Asylum seekers from Iran whose claims for refugee status have been rejected are being intimidated into 鈥渧oluntary鈥 repatriation. The Australian government does not have an agreement with the Iranian government which will not accept the forced return of those who have fled the country.
Asylum seekers & refugees
Asylum seekers from Iran whose claims for refugee status have been rejected are being intimidated into 鈥渧oluntary鈥 repatriation. The Australian government does not have an agreement with the Iranian government which will not accept the forced return of those who have fled the country.
On August 19, the refugee rights group People Just Like Us hosted another in its series of meetings in Parramatta Library. Speakers included Sayid Kasim, a Rohingya from Arkan and Salmore, a Rohingya from Myanmar who told their stories of fleeing for their lives. Rohingya are stateless people, victims of racism and genocide. Dhugel, from Bhutan, told of his escape via India to Nepal. Paul Power from the Refugee Council of Australia told the meeting that governments should listen to refugees when making policy. 鈥淭hey are not a threat to our values鈥, he said.
Students say 鈥楻esign Pyne鈥
About 100 people protested outside the Melbourne launch of federal education minister Christopher Pyne鈥檚 new book, A Letter to My Children, on July 31.
The day before, Pyne had been chased off La Trobe University by students chanting, "Pyne the Minister. Can he fix it? No he can鈥檛.鈥
The protest was called to draw attention to Pyne's ongoing attempts to deregulate university fees. This would condemn future students to pay much higher fees to gain a tertiary education.
The Australian Labor Party鈥檚 47th National Conference was held in Melbourne from July 24 to 26. It is its highest decision-making forum and the largest political gathering in the country. The conference decides the policies that Labor will take to the next federal election and potentially implement in government.
A few days before the conference began, Labor leader Bill Shorten announced a policy of turning back asylum seeker boats, essentially agreeing with the Coalition government鈥檚 policy.
Sixty people listened as refugees gave harrowing accounts of what had led them to seek asylum in Australia at a forum in Parramatta on July 15 organised by People Just Like Us.
Shokufa Tahiri and Ezatullah Salar spoke about the long history of oppression of the Hazara minority in Afghanistan.
In 1890, Abdur Rahman Khan exterminated 63% of the minority group and until the 1930s Hazaras were systematically driven out of cities, and deprived of citizenship and education. Under the Taliban, it became a crime to be Hazara, Turkic or Shia.
A few days before the National ALP Conference on July 22, Labor leader Bill Shorten announced that he would support a policy to turn back boatloads of asylum seekers at sea if it is elected to government.
The announcement shocked and angered refugee rights advocates around the country, including members of his own party.
The demonising of asylum seekers is an elaborate exercise in racist scapegoating designed to distract Australians from the real causes of anxiety and insecurity in their lives. We need to be absolutely uncompromising in our resistance to this toxic agenda.
In breaking news, it seems that the Labor Party left cannot agree to oppose a 鈥渢urn back the boats鈥 policy. So there seems to be no chance that the upcoming national Labor Party Conference in Melbourne on July 24 to 26 will consider opposing the Coalition policy of turning boats back that are attempting to reach this country, so the passengers can claim asylum, a human right.
Remand prison riot over smoking ban
First Nations Liberation organised an action on June 30 in solidarity with the inmates, at the Metropolitan Assessment Prison, colloquially known as Metropolitan Aboriginal Prison because so many of the inmates are Aboriginal, following the riot that took place there in response to smoking bans due to commence on July 1.
The action included a smoking ceremony.
The ABC reported that about 300 prisoners were involved in the disturbance, which included breaching a 鈥渟ecure inner perimeter鈥.
On June 24 about 150 people attended a forum organised by the Refugee Action Collective, Labor for Refugees and the Refugee Advocacy Network on the theme 鈥淗ow can we get Labor to oppose offshore detention?鈥
Australian Council of Trade Unions president Ged Kearney told the meeting that the ACTU has recently adopted a stronger policy on refugees, based on recognition that 鈥渟eeking asylum is a human right鈥.
Asylum-seekers and their supporters have been dealt a cruel blow this week thanks to the shameful, bipartisan support for offshore detention within the Australian parliament.
A High Court challenge to the legality of Australia鈥檚 offshore detention of asylum seekers has been undermined by an eleventh hour bill rushed through the House of Representatives and Senate, unamended and with ALP support, on June 24 and 25.
Early this month the federal government transferred its first infant back Nauru.
The five-month-old baby girl known as 鈥淎sha鈥 (not her real name), her mother and father were forcibly transported from Melbourne's detention centre to Darwin detention centre and then to Nauru.
Refugee activist Siobhan Marren has been campaigning for Asha and her family鈥檚 return.
She told 麻豆传媒 Weekly: 鈥淎sha is the first baby to be transferred back to offshore detention since the amendment to the Migration Act last December.
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