Mission & Justice

Mike Steketee; 18/6/08

Refugee numbers around the world are rising after a five-year decline, with conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq boosting the numbers. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres says there is a threat of further increases because of multiple conflicts, bad governance, competition for scarce resources as a result of climate change and instability generated by food and fuel price rises that have hit the poor. The UNHCR’s report on global trends for last year, released yesterday, estimates the number of refugees under its responsibility rose by 1.5million to 11.4million, with the volatile situation in Iraq making a significant contribution. It was the second year of increases after five years of falls. The total excludes persons who are displaced by conflict but stay within their country: that number grew last year by 1.6 million to 26million.

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Hani Hazaimeh; 16/6/08

The Iraqi government on Sunday gave the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) $8 million to assist Iraqis residing in the Kingdom, a UNHCR official said on Sunday. The money will be spent on health, education and housing services, the UNHCR representative in Jordan, Imran Riza, told The Jordan Times yesterday. “During the past two months, the agency was suffering from funding shortages and we urged the donors to increase their contribution to support the agency in carrying out its mission in light of rising food and energy prices,” he added. Iraqi Finance Minister Bayan Jabr handed over the money to the refugee agency at a ceremony at the Iraqi embassy in Amman yesterday. The contribution is part of a $25 million donation the Iraqi government pledged at an international conference in Geneva last year to assist countries hosting displaced Iraqis.

See: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=8653

Susannah Moran; 10/6/08

An Afghan refugee spent an extra four years in detention because the Howard government defied a tribunal’s orders and refused to explain its reasons for rejecting his visa application, a judge has found. Naqib Ahmad Noori, who spent six years in Sydney’s Villawood detention centre, is suing former immigration minister Philip Ruddock and the federal Government’s lawyers for an unspecified amount of damages in a case that could require Mr Ruddock, his staff and their lawyers to appear in the witness box to give evidence. Mr Noori is suing for misfeasance in public office and abuse of process in the NSW Supreme Court. The action has been brought because it was discovered the government and its lawyers failed to comply with orders to provide adequate particulars of its allegations against Mr Noori.

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5/6/08

A US marine has been cleared of covering up the massacre of 24 civilians in Iraq. Women and children were among those killed by US forces in the town of Haditha in 2005. The killings in Haditha are the most serious war crime allegations levelled at US forces since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Lieutenant Andrew Grayson, 27, was found not guilty by a jury on Wednesday of ordering photos of the slaughtered civilians to be deleted from army computers. Grayson, an intelligence officer, was not present when the Iraqis were shot dead by US marines on November 19, 2005, shortly after a roadside bomb killed a US soldier nearby.

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Mark Metherell; 29/5/08

The Department of Immigration has paid $620,000 to eight former detainees and has written to more than 130 others to say they may be next in line for compensation. Department officials have told a Senate estimates committee the department sent 149 letters to notify individuals they “may have been unlawfully detained”. The development is a sequel to a series of inquiries triggered by the controversy over the department’s mishandling of the cases of the Australian resident Cornelia Rau, who was unlawfully detained, and Vivian Alvarez Solon, an Australian citizen who was deported to the Philippines.

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Ean Higgins; 28/5/08

At lunchtime on Friday, Bangladeshi Hafizur Rahman was working as a printer in Sydney’s western suburbs, with his boss Iain Ramsay singing his praises as the sort of skilled and keen employee the company needs. By that afternoon, Mr Rahman’s 12-year struggle to build a life in Australia was ended by the Department of Immigration, which ordered him to leave the country by June 6 and stripped him of his right to work. Mr Rahman was ordered to present within two weeks a plane ticket out of Australia. Barring an extraordinary reprieve, Mr Rahman has come to the end of the road in his claim that he is a political refugee from a repressive regime in Bangladesh. After all his legal avenues failed, Immigration Minister Chris Evans examined his request for ministerial intervention and ruled that he did not qualify for political asylum.

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Ean Higgins; 24/5/08

Immigration Minister Chris Evans yesterday announced the first results of the Government’s efforts to speed up the processing of asylum-seekers, with those allowed to stay slightly outnumbering those being deported. The announcement drew criticism from asylum support groups, who fear for the fate of the thousands of people claiming to be political refugees. Senator Evans recently reviewed the cases of 72 people in immigration detention for more than two years. Of those, 24 have or will be removed because Senator Evans believes they have “no valid reason to be in Australia”. Five of the people have already been deported while steps are being taken to “fast-track” the removal of the remaining 19.

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Safia Al-Asmari; 23/5/08

Across the Kingdom, solemn looking and shabbily dressed Afghan children often sell gum to diners and shoppers leaving restaurants and supermarkets. While many people harbor ill thoughts about the parents who send their children to work on the streets, very few understand the poverty that forces these parents to do so. Afghanistan has seen conflict for decades, leading to thousands of Afghan refugees coming to Saudi Arabia. Although many Afghans here are legal, others reside illegally. Arab News met a number of illegal Afghan families who use Makkah’s winding alleyways and poor neighborhoods to hide from officials from the Passport Department. Mariam Muhammad, an Afghan woman, had come to live in Makkah with the help of smugglers two years ago. She traveled from her native Afghanistan via Pakistan and Yemen to join her husband who had come here four years before her.

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Arnold Zable; 19/5/08

Last week’s federal budget signalled the abolition of the Temporary Protection Visa system, introduced by the Howard government in October 1999. Since then 11,000 asylum seekers have received this visa. The TPV system was cruel and unjust. It undermined the spirit of international conventions for the protection of refugees. TPV holders were deprived of travel rights, given little access to settlement services, and could not be reunited with family members. People who had fled from persecution in their homelands were condemned to years of mental anguish and uncertainty.

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David Manne; 19/5/08

In recent years protection for human rights in Australia has degenerated. This has been especially marked in the area of immigration. Indeed, the refugee regime in Australia may represent the Western world’s worst practice. Key features have included mandatory, indefinite, non-reviewable detention, temporary protection visas, the Pacific/Indian Ocean Solutions, naval repulsion of asylum seekers arriving by boat, and ‘excision’ of Australian territory to prevent people from applying for asylum in Australia. Although the changes made after the Palmer enquiry mitigated the human suffering, the changes have been largely bureaucratic. The change in Government has opened the way to a more fundamental review of refugee policy and legislation.

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