Castan Centre for Human Rights Law

Tag: asylum seekers

  • 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.…

  • 2013 Refugee Week Blog: Hope. It’s all I’ve got left

    By Jessie Taylor When I was approached by the Castan Centre to write a blog for refugee week, my heart sank.  To be clear, I’m delighted to write for the Castan Centre (which I proudly identify as the birthplace of my human rights consciousness), but I just don’t know what to say anymore.  What can…

  • 2013 Refugee Week Blog: Oceans apart: compassion, politics and refugees

    By Lizzie O’Shea This week is Refugee Week, an opportune moment to reflect on the year that has passed. We are now detaining more children than ever before. Through the creation of the dysfunctional and inappropriate “no advantage” test, we are also creating a subclass of asylum seekers gripped by poverty. This particular category of…

  • Human Rights in the Federal Budget Part 1: Creative Accounting and Overseas Aid

    By Adam McBeth Following Tuesday’s budget, much has been made of the government’s deferral (yet again) of the commitment to increase spending on official development assistance (or overseas aid) to 0.5% of gross national income until 2017-18. This amounts to a cut of $1.9 billion from previously forecast aid levels over the period to June…

  • 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…

  • Refugee tribunal a check against the culture of no

    By Adam McBeth The Australian, on March 18, 2013, reported (paywall) on Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) figures that showed a remarkable 74 per cent success rate in the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) since July 2012 among people who arrived by boat. That figure is inflated somewhat by omitting cases that were withdrawn before a hearing…