Posts Tagged ‘Refugees’
Saturday, March 6th, 2010
Paige Taylor; 6/3/10
The Rudd government has commissioned a secret land audit on Christmas Island as it prepares for a detainee population predicted to reach 5000 within four years. The Weekend Australian understands the local shire has been asked to report back to Canberra on potential building sites on the tiny Australian territory as department officials brace for a continuing influx of asylum-seekers that some predict could increase the island’s population from about 3000 to more than 12,000 by 2014. The department wants to know where it can and should build houses for the increasing population of fly-in, fly-out immigration workers from the Australian mainland. Locals sources told The Weekend Australian that senior officials from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship have told them it is necessary to research and prepare early for the possibility that the number of irregular maritime arrivals on the island could blow out from 1809 yesterday to between 4000 and 5000 by 2014.
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Tags: Australia, Migrants, Refugees
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Saturday, March 6th, 2010
6/3/10
Eight appeals have failed for Melbourne man Edward Joseph to stay in Australia caring for mother Irene, 92 Source: Supplied 8 failed appeals; Mental health jeopardised; ‘I have serious concerns’. DOTING son who refuses to put his mum in a nursing home has been forced out of Australia. The SRI Lankan man, who was to have been deported from Australia despite being the sole career of his elderly mother, has now left the country voluntarily.Edward Joseph, 69, was expected to be deported at 5pm (AEDT) yesterday afternoon even though his mother, 92-year-old Irene, lived in Melbourne and relied heavily on him.
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Tags: Australia, Migrants, Refugees
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Thursday, December 24th, 2009
Bruce Haigh; 22/12/09
Bruce Haigh was a diplomat for 25 years, serving in Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka. He also served on the Refugee Review Tribunal for five years.
There will be no Christmas on Christmas Island this year. Government fear and stubbornness has resulted in the detention centre on the island being over capacity; crowded with desperate, unhappy and traumatised asylum seekers. All supplies have to be shipped or flown to the island; a considerable logistical exercise and very expensive. There are about 1300 refugees, 300 guards and other detention facility workers on the island and 300 locals; almost two army battle groups. Asylum seekers are now being accommodated in tents before the arrival of demountable huts.
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Tags: Australia, Christmas, Refugees, Religion
Posted in Australia, Christianity, Refugee & Migrant, Religion | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
4/11/09
\Thousands of displaced Iraqis are facing nearly as much of a challenge returning to their homes as they did after they fled fighting, an international migration agency said on Tuesday. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) surveyed about 4,000 families who returned home and found that they were having trouble securing food, water and energy supplies while jobs were hard to come by and security fears remained, AFP reported from Geneva. Thirty-four per cent said their homes had been destroyed, while others found their homes had been taken over by someone else. “Our report shows that going home is almost as difficult as being displaced,” said IOM spokeswoman Jemini Pandya. Some 58,000 returnee families – 348,660 people – have been recorded by the IOM in Iraq, nearly 60 per cent of them in Baghdad, while 230,000 families were still displaced. Thirty-four per cent of returnees surveyed were unable to find jobs that would give them a livelihood, and the challenge was even more acute for the 12 per cent of female-headed households among the returnees, according to the agency.
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Tags: Iraq, Refugees, Terrorism, USA
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Monday, October 5th, 2009
5/10/09
- Chris Evans satisfies me that the Rudd government is strong on national border protection, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to do so (Letters, 3-4/10). But he fails to convince that its policy on treating asylum-seekers who are no real security threat and fleeing persecution is truly responsible, humane and in accord with international law. Much better than the Howard government, but still short on humanity. How many UNHCR-assessed and recognised refugees has the Rudd government resettled in Australia from Indonesia and Malaysia these past 22 months—a constructive policy which would make that perilous sea journey and dealing with criminals unnecessary? Why keep 42 refugee survivors of a tragic maritime accident last April, against whom Northern Territory police could lay no charges, in indefinite immigration detention in Perth and Brisbane? Why fund other governments not obligated by international refugee law without guaranteed access to assessment of their claims? I for one don’t need to be aggressively protected from asylum-seekers who have the courage and drive to seek peace and safety. I’d sooner find humane solutions for them and their families. Frederika Steen, Chapel Hill, Qld
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Tags: Asia, Australia, Human Rights, Migrants, Refugees
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Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
Yuku Narushima; 22/9/09
Two Kenyan women are facing deportation from Australia despite fears they could be subjected to forced genital mutilation or be killed when they are sent home. Grace Gichuhi, 22, and Teresia Ndikaru Muturi, 21, arrived in Australia in July last year on tourist visas for World Youth Day. They have been told to prepare for deportation after their applications to the Immigration Department for protection were refused, as were subsequent appeals to the independent refugee tribunal and Immigration Minister Chris Evans. Ms Gichuhi (above) says the Mungiki sect that killed her mother for refusing to have her clitoris cut off has threatened her life for the same reason.
