeland of Afghanistan, where she lost some of her best friends to war. ''I had to wake up every morning from the noise of bombardment and rockets and the cries of my people,'' she said.
Bonne's message of hope
PORT AUGUSTA schoolgirl Bonne Martinot visited Canberra for the first time yesterday to personally plead for the release of her Middle Eastern friends from immigration detention. The 15-year-old has befriended other teenagers who attend the Port Augusta Secondary School but at the end of each day return to either the Baxter detention centre or the town's residential housing project. Bonne yesterday joined seven other teenagers, including three refugees, to lobby Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone for the release of 158 children into the community.
Vanstone makes unpopular impression on kids��
School children put their case against mandatory detention to Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone today but failed to change the minister's mind.�
Government Takes Two Years To Fix Its Own People Smuggling Laws
Labor's amendment would see unaccompanied children removed from high security detention into appropriate foster or community care arrangements. Under Labor's approach other children in these facilities would be housed with their families in residential housing projects.
This is a timely amendment as today ChilOut Ambassadors are visiting Parliament. The Ambassadors are meeting with me, the Minister for Immigration and a range of other Parliamentarians.
Teenagers lobby Australian minister over detained children.
A group of teenagers is to meet Australia's Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, to ask the government to release all children from detention.
Teenagers lobby Australian minister over detained children.
Teenagers push for release of child detainees
Kids Behind Bars
Tomorrow morning, eight young Australians will make their way to Parliament House with a clear message for the nation's decision makers: children do not belong in detention centres. They will be representing 5,000 mostly young Australians who've signed a petition calling for an end to the locking up of asylum seeker children. Adding to their call is damning evidence that almost 100 children have tried to harm themsleves in Australia's detention centres in the past three years. The vast majority of them suceeded.
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Teenagers Demand End To Child Immigrant Detention
Eight teenage Ambassadors for ChilOut will visit Parliament House on Thursday 11 March to ask politicians to release all children from immigration detention. "The friends of mine in detention are so lovely," said 15-year-old Port Augusta ChilOut Ambassador Bonne. "They have taught me so much that I would not have known through school or at home. Does that not mean they can help Australia learn and grow?"
A sense of urgency needed - March kids in detention
"Despite the Minister's recent statements to the media about the reduction of children in detention, there seems to be little progress for the 83 Afghan and Iraqi children now well into their third year on Nauru," A Just Australia National Director Howard Glenn said. The fall in numbers in Nauru, while significant, is not a result of any action by the Australian government - children were either resettled by New Zealand or turned 18 while remaining in detention. Nauru remains the Australian Government's preferred detention centre for children, with 53% of all known detained children. All have been detained for over two years and most are less than 12 years old.
The inhuman culture of despair among children in our detention centres
[...] In my eight months as a teacher at the Woomera detention centre I could see children start to go downhill by about six months. Usually they were more resilient than their parents, who would often show distressing signs after three months, following rejection of their cases for refugee status. In the end though, the detention syndrome prevailed. How could children not be affected when parents become depressed and dysfunctional and when witnessing acts of violence and self-harming?
Read Tom Mann's submissions to HREOC:
http://www.hreoc.gov.au/human_rights/children_detention/statements/mann.html
http://www.hreoc.gov.au/human_rights/children_detention/submissions/mann_supp_a.html
http://www.hreoc.gov.au/human_rights/children_detention/submissions/mann_supp_b.html
By any measure, it's official child abuse
AS we write, there are about 100 children still held in Australia's detention centres. These children are subject to organised and ritualised abuse by the Australian Government. We use the term "organised abuse" to mean that those children are being abused by many perpetrators who are acting together in ways that they know can be extremely harmful. And we use the term "ritualised abuse" to mean that the children are subject to formal and repeated acts of abuse carried out under a belief system that the government uses to justify such cruelty.
Postcard campaign highlights Afghans' settlement role
Afghan temporary protection visa holders have distributed 30,000 postcards nationwide, focusing on the role Afghans played in outback settlement. Church leaders, politicians and sporting identities are backing the campaign. Aboriginal leader Lowitja O'Donoghue says it is time asylum seekers were given a fair go.
