Letter to The Age... 31 May 2005

Let's see if it gets published...!
Jess

Following a number of years of simmering controversy,
it is hardly surprising that the issue of Australia’s
treatment of asylum seekers is finally coming to a
head.

The moves of Petro Georgiou and his cohort signal a
tacit shift in the opinions of the Australian
electorate, and highlight the moral and political
unsustainability of the current policy.

In the aftermath of the devastating Southeast Asian
tsunami, the generosity and compassion of the
Australian people was put on show for the world to
see. It seems incongruous for our refugee policy not
to mirror these qualities, of which Australia should
be very proud.

It is clear that a large section of the Australian
population wishes to see changes made to the system of
mandatory indefinite detention, detention of children,
access to mental health care in detention, and the
reinstatement of judicial review in cases falling
under the Migration Act. We also call for a Royal
Commission into immigration detention, and the
abolition of the Temporary Protection Visa, condemned
as inhumane by the Howard government when it was
proposed by Pauline Hanson at the ’98 election.

Mr Howard - were your government to take a more humane
approach to asylum seekers, it would not be seen as
sign of weak leadership, but an acknowledgement that
the current policy is flawed. There is no shame in
putting to bed a policy that has caused immeasurable
damage and suffering, closing a reprehensible chapter
in our nation’s history and moving into a future of
compassion, hope, and exemplary global citizenship.

URGENT: Contact your local MP to end indefinite immigration detention

An email from Amnesty International - Thursday 26th May 2005

Dear Friends,

You are no doubt aware of the growing debate in the media about proposals from within the Federal Liberal Party to change Australia’s mandatory immigration detention regime.

You can help to influence this debate.

You can urge your local Federal Member of Parliament (MP) to support moves to end indefinite immigration detention, release children from detention and allow refugees who have been granted temporary protection to live in the community permanently.

Why now?
Liberal backbencher Petro Georgiou MP is proposing to introduce two Private Member's Bills, with the support of several of his colleagues, to address Australia’s inhumane mandatory detention policy. This is a significant development in the refugee debate and provides an opportunity to end the human rights violations under Australia’s mandatory immigration detention system.

In recent weeks serious cases have come to light: the wrongful detention of Cornelia Rau and up to 200 others, the wrongful deportation of Vivian Alvarez Solon and the eventual release of three-year old Naomi Leong after being detained for her entire life. Most recently the Federal Court held that the Commonwealth failed in its duty of care to provide adequate psychiatric health care to mentally ill detainees at Baxter.

What does the Private Member's Bills provide for?

those who have been in detention for more than a year will be released while their claims for protection are resolved;
release of children and their parents from detention, unless they pose a risk to the public or are likely to abscond;
permanent protection for Temporary Protection Visa holders;
asylum seekers who arrive without a visa will only be detained initially for up to 90 days, which can only be extended by application to the Federal Court; and,
permanent protection for those whose claim for asylum has failed but who cannot be removed from Australia (after 3 years).
What you can do?
In your personal capacity - as a citizen living in their electorate and not as a member of Amnesty International – politely phone, fax or write to your MP today to support reform of Australia’s mandatory detention regime.

Phone your MP's office and ask that your MP support the measures contained in the Private Members Bills to end the human rights abuses against refugees and asylum seekers.

Write a 'follow up letter' outlining your concerns - and cc it to the Prime Minister the Hon. John Howard MP.

Get five of your friends, family or workmates to do the same.

Respond to any local radio talkback on the issue and write to your local paper.
Points to make:

Release all children from detention - there are currently 68 children in detention. The latest detainee, baby Michael Andrew Tran, was born on Christmas Island on Monday 23 May 2005.
End Mandatory Detention - thousands of asylum seekers have been detained for anywhere up to seven years under Australia's policy. Just this month an Iranian man was recognised as a refugee and released after having spent 5 years in detention.
End Indefinite Detention - under Australian law, the Australian Government can detain failed asylum seekers until they die. Peter Qasim has been detained for almost seven years, despite requesting to be returned to any other country that will accept him.
Grant Permanent Protection for Refugees - Australia is the only country to grant temporary status to people recognised as refugees. Over 9000 refugees, fearful of being returned to countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq, are having to re-prove their status once their 3 year visa expires.
The Australian Government must bring its refugee policies in line with international human rights standards.

Who are your elected representatives in the House of Representatives and in the Senate?
Find out which is your electorate, your elected representative in the House of Representatives and your Senators.

Find your electorate here: http://www.aec.gov.au/esearch/main.htm

Find your rep in the House of Representatives here: http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/mi-elctr.asp

Find your senators here: http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/senators/homepages/si-state.htm

Back Shortly...

I will be overseas for a couple of weeks, but after
that, watch this space! And keep your eyes on the
news...
Cheers

The Aim of this Blog.

