Castan Centre for Human Rights Law

Author: Azadeh Dastyari

  • Abbott’s copycat tow-back plan won’t stop the boats

    By Azadeh Dastyari This piece critiques the opposition’s claim that its plan to “tow back” boats to Indonsesia is similar to the United States’ tow back policy.  On 18 July, our associate Maria O’Sullivan published this piece considering whether the opposition’s plan complies with Australia’s international law obligations.   In recent weeks, the Opposition Leader, the shadow immigration…

  • The Return to Rudd: a turn for the worse on asylum seeker policy?

    The night of Wednesday 26th of June was full of surprises. We got an old/new Prime Minister in Kevin Rudd, found out that our first female Prime Minister was quitting politics, and learned what the Foreign Minister Bob Carr thinks of refugees and our international obligations to protect them. Not much as it turns out.…

  • Circumventing the system: no, not the asylum seekers, the government

    By Azadeh Dastyari On 9 April 2013, 66 Sri Lankan asylum seekers sailed into Geraldton harbour in Western Australia. Their arrival was met with great alarm by politicians and the media. It had been a long time since any asylum seekers had reached the mainland, and none had ever made it so far south. The…