Changing views on high
What lies behind Amanda Vanstone's apparent softening on asylum seekers?
Damaging children, in our name
There must be a day of reckoning for those behind the policy of detaining children, writes Marc Purcell.
The call that ended a four-year nightmare
Three days before Christmas, Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone made a call to the Villawood detention centre in Sydney that ended Faezah Askari's four-year ordeal in detention.
Refugees win visas as policy softens
Frances Milne, the chairwoman of the Coalition for the Protection of Asylum Seekers, said that since Senator Vanstone had taken over the portfolio there had been a significant shift. "Definitely more Iranians are being issued with visas, but it is hard to say what is behind it. We are reluctant to draw attention to change because we are happy with the new direction," she said.
Senator Vanstone is expected to issue a further 40 visas to Iranian followers of the ancient Sabian Mandaean faith whose claims of persecution at the hands of Iran's Shiite Government are now recognised by the Refugee Review Tribunal and the Federal Court.
Fewer boat children in detention
Dianne Hiles, co-ordinator of ChilOut - a group campaigning to remove children from detention - said the children under effective house arrest in residential housing projects could not be counted as having been freed.
Children commit self-harm in detention centres
Nearly 100 children have tried to harm themselves in Australian detention
centres during the past three years, the Immigration Department has
revealed. A Senate estimates committee has heard that 88 children have succeeded in harming themselves, but the Immigration Department has not provided details of their injuries. The figures have led to renewed calls for the Federal Government to immediately release children from detention.
Incidents of self-harm high among detained children
Clinical psychologist and lecturer at the University of NSW Zachary Steel said his studies showed most children in detention had suicidal thoughts and about 80 per cent had engaged in self-harm or suicide attempts, such as self-hanging or self-cutting."It's absolutely appalling and unparalleled in any other setting," he said.
Love & Suffering � A former detainee's story about growing up in detention
Faezeh's family has struggled through religious troubles and family breakdown, survived leaking fishing boats and over three years in isolation in detention centres. Her mentally disabled brothers' stories are a sorry tale of the scandalous damage our detention system has inflicted on children. Now released from detention, Faezeh publishes her story for the first time.
National MP calls for refugee amnesty
Those on TPVs had filled a gap in the work force, Mrs Hull said. There was a labour shortage in the fruit and vegetable-growing areas in her electorate. "It is not a matter of taking Australians' jobs - Australians are not doing these jobs."
High Court reserves child detention decision
The High Court has reserved its decision on a challenge to the legality of
holding children in immigration detention. The court has been hearing a test
case involving four siblings from the Baxter detention centre. Lawyers for
the children have told the court the Constitution allows detention for
punitive reasons. But the lawyers say children brought illegally to
Australia by their parents have no say over their whereabouts, ruling out
punishment as a reason for their detention. The children, aged between 8 and
15, have been in detention since they arrived in Australia in January 2001.
They are accompanied by an older sibling and both parents. A decision is not
expected for several months.
NZ to reunite refugee families
When Ali Sarwari was reunited with his wife and daughter in New Zealand late last year, their joy was tinged with a deep and abiding sadness. Mr Sarwari's younger brother, Sajjad, 20, who had cared for his sister-in-law and niece during the perilous boat trip to Ashmore Reef and for more than two years in detention on Nauru, was left behind, his future uncertain. [...] Now, for the second time in three months, the New Zealand Government has moved to reunite families separated under the Howard Government's hardline Pacific Solution for unauthorised boat arrivals.
Laying it on the line
Few people would have heard of Eric Vadarlis before the crisis that followed the rescue of 433 mainly Afghan asylum seekers in August, 2001, by the Norwegian freighter Tampa. He had worked quietly as a lawyer in Melbourne, representing mainly corporate clients. All that changed one morning as he drove to work. Vadarlis heard on the radio that a navy frigate might be used to push the Tampa offshore and prevent it from landing in Australia. [...] "I just couldn't believe our elected government would treat these people like . . . I was going to say animals but, I think, animals would have a better go. I guess I threw caution to the wind."
Where strangers are now welcome
More and more MPs on both sides of politics are prepared to let asylum seekers stay in Australia. It's not so much about bleeding hearts as economic reality.