With national attention remaining on asylum seekers who arrive by boat, journalist Jack Davies asks who are the plane-people and what are the circumstances in which they can immigrate?
Asylum seekers
‘Boathouses’ call produces its own flood of asylum seeker hosts
More than 300 households have already applied to house asylum seekers in their homes under a new initiative. Crikey explains the process.
‘Our lives are very sad’: a girl, 10, in detention makes her plea
A 10-year-old Vietnamese girl, who has spent a year living in detention centres across the country as an unaccompanied minor, calls her life in a detention centre in Darwin “very sad, depressing and hopeless”, in a note passed to a community visitor this week.
Crikey Clarifier: Why head for NZ? The Chinese asylum seekers who don’t want to stay
Ten Chinese nationals are currently based on a ferry docked in Darwin after sending a distress signal for Australian Customs officials to collect them after running out of food en route to New Zealand, where they plan to seek asylum.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: No Fairfax/News conspiracy
Crikey readers have their say.
Political snippets: Bomber moves to centre stage
For Kim Beazley all this speculation about US spy drones and Australian islands must be manna from heaven.
Serco manual ‘outdated’, but Bowen won’t talk about new training docs
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen called the 2009 and 2010 Serco training manual published this week by Crikey “out-dated” and “no-longer in use”, yet Bowen, the Immigration Department and Serco have refused to detail how it has been changed.
Open letter from an infectious disease physician: Dear Scott Morrison….
Trent Yarwood, an infectious diseases physician, accuses Scott Morrison of crass political opportunism.
Coroner’s report on Christmas Is wreck raises disturbing questions
This coroner’s report is deeply disturbing. In crucial ways, it whitewashes the Australian border protection system’s responsibility for SOLAS in all aspects of its operations, writes former diplomat Tony Kevin.
Fact #1: asylum seeker community detention brought in by Howard
Let’s get one thing clear. Asylum seekers do not get more than Australian residents and citizens, writes Caz Coleman, a member of the Council for Immigration Services and Status Resolution.
Crikey Says: Recipe for a beat-up
Start with the headline, and work backwards. Pick a theme. In this case, riff off the idea of a game show giveaway.
Civil liberties groups to A-G: ASIO refugee assessments unjust
An open letter to the Attorney-General Nicola Rox, calling on here to implement legislative change to ensue adverse ASIO security assessments can be meaningfully challenged.
Iranian numbers swelling on asylum seeker list
Iranians have emerged as a rapidly rising category of asylum seekers arriving by boat since the middle of last year, writes Stuart Ranfurlie, a freelance journalist in Jakarta.
MEAA responds to Immigration’s detention centre blackout
There has been a dust-up in the past few months about an attempt by the Department of Immigration to force media organisations to give bureaucrats the right to edit their reports in return for access to detention centres.
The media and refugees: reflecting public concern or fuelling it?
The line between media reflecting public concern about asylum seekers and fuelling racist debate is one many media outlets struggle to define, writes Sarah Hunt, a writer and media advisor to the Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: The butter v margarine fight continues
Crikey readers weigh in on the benefits of butter and the asylum seeker debate.
Crikey Says: Playing our part in a global dilemma
While Julia Gillard achieved her “year of decision and delivery” in relation to carbon pricing, health reform and the mining tax, her self-appointed task of resolving the issue of asylum seekers remains unfinished at year’s end.
Guy Rundle: Refugee debate dominated by compromise, not core promises
The anti-mandatory detention campaign, which came from the Left, has a simple demand — that the country live up to its freely taken-on treaty obligations. Why have commentators like Robert Manne lost sight of that?
Reflecting on SIEV 221, one year on: getting the message
What is the message of border security, and who is its intended recipient? This is is the final in a three-part series of three related reflections on the anniversary of SIEV 221, the Christmas Island Boat Tragedy.
A year on, what has changed in asylum-seeker policy?
We’ve gone nowhere on asylum seekers in the past 12 months and they continue to die trying to reach Australia.
Church leaders turn to offshore processing
This week three Christian leaders publicly expressed distress at the deaths of more asylum seekers trying to reach Australian shores, writes Caz Coleman, a member of the Council for Immigration Services and Status Resolution.
Asylum seekers: finding a Political Solution
Crikey media wrap: The Gillard government appeared willing to negotiate its Malaysia Solution even before the latest boat tragedy but the Opposition refuses to compromise on its asylum seeker policy, according to private letters released yesterday.
The 2011 Crikeys: the government policy hits and misses
2011 was the biggest year in economic policy for a long time - which isn’t saying much. What was best and worst?
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Julian Assange is not a journalist
Crikey readers have their say.
Media briefs: Egypt media war … Twitter OWS ban … Somali journo killed
In today’s Media Briefs: media war breaks out in Egypt … Twitter suspends Occupy Wall Street tweeter … Somali journalist killed and more …
