What do you think the Australian Government spends too much money on? Keeping asylum seekers in detention offshore. For the love of me, I cannot see why economic rationalists wouldn’t have worked out that that’s a really poor use of money. As a Christian nation, we shouldn’t be doing it.
Cathy McGowan: ‘Every day I wake up and think about refugees and our treatment of them’
"In 2013, we had a problem as a country with asylum seeker arrivals by sea however, rather than deal with it sanely and humanely, these people who have been proven to overwhelmingly have fled persecution, have been demonised and a highly effective PR campaign perpetrated on them over a period of decades. It is not surprising that ordinary Aussies have found it difficult to care .. when the issue has been metronomically polluted by lies and propaganda.
"Imagine not knowing when your suffering will end, when you'll see your family again, your child? I can't accept that this represents us as a people.….
Australia has interned medically-vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers in hotels under its controversial 'offshore' processing policy. After months confined to a hotel room, some are finally being freed.
Medically vulnerable refugees in Australia hotels finally freed
In recognition that detention centres needed to expand rapidly, the expenditure review committee agreed in May to “long-term funding” for the immigration detention centres. The cabinet papers show the Howard government united on preferring private sector management and that it explored the idea of successful refugees repaying part of the costs of their detention. The idea of “a risk management approach”, instead of detention, was rejected.
Cabinet papers reveal how seeds of Australia’s divisive seeker boats policy were sown in 2000
Behrouz Boochani, the Kurdish Iranian exile and journalist who became the voice of those incarcerated on Manus Island, has had his refugee status formally recognised by New Zealand, and granted a visa to live there.
He said he finally felt secure “knowing that I have a future.”
Behrouz Boochani granted refugee status in New Zealand. By Ben Doherty, The Guardian
The Australian government is set to move all children now held in immigration detention on Nauru to Australia by the end of the year (2018).
George Brandis, the former attorney general and who is now the high commissioner to the UK, confirmed the plan in a radio interview in London early on Thursday morning.
“There are hardly any children on Nauru and in New Guinea and we expect that by the end of this year there will be none,” Brandis told LBC radio.
His comments follow reports in the Australian newspaper, which said it had been told that the remaining 40 children of asylum seekers still living on Nauru would be relocated to Australia by the end of the year.
About 1,200 men, women, and children who sought refuge in Australia and were forcibly transferred to the remote Pacific island nation of Nauru suffer severe abuse, inhumane treatment, and neglect, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today. The Australian government’s failure to address serious abuses appears to be a deliberate policy to deter further asylum seekers from arriving in the country by boat.
Refugees and asylum seekers on Nauru, most of whom have been held there for three years, routinely face neglect by health workers and other service providers who have been hired by the Australian government, as well as frequent unpunished assaults by local Nauruans. They endure unnecessary delays and at times denial of medical care, even for life-threatening conditions. Many have dire mental health problems and suffer overwhelming despair – self-harm and suicide attempts are frequent. All face prolonged uncertainty about their future.
Australia: Appalling Abuse, Neglect of Refugees on Nauru. Human Rights Watch (2016)
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