OH MY GOODNESS!!

Labor's big shift on refugees

Michael Gordon
October 16, 2006

THE Labor Party is set to abandon its policy of giving refugees who attempt to come to Australia by boat only temporary protection, in a fundamental shift in its attitude towards asylum seekers since the Tampa episode of 2001.

Opposition spokesman on migration Tony Burke is expected to announce today the shift to permanent protection — which represents a sharp contrast with government policy — after it is endorsed by the shadow cabinet.

The decision will mean Labor will go to next year's election opposing the two key aspects of the Government's policy — offshore processing in foreign countries, Nauru and Papua New Guinea, and temporary protection visas (TPVs).

More than 900 mainly Afghan and Iraqi refugees remain on the temporary visas after being found to have genuine fears of persecution if returned to their countries.

They are unable to leave Australia and return or seek to be reunited with immediate family members.

Labor's shift could also have implications for the small group of Burmese asylum seekers who were sent to Nauru for processing last month if their claims for protection are found to be genuine.

The decision will end several years of emotional internal debate within Labor on the visa system that was introduced in 1999 in a bid to deter unauthorised boat arrivals.

Mr Burke has refused to be drawn on the imminent shift, but gave a clue to his thinking at a Labor for Refugees dinner in July when he said: "If there is a reason for us to take a TPV policy to the next election, I am yet to hear it."

He declined to comment yesterday, confirming only that he had received a report from Labor's social policy committee. "I'll be responding to the report to the shadow ministry and will have more to say after that," he told The Age.

One of those rescued by the Tampa and living in Melbourne said yesterday the uncertainty about when he might be able to see his family had caused him to be treated for depression last year. The young man had suffered three years' offshore detention, been on a TPV for three years and has another two years before it expires.

Under the visa he has to pay full fees to study, with no certainty that he will eventually be granted permanency. "It's very hard," he said yesterday.

A push to end Labor's support for TPVs was defeated at Labor's last national conference by a vote of 226 to 164 after then leader Mark Latham put his authority on the line. Existing Labor policy provides for two-year temporary protection visas, with an expectation that permanent protection will then be granted.

The 14-page report of the policy committee, obtained by The Age, argues that TPVs should be abolished. "If an applicant is found to be a refugee that person should be given permanent protection immediately," it says.

The report challenges the Government's assertion that temporary protection visas are a deterrent to unauthorised boat arrivals, asserting the system encouraged women and children to risk their lives and follow their husbands and fathers.

The report also argues that uncertainty inherent in the temporary protection system has exacerbated mental health problems for many asylum seekers and that having to re-apply for protection when temporary visas expire forces the refugee to relive past trauma.

Sources say there is now a recognition on Labor's front bench that conditions have remained unsafe in Iraq and Afghanistan for several years, undercutting one of the Government's main justifications for the regime.

The Immigration Department's website justifies the system by asserting that recent experience of changing country situations shows the value of being able to reassess whether a person has a continuing need for protection before conferring permanent or continuing protection.

One source conceded that the policy shift was less radical than it would have been three years ago, when several thousand refugees were on TPVs. The source said Mr Burke had no plans to reconsider the other controversial plank of Labor's policy, support for the Government's excision of Christmas Island from Australia's migration zone.

As at October 6, 9875 temporary protection visas had been granted since 1999, an Immigration Department official said. In addition, 830 temporary humanitarian visas had been granted to unauthorised arrivals in Australia's offshore excised places, such as Ashmore Reef .

About 8450 of these TPV and temporary humanitarian visa holders have since been granted permanent protection.

The official estimated that about 1430 people still held temporary protection and temporary humanitarian visas.

Nauru makes it to Danny Katz's column!

The Age Satirist Danny Katz has slammed Australia's detention policy! Katz was talking about the strange title of the comedy improvisation show 'Thank God You're Here', and decided on a few variations, including 'Thank Jehovah You're Here', 'Thank Buddha You're Here' and 'Thank Karl Marx You're Here'. The one i've taken an extract from here is the one I found interesting...!

Thank gods you're watching
By Danny Katz
October 12, 200
...
THANK ALLAH YOU'RE HERE
This zany new improvised TV show is staged in an Australian refugee detention centre, before a captive studio audience, who are locked behind 12-foot-high razor-wired cyclone fencing. Each week, a Muslim refugee enters the centre through a padlocked door, and is greeted by another Muslim refugee saying: "Thank Allah you're here! I don't know what horrors you're fl eeing from, but I'm telling you, it can't get any worse than this." Then the refugee must improvise their way through the rest of their stay at the centre, which can take anything up to seven years - and the winning refugee gets an all-expenses-paid longterm tropical holiday in Nauru.
...

Scathing! Gosh he's risque sometimes...!

A story about a friend...

'Will This Man Lose the Will to Live?'
THE AGE - Opinion
By Michael Gordon
October 11, 2006



The funeral service for Olympian Peter Norman on Monday raised an intriguing question. Why is it that stories about some people capture the public imagination while others that may be just as compelling do not?

