refugees

Asylum Seekers will die in greater numbers after release - this from Gerry Georgatos. An important insight.

Australia is in the tragic phenomena of Detention Centre Deaths in Custody. Five suicides in the last ten months. Over a thousand suicide attempts and thousands of self-harms among our Asylum Seekers. There have been two suicide attempts at Darwin Immigration Centre, last night and yesterday. There shall be more. One Hazara man suffered a heart attack following efforts to rescue him from his suicide attempt.

Australia's response to asylum seekers

The 'Pacific Solution' didn't work, and now Australia is trying the 'Malaysian Solution'. Under the Malaysian Solution, signed on 25th July 2011, Australia is once again out-sourcing its obligation to aid and help people seeking asylum. The agreementmeans that the next 800 asylum-seekers arriving in Australia by boat will, within 72 hours of their arrival, have their bio-metric data recorded and be flown to Malaysia. In return, Australia will allow 4000 people, who have already had their application for refugee status approved by the UNHCR, to move to Australia over the next four years.

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Amnesty International candle day in Melbourne - 27 May 2011

The RMIT branch of Amnesty International Australia marked the annual candle day and the 50th anniversary of the movement with an information day outside the State Library, ending in the evening with speakers and the formation of a human candle on the lawns.

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Oppose the Malaysian 'solution' - End mandatory detention. Rally and march - 13 May 2011

A few days after the Malaysian Bar Association issued a statement opposing the recently-announced refugee swap between the Malaysian and Australian governments (“Asylum seekers and refugees are not commodities to be traded” – full text given below), the Refugee Action Collective in Melbourne called a protest at the GPO in Bourke Street, followed by a march down to the steps of Flinders Street Station.

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The ALP must breed a Petro Georgiou

I was sharing a coffee with Simon Mead, Secretary of the WA State Labor Party on the morning of the day that Kevin Rudd would enjoy his last full day as Prime Minister when I put to him a question that Simon would laugh off. Earlier that morning a trusted insider in the ALP told me that Kevin Rudd would be deposed as Prime Minister by the evening's end and that if he did not go quietly there would be a spill/vote the next morning. Though Simon and I met for other yarns I did put this to him in passing.

HRA media release: The frontiers are ugly, violence and deaths on the horizon

The Human Rights Alliance
Media Release:

Urgent Action Required to Stop Detention Centre Deaths in Custody and the rise of mental illnesses. DETENTION CENTRES AT CRISIS POINT. Violence on the horizon.

The Human Rights Alliance calls for a UN Special Rapporteur to enter the Curtin Detention Centre

The Human Rights Alliance
Curtin Detention Centre - UN Special Rapporteur must be called in. Independent observers must enter Curtin. The protests have ceased due to promises made by DIAC to the Asylum Seekers. The media must be allowed into Curtin Detention Centre.

Converge 2011 Day 3: Protestors return to unlawful Curtin Detention Centre - DIAC and SERCO disgrace themselves

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship has continued its criminality in its unlawful establishment under the instruction of the Australian government of Mandatory Detention Centres, such as the unlawful establishment that is the Curtin Detention Centre.

Hunger strikers, sit ins, petitions by brutalised souls cannot inspire the Government, DIAC and Serco to allow their visitors to meet them. The culture of secrecy and silence is unbelievable. The layers of racism in Australia continue unabated.

Protest against children in Immigration detention at Broadmeadows

The Gillard Government made a commitment in 2010 to release all children from immigration detention by June 2011, but still 1000 children languish in the harsh environment of immigration camps around Australia. The Refugee Action Collective organised a protest yesterday outside the Broadmeadows Detention Centre which currently houses 140 young asylum seekers from the ages of 13-18.

Related: Melbourne Protests report | MITA demonstration - different activist responses | Video of direct action at Broadmeadows Detention Centre: Detainees escape, activists capsicum sprayed and arrested | Youtube Videos - speech by Nicole Mousely, Video by izzywombat | Flickr photos by Takver | Refugee Action Collective - Vic

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Another Night of "SHOCK and AWE" on Christmas Island

"When the AFP and TRG boarded the plane for Christmas Island at 4pm last Friday, the Christmas island protest had just begun. It was a totally peaceful action with groups of men walking the 15 kilometres through the jungle to the inhabited parts of the island." writes Pamela Curr, Co-ordinator of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Melbourne.

Over the next two days some went to the Mosque, some to the Construction Camp to visit family, some went swimming and some went to the airport to sit. No crime, no theft, absolutely peaceful.

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