Refugee reform: the next chapter
David Holdcroft; 4/8/08
The changes to Australia’s asylum policy announced last week by the immigration minister, Chris Evans, were as inevitable as they were sensible. They are also incremental: they remove some of the worst aspects of a cruel system but leave intact much of the deterrent apparatus inherited from the former government. The introduction of mandatory detention is generally regarded as the work of Keating Government immigration minister Gerry Hand in 1992, although the policy direction can be traced three years previously to 1989. The Howard Government strengthened it in response to what it saw as a sizeable increase in numbers of boat people making for Australia’s shores in the late 1990s.
See: http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=8349
Tags: Australia, Refugees & Migrants