John Carlos, one of the black runners who shared the dais with Norman at the 1968 Mexico Olympics, observed that the sprinter should be as well known in Australia as Steve Irwin. Such, said Carlos, was the power of his role in their famous stand on human rights.

Yet while the image of the barefoot Tommie Smith and Carlos giving that black power salute is considered one of the most influential of the 20th century, the story of Norman's role in the protest is unknown to a great many Australians.

"You guys have lost of great soldier," remarked Carlos. "Go and tell your kids the story of Peter Norman."

A similar point can be made about Mohammed Sagar, an Iraqi refugee who has been detained offshore since he was rescued five years ago yesterday in the "children overboard" episode, and David Hicks.

While Hicks' detention without trial on Guantanamo Bay has, quite rightly, prompted expressions of outrage from a cross-section of Australians, from church leaders to former prime ministers, Sagar's situation has gone largely unremarked.

Of course, Sagar has not endured anything like the conditions that have been inflicted upon Hicks for 41/2 years and he is not an Australian. But his situation should alarm Australians who believe in notions of natural justice, the rule of law, compassion and a fair go.

After suffering physically and mentally under Saddam Hussein's rule and being found by Australian officials to have a genuine fear of persecution if he returned to Iraq, he has been held against his will on the tiny, near-bankrupt island of Nauru.

When I visited him on the island late last month, he told me how he wanted to have his life back, whether it be happy or sad. "I want to be alive, that's all, because now I'm feeling like a dead living thing."

Fran Kelly on the ABC's Radio National pursued the story for three days last week, culminating with an interview with Foreign Minister Alexander Downer about the $100,000-a-month visa fee Nauru has set for Sagar, to encourage Australia to find a solution for him.

When Kelly pressed Downer on Nauru's concern for Sagar and another Iraqi who had been held there, he displayed a singular indifference to their plight, observing that "one of them, I think, has been dealt with".

This was a euphemism for the decision several weeks ago to evacuate the second Iraqi, Mohammad Faisal, to a Brisbane hospital after his despair led him to become suicidal. He is said to be recovering well and may soon be released into a form of community-based care.

There are at least two explanations for the lack of pressure on the Howard Government to address the situation of Sagar on Nauru.

The first is that Nauru is a very long way away and communications are patchy at best. Sagar is out of sight and out of mind.

The second is that he, along with Faisal, received a negative security assessment from ASIO that meant Australia no longer had any obligation to offer him protection under the United Nations refugee convention.

While a lack of sympathy for a person considered a security threat by ASIO is understandable, neither man has ever been told what he is alleged to have done to warrant the assessment, so neither has had the opportunity to defend himself.

Neither Sagar nor Faisal had the benefit of any representation when they were interviewed on Nauru.

Both complain that an interviewing officer was very aggressive during the interview. Both are adamant they represent no threat to anyone.

And there is a bigger problem. There is no capacity for some outside authority, for instance a retired judge, to establish that ASIO's decision was soundly based.

Moreover, in their time on Nauru, neither man has caused any problems. On the contrary, both are highly regarded. Faisal was virtually adopted by a Nauruan family while Sagar has earned high praise for his voluntary work at the Nauru campus of the University of the South Pacific.

Indeed, while I was on Nauru he seemed to be regarded as a kind of voluntary help desk for the Nauruan Government and Australian officials working to tackle that country's considerable problems.

If there was a case to answer for some past deed or connection - and both men say there is not - their exemplary behaviour on Nauru surely should count for something.

Both men do have supporters in Australia who have been working hard on their behalf. Lawyer Julian Burnside, who characterises the treatment of both as "calculated cruelty", has launched a legal challenge to the ASIO assessments. But this is likely to be a very long process.

Susan Metcalfe, a researcher who has visited Nauru several times, has written letters to ministers pleading for some resolution and been a constant source of comfort. So have many others.

But time is running out. Recently, Sagar quit his part-time job at the university and withdrew from his studies. He likened himself to a dish that had been cooked and, instead of being removed from the stove, had been subject to even greater heat. "I'm done," he said.

It is time for some hard questions to be asked of those who have for too long considered the ASIO assessments a reason to do nothing.

The bottom line is whether the intention is to wait until Sagar, like Faisal, loses his will to live before someone decides he should be "dealt with".

Take some action for the Lombok Asylum Seekers... 5 years and counting...

Hi guys, this is from Felicia di Stefano, Rural Australians for Refugees... I will paste the text of the letter she mentions below, so that you can copy and paste it into your own document. If you want a copy of the petition, EMAIL ME!! put the petition in your work kitchen, or pass it around your small group, anything!! jessie@thejusticeproject.com.au

J x



Dear All,

Thank you for your support in writing letters to politicians and returning signed petitions to help the asylum seekers
trapped on Lombok. With your help we sent in almost 3,000 signatures in support of the Lombok asylum seekers to
Amanda Vanstone via Senator Bartlett. "Pease say thank you very much to all those people who are helping us poor refugees".
writes Mohammad, our friend from Lombok.