Hi - back again! :c) I want to delve into the claggy
mess that is the legal process surrounding australia's
immigration law, particularly pertaining to the
refugee bit. i don't want to make it too complicated,
because when divided into bite-sized morcels it's very
understandable, and i think it's important for as many
people as possible to have a basic handle on it. i am
also VERY keen to debunk some common myths about the
whole shebang.

any and all of the following choice phrases represent
myths:
- "..well they shouldn't have jumped the queue!
flamin' queue jumpers..."
- "they just want to come to australia because it's
nice here, so they paid a people smuggler and now they
want a free ride on the gravy train"
- "if you're in jail you must have done *something*
wrong!"
- "they just want to bring their weird foreign
customs, funny smelling food and wacky beliefs to
australia and take over!"
- "if we let one in, they'll come in floods!"
- "they are trying to trick us by coming in a leaky
boat without the right papers... saucy bastards..."
- "we have to protect our national security, and we
can't do that if we're accepting refugees willy-nilly"
- ... and any reference to asylum seekers as 'illegal
immigrants' is not only wrong in my opinion, it's
actually wrong under international law.

each of those statements / assertions / ideas
represents a different misconception about the issue,
and i think it's exactly these kinds of
misunderstandings which are really harmful not only to
the hopes and lives of asylum seekers, but also to
australia's integrity as a nation. We're a country
built on immigration - and lots of that immigration
has been during times of hardship, following the world
wars, and the vietnam war, and let's face it, if all
of us buggered back off where we originally came from,
australia would be a fairly empty place.

So, i want to address the following issues, one by
one, over a period of time, and telling it with a
mixture of understanding of the law / policy, the
reality of the situation, and the impacts that all of
it has on the asylum seekers themselves. this list is
subject to amendment:

- what does international law say about refugees, and
what does that mean for australia?
- why do people leave their countries?
- are there queues to come to australia?
- how do people get here / get in?
- what happens when they arrive and aren't allowed in?
- what is immigration detention like? (this is a big
one and will probably come in dribs and drabs...
you'll get a sense of it from the answers to the other
questions...)
- how long do people stay in immigration detention?
- why do people have to stay in detention for so long?
(this will also be a corker, as it will encompass a
look at the mildly ridiculous and convoluted legal
minefield surrounding this system... and there will be
diagrams, if i can figure out how to do it... :c) )

i will also share the stories of a number of people i
have met in detention over the past few years. i'm
really looking forward to doing that - that is the
part where it really starts to *matter*.

in going over all of the topics above, i'll refer to
some important documents, such as the universal
declaration of human rights, and the UN conventions on
refugees, on civil and political rights, and on the
rights of the child. we'll put up these documents,
and some other links, for your perusal! they are the
fundamental documents upon which international law in
this area is based. basically, they're the measuring
stick. have a look.

one other thing - i think the issue of refugees has
been treated pretty badly by alot of refugee advocates
in some situations. there have been so many pictures
of protests and violence and smoke bombs and tear gas
and scary, aggressive reaction to the issue. while i
think that it is VITAL to stay passionate and keep
fanning the fire in our bellies, i really believe that
aggression and rash, ill-considered behaviour can be
counter productive. i hope that while you read my blog
you will have a sense of how angry i am about this
system, and how i hate its injustice, but that i ain't
going to be throwing no bricks at no cops outside no
detention centre. i would rather tell people like
your good selves about the badness, so that the whole
culture of australia's approach to refugees can change
from the inside out. so please, tell you friends.
cheers!

The Born-Again Blog...!

Hi everyone,

Well after a significant blog drought I have been persuaded by my good friend and nerd-above-all-nerds tim to maintain this site, post to it regularly, and become irretrievably sucked into nerd land, where tim dwells happily, keeping all kinds of strange sleeping hours.

There is just so much stuff going on inside our detention centres, there is a new article in the paper every couple of days about developments in law and policy, and instead of boring the knickers off my friends all the time (sorry guys), i shall post here and those of you who are actually interested (no breath-holding...!) can read for yourselves.

My background, briefly, is that i'm in my penultimate year of Arts(Hons)/Law (Hons next year hopefully...!) at Monash Uni, where i've managed to keep myself entertained for six years (so far). One day, a friend of mine asked me if i wanted to visit the immigration detention centre at maribyrnong. "Yeah, aah, no thanks" was my reply. Then i sort of thought about it, realised that i was kind of curious, and that maybe i should check it out. Well, that was almost three years ago. For the last two years i have been visiting at least once a week, and it is a very high priority in my life. I look forward to sharing with you through this blog my transition from "myeh, detention centre, whatever" to my current state of total passion about this issue, and the people it affects!

Anyway I must dash for now but will write more very very soon.

Cheers

Jess