The sporting dreams of teenage boys can often be fairly predictable. But what about the dreams of Hazara boys awaiting their application for asylum? In letters to Crikey, they still aspire to sporting glory, but it’s John Howard, not a sporting rival, that they dream of beating.
Refugees
Queue jumping in East Timor
While there’s been increased support in the top East Timor government ranks for a refugee processing centre to be built in the country, most of the population is against the plan. Shona Hawkes in Dili explains the complex problems.
What lay behind the Villawood
protests?
Are immigration detainees risking their lives under the belief protests will be rewarded? The government is keen to send the signal that they won’t be after a recent spate of protests at the Villawood Detention Centre.
Students in detention? Life gets harder for international scholars
They’re already faced with huge tuition fees and a host of other financial restrictions. Now there are warnings international students might resort to staying in Australia illegally if their application for permanent residency fails under tough new restrictions.
Next stop, the Darwin Airport Motel: home to 150 asylum seeker teens
There are around 150 boys aged 14 to 17 currently locked up in the Darwin Airport Motel who have not left the building since April. Pamela Curr went to visit them.
Rudd’s East Timor challenge
New Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd will know there won’t be any quick or easy “East Timor solution”, and there may not be one at all. So what will he do?
Inside the motel rooms asylum seeker kids call home
The Australian government maintains that it does not detain children in immigration detention centres. Instead, children are detained in motels or mining camps, writes Pamela Curr.
Why phoning the President of Nauru is a bad idea
Caroline de Costa, a Cairns gynaecologist who worked at a Nauru detention centre, explains why reopening the camps there is a bad idea, particularly for the mental health of detainees.
Refugees and the election — remembering and forgetting
How many times will we hear about troublesome asylum seekers and wicked people smugglers in this campaign? These labels are very familiar to the Jewish community, writes Dr June Factor.
Australian-built detention centre isn’t holding terrorists after all
Reports that a senior Afghan al-Qaida-linked figure is being held in Tanjung Pinang immigration detention centre are false, according to sources inside the centre.
Gans: Let’s get in on this people smuggling business
What a mess asylum seeker policy appears to be, with so little clear articulation of what it is in the context of other options that existed. It’s all about looking “tough”, writes Joshua Gans.
Lessons in History: Asylum seeker fear is in the fabric of our nation
There exists an eternal and unshakeable fear within the Australian populace of those who come here from elsewhere seeking a better life. This fear is nothing new, writes Mike Stuchbery.
Sheridan: East Timor is not the solution
Finally common sense has returned to Julia Gillard’s actions with asylum seekers, writes Greg Sheridan. But it is a bare bones plan that deserves intense scrutiny.
In defence of Julia: it could have been worse
After the relentless nature of the attacks on her predecessor from the right-wing media, Julia Gillard must find it something of a relief that she is mostly drawing fire from the left. But some of the attacks lack a sense of perspective.
Someone forgot to tell East Timor
The view within Dili on Gillard’s border protection proposal, and East Timor’s role, was one of surprise — no one seems to have been forewarned, much less consulted about this proposal.
Crikey Clarifier: Oh Canada, what is a refugee sponsorship program?
Despite Tony Abbott’s strong rhetoric, the opposition leader laid out a plan to increase refugee numbers through a refugee sponsorship program. What does it mean?
The queue — where is it, and how do you take a number?
Asylum seekers who arrive by boat are queue jumpers, conservatives say. So Crikey intern Nikki Bricknell and Bernard Keane went looking for the queue.
What would a proper regional solution look like?
Under Gillard’s new East Timor Solution, we may finally get a well resourced, properly administered regional refugee processing centre that has UNHCR participation and regional government cooperation, writes Possum Comitatus.
Gillard: the new Latham
The last election was centred around the mythical Kevin07, the man Labor is now intent on trashing. But while Rudd was good at undermining all sides of the debate, Gillard slides from Left to Right.
All aboard the Timor fix
Daily Media Wrap: Prime Minister Gillard blew the boat people issue wide open yesterday, unveiling her plan to build a new offshore processing centre in East Timor for asylum seekers. Clever policy or Pacific Solution 2.0?
East Timor fix: costly & cruel
Julia Gillard’s asylum seeker announcement today is heavy on rhetoric and light on actual new policy — but the one announcement of substance is likely to cost taxpayers a lot.
Refugee lawyer: we can’t have a blanket approach to Sri Lankan asylum seekers
The federal government shouldn’t use the revised UN assessment of security in Sri Lanka to push for a blanket approach to the claims of asylum seekers, a leading refugee lawyer has warned.
Crikey Says: Great speech, shame about the policy
Prime Minister Gillard surprised us by calling out everyone on their tired old lines. But we’re not entirely convinced.
graph pr0n Boat people: this is what you are “anxious” about
This week refugees, boat people and population growth have hit the headlines again. But what are the boat people statistics compared to the rest of the Australian population?
Bob Ellis: Some words of advice to Gillard’s chief of staff
The nation looks to the leader to see how to react to the boat people issue. So let’s not vilify them, burn their boats and lock them up, when we let others in with open arms, writes Bob Ellis.