Now we have a similar petition, this time addressed to the House of Representatives to enable it to be tabled in Parliament.
We also have a new form letter. Please find them attached. We desperately need your help again. Thank you to the
people who have already sent singed petitions. We have about 500 signatures so far.

October 2006 marks the fifth anniversary of the time the Lombok asylum seekers were towed from Ashmore Reef
to Indonesian waters by our navy. The 45 or so Afghan women men and children have been living in the Lombok
camp without basic human rights, on charity provided by Australia, for five years. The years of detention have taken
their toll. The people feel frustrated and often depressed.

The married men have been denied the means to provide for their families, the single men feel stranded.
All feel powerless as their fate is decided by others. They do not know from day to day what will happen to them.
Yet their lives are in grave danger if they return to Afghanistan. Please help us make our government realise the
inhumanity of keeping these people imprisoned on Lombok. Send in signed petitions, send off form letters, or write your own.

Thank you,

Felicia Di Stefano, member South Gippsland RAR, 125 Bateson Road, Glen Forbes, Victoria, 3990, (03) 5678 3294




Print name:

Print address

Date:

Senator Amanda Vanstone
Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600



Dear Senator Vanstone,

I write to you in the hope that, in view of the recent increase of violence in Afghanistan, you will reconsider your policy towards the Afghan asylum seekers on Lombok. That you will allow them to return to Australia to live, work and study in our community while they are assessed for refugee status.

The 45 or so Afghan women, men and children remaining on Lombok, came to Australia to escape persecution and to save their and their children’s lives. October 2006 is the fifth anniversary of the time the Australian navy towed them back to Indonesian waters.

The five years the Afghan asylum seekers have lived in the Lombok compound on scant charity paid for by our government, without basic human rights of work, travel, family reunion or study, have taken their toll and the people are frustrated and often depressed. The married men have been denied the means to provide for their families, the single men feel stranded. All feel powerless as their fate is decided by others. They do not know from day to day what will happen to them.

I plead for compassion on behalf of the Afghan people trapped on Lombok. Their lives continue to be in grave danger if they return to Afghanistan, yet we cannot force these people to live in their present state of lack and uncertainty any longer. Please allow the Afghan asylum seekers to share their culture and work skills with the Australian society as they are assessed for refugee status and become valuable, contributing members of our community.




Sincerely yours,





Signature

'We Will Be Remembered For This'

Coming soon...

Nauru has said "enough is enough"!

Nauru sets record refugee visa fee

THE AGE
Michael Gordon
October 4, 2006

THE Nauru Government has told Australia it will have to pay a world record visa charge of more than $1.2 million a year to keep a refugee detained on the tiny, near-bankrupt island.

Nauru Foreign Minister David Adeang says the new visa fee is intended to encourage the Federal Government to find a solution for Mohammed Sagar, 30, who was rescued during the "children overboard" episode five years ago next Tuesday.

"We are doing this for humanitarian reasons," Mr Adeang said yesterday. "We continue to be concerned that there appears to be no resolution possible so far as I'm advised by the Australian Government, not in the near future anyway."

Mr Adeang declined to confirm the cost of the visa, saying the details were still a matter of negotiation. But sources said the Nauru cabinet had struck a figure of $100,000 a month, with the intention of increasing it if Mr Sagar was not resettled soon.

Mr Sagar was found to have a well-founded fear of persecution if he returned to Iraq, but received an adverse security assessment from ASIO in August last year.

He has never been told the basis of the finding and is adamant that he has done nothing to justify being considered a security threat. He has written to the Immigration Department, asking if it intends waiting until he becomes suicidal before offering a solution.

"I don't have any point to prove other than I'm a refugee. The rest is rubbish," Mr Sagar has told The Age.

In the past two weeks, many people on Nauru, including Mr Adeang, have told The Age they are baffled as to why Mr Sagar and another Iraqi, Mohammad Faisal, received adverse ASIO assessments.
Mr Faisal, 26, was evacuated to Brisbane last month because he was suicidal.

Mr Adeang said both men were well regarded by those who had contact with them on Nauru.

Nauru recently announced a new system of charging for visas for asylum seekers sent to the island by Australia for processing, with the stated aim of encouraging the swift resettlement or return of asylum seekers once their claims for refugee status have been assessed.

The charges for the seven Burmese asylum seekers who arrived last month are $2000 each for the first 90 days, with the fee increasing by $500 every subsequent 30 days.

Mr Adeang said the fee for Mr Sagar had been struck in the hope that it would prove a "circuit-breaker" in his case.

Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone declined to be drawn on the visa fee yesterday, saying it was a matter for discussion between the Australian and Nauru governments.

The United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, is continuing its efforts to find a resettlement country for Mr Sagar and Mr Faisal, but says finding any solution continues to prove difficult.