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Tags: Africa, Australia, Migrants, Refugees, Womens Rights
Posted in Africa, Health & Children, Human Rights, Womens Rights | No Comments »
Friday, July 17th, 2009
Omar Obeidat; 17/7/09
Around 300,000 vulnerable Palestinian refugees across the region will receive basic food assistance thanks to a $6 million donation from the Japanese government. Under an agreement signed at the Hitteen refugee camp by Japanese Ambassador to Jordan Tetsuo Shioguchi and UNRWA Commissioner General Karen AbuZayd on Thursday, the Japanese government will provide around $6 million in support of UNRWA’s food assistance programme. According to UNRWA Spokesperson Matar Saqer, the donation will be used to purchase essential commodities to be distributed to impoverished families, pregnant women and nursing mothers in Palestinian refugee camps across the region. “Around 300,000 people will benefit from the assistance under the agency’s Social Safety Net Programme in its five fields of operations in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank,” he added.
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Tags: Human Rights, Israel, Japan, Refugees
Posted in Human Rights, Israel & Palestine, Japan, Refugee & Migrant, Terrorism | No Comments »
Monday, June 8th, 2009
Sherry Rehman; 8/6/09
There is nothing more tragic than being a refugee in one’s own homeland. Exile is no longer an imagined place or ambiguous choice. It is a reality forced by the trauma of a natural or man-made crisis, sharpening the pain and loss of leaving home, of facing the unsaid horror of becoming a third-class citizen in one’s own country. Yet despite the outpouring of public grief at the human deprivation distilled on television without interruption, and national discourse forcing many graphic realities out in the open, a few issues remain un-addressed, while others bear reiteration.
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Tags: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Refugees, Terrorism, USA
Posted in Human Rights, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
David Nason; 19/5/09; (3 Items)
How are those legions of young, idealistic and first-time voters feeling about Barack Obama’s promise of “change we can believe in” now that the new President has decided to reconvene George W. Bush’s military commissions and is looking for ways to detain some terror suspects indefinitely without trial? … But backflipping does come at a price, and Obama has done it so often on terrorism-related national security issues that the Bush presidency is starting to be seen in much more gentle light. … Since coming to office, Obama has adopted the Bush administration’s arguments to continue warrantless wiretapping and for refusing to release pictures of the US mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Obama has also embraced the same “state secrets” doctrine used by the Bush administration to shut down a lawsuit brought by two Guantanamo Bay detainees, who say they were tortured under the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program.
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Tags: Afghanistan, Human Rights, Pakistan, Refugees, Terrorism, UN, USA
Posted in Afghanistan, Human Rights, Pakistan, Refugee & Migrant, Terrorism, USA | No Comments »
Friday, May 15th, 2009
15/5/09; (2 Items)
The United States’ top lawyer has said he is prepared to go to court to prevent the release of scores of photos reportedly documenting prisoner abuse by US troops. Eric Holder’s remarks to US congress on Thursday came a day after Barack Obama, the US president, said he would move to block the court-ordered release of the photos. Holder told the US house judiciary committee that… “The president consulted with the generals on the ground and made the determination that the release of those photos would endanger our troops,” he said.”The concern was the release of those photos could have a negative impact on the situation both in Iraq and in Afghanistan and I think the president as commander in chief … thought that the posture he has now put us in was the better one.”
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Tags: Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Refugees, Terrorism, Torture, USA
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Friday, May 15th, 2009
15/4/09
At least 2,000 ethnic Tamil civilians have escaped Sri Lanka’s northern war zone, the country’s military has said, amid fighting between government forces and the Tamil Tigers. The civilians on Thursday waded across a lagoon while under fire from fighters from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, Sri Lanka’s military spokesman, said. Four civilians were killed and 14 hurt as they attempted to cross the lagoon, which is currently a barrier between army forces and the LTTE, he said.
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Tags: Refugees, Sri Lanka, Terrorism
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Friday, May 15th, 2009
Amy Hybels; 14/5/09
More than one hundred worshippers packed the tiny church of the Chaldean Catholic Vicariate in Amman Monday night to celebrate Mass with Cardinal Emmanuel Delly, the patriarch of Baghdad. “We look to him as our father,” remarked Sam Kako. “He was encouraging Iraqi Chaldean Catholics to stay in the homeland of their fathers, and not to leave their country too quickly.” Kako, who moved to the US from Iraq 20 years ago, flew to Jordan for Pope Benedict’s visit and to continue his work with a human rights organisation that assists Iraqis in relocating to Europe. He described Jordan as a “temporary haven” for Chaldean Catholics who have fled the violence in Iraq. According to Father Raymond Moussalli, the Chaldean patriarchal vicar in Jordan, there are 5,000 Iraqi Chaldean Catholics living in Jordan.
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Tags: Christianity, Iraq, Jordan, Refugees, USA
Posted in Asia, Christianity, Human Rights, Iraq, Refugee & Migrant, Terrorism, USA | No Comments »
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
From correspondents in Islamabad; 14/5/09
The number of people who have fled fighting in northwest Pakistan and registered with authorities in the last 11 days has jumped to more than 670,000, the UN refugee agency said on Wednesday. “The new figure of registered people since May 2 for the new influx is 670,906. That breaks down to … 79,842 in the camps and 591,064 out of camps,” UNHCR spokeswoman Ariane Rummery said.Those who were not sheltering in camps may be renting homes, staying with friends or relatives, or camping out elsewhere, Rummery said.
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Tags: Pakistan, Refugees, Terrorism, UN, USA
Posted in Human Rights, Pakistan, Refugee & Migrant, Terrorism, United Nations, USA | No Comments »
Thursday, May 7th, 2009
The Daily Telegragh; 7/5/09; (2 Items)
Illegals are detained
The Daily Telegraph story (Illegals get cuppa and visa, May 4) was factually incorrect and deliberately misleading. No new directive was issued by me or my office last week to change detention policies relating to visa over-stayers. Mandatory detention has not been scrapped and remains in place. All unauthorised arrivals, all unlawful non-citizens who present unacceptable risks to the community and those unlawful non-citizens who have repeatedly refused to comply with their visa conditions remain subject to mandatory detention. As of April 24 there were 129 visa over-stayers in detention. Most visa over-stayers enter the country on holiday or student visas. More than 99 per cent of people entering Australia abide by their visa conditions.
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Tags: Australia, Human Rights, Refugees
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Saturday, April 25th, 2009
Virginia Haussegger; 25/4/09; (6 Items)
The hardest thing about leaving Afghanistan is saying goodbye to friends. I could barely get Obaidullah to look at me. Just a week ago, I stood in the Kabul sunshine, in my filthy jeans and muddy boots, and decided not to try to hug him. A handshake would do. But still he wouldn’t look me in the eye. Yes, there’s that cultural thing — a certain modesty between men and women. But it was more than that. I had US dollars in my pocket and an Australian passport in my pack. It wasn’t envy that made Obaidullah overcome with shyness. It was awe. For a young man who has risked his life three times to try to make it to Australia in overcrowded, leaky boats, the simplicity of my exit must have seemed unreal. How is it that I can walk freely through customs and be greeted with “welcome home”, when people such as Obaidullah drift at sea for weeks, nursing sick and traumatised compatriots, convinced they are about to die? All the while desperately scanning the horizon for a glimpse of Australia.
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Tags: Afghanistan, Australia, Human Rights, Malaysia, Refugees, Sri Lanka
Posted in Australia, Refugee & Migrant, Sri Lanka | No Comments »
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
23/4/09
Sri Lankan refugees escaping the last remaining stronghold of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have described to Al Jazeera the “hellish” conditions they have endured. Talking to Al Jazeera’s David Chater at a reception centre in Pulmudai just south of the narrow strip of land held by the LTTE, some refugees said that they had been held on a beach and shot as they tried to flee. “A lot of them are in a very distressed state. They are suffering from heat exhaustion, dehydration and all sorts of illnesses,” our correspondent said on Wednesday.
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Tags: Human Rights, Refugees, Sri Lanka, Terrorism
Posted in Human Rights, Refugee & Migrant, Sri Lanka, Terrorism | No Comments »
