[Mowlana Vector]

76 Refused From Tampa Now Kiwis


Bartool Basiri and sister Masoom.
(Photo: John Selkirk)

Seventy-six of the Tampa refugees refused entry to Australia became New Zealand citizens yesterday, with Prime Minister Helen Clark attending a ceremony in Auckland to congratulate the "new Kiwis".

The group included the so-called Tampa boys, 37 teenagers and young men who fled Taliban-ruled Afghanistan on their own and were cared for in NZ. They have been joined by 207 family members.

NZ accepted 150 of the 433 asylum seekers rescued from a sinking Indonesian fishing boat off Christmas Island in August 2001 by the Norwegian ship Tampa and refused entry by Australia.

Of the Australian Government, Mehdi Mohammadi, 21, said: "I don't mind, that's their policy. But I'm so happy to be a New Zealand citizen."

Azizullah Mussa, now a top student at Selwyn College in Auckland, described Ms Clark as a "respected and beloved friend".

"We arrived at Mangere (Auckland's refugee centre) and it was a good place," he said. People took care of us, accepted us and supported us. A number of people came into our lives that showed great humility."

Ms Clark said: "Something that began as a tragedy has ended up with us accepting many new Kiwis that are going to contribute all their talents and their energy and their culture and their ideas to our country."

Dominion Post, AAP

Weblink
====================================

BACKGROUND INFO
What Is MV Tampa?


(courtesy of Nicholson cartoons)

Tampa's Asylum-Seekers: Australia Must Fulfil Its International Obligations

[Mowlana Vector]

A Further 15 Quiet Departures At Baxter

The Immigration Department has quietly released more detainees, with 15 people set free from the Baxter detention centre at Port Augusta in the past week. Some of them had been held for up to five years.

Members of the group were invited to reapply for refugee status and received three-year temporary protection visas from the Department of Immigration on the basis of their conversion to Christianity or because of new information about the countries they had left.

The refugees had all been denied visas in the past and most had appealed to the Refugee Review Tribunal and the Federal Court. They included five Iranian Christians, who the Federal Government now accepts would face death if forcibly returned to Iran, and refugees from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Refugee advocates said 10 detainees were released on Tuesday and another five on Thursday, with possibly more to be let out next week. The group did not include Australia's longest-serving detainee, Peter Qasim.

A pastoral care worker from Port Augusta said the releases followed a breakthrough last year when 86 Afghans had their claims reviewed because of new information about their country. Some of those who were rejected in that review were among those released this week, she said.

Mira Wroblewski, spokeswoman for Rural Australians for Refugees, said "people are being slowly released under the radar, without (the Government) really admitting that they are softening their policy in any way".

An Immigration Department spokesman said yesterday that 10 detainees were released this week. "In these cases, the minister decided to allow new visa applications to be lodged because of significant changes," he said.

About 120 long-term asylum-seekers remain in Baxter.

Source
=================================

[Mowlana Vector