Australia

A 20 year old man was found dead at the RAAF Scherger detention centre near Weipa on the 16th of March 2011. According to refugee advocates, the young man of Hazari origin from Afghanistan has recently had his refugee application rejected and was very depressed. The Australian Government has over recent months taken a much harder line on Hazari's claiming that the situation for them has improved in Afghanistan. This is refuted by the Hazari community in Australia and the record number of civilian and military deaths in Afghanistan in 2010 would suggest otherwise.

Ramesh Fernandez a former immigration detainee gives his view of the Detention Centre protests via the R.I.S.E. website
On Thursday 11 March, after waiting many months for a decision regarding their visas, several asylum seekers received rejection letters from DIAC. In the early hours of the next day, between 50 and 150 asylum seekers broke through iron gates and escaped the Christmas Island detention centre. Though the SERCO guards immediately tried to catch the escaped detainees, they were largely unsuccessful.

Refugee Action Coalition Media Release 17 March 2011 Following the use of tear gas and a bean bag round to break an asylum seeker’s leg on Sunday night, more evidence of heavy-handed policing on Christmas Island has emerged. Asylum seekers on Christmas Island have told the refugee Action Coalition that tear gas was used on a peaceful protest on Christmas Island last night (ie Wednesday night).A group of around 400 asylum seekers were walking in the open area of the detention centre in an attempt to speak to media representatives on the island.

Below is an article by Dave Noonan from ACF which explains the Australian connection to current nuclear disaster in Japan

The nuclear emergency that is compounding the human tragedy of Japan’s earthquake sends a clear warning to Australia to steer clear of the risks of nuclear energy. The terrible human cost of the earthquake in Japan is being made even worse by radiation escaping from damaged nuclear reactors and the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people who live around the nuclear reactor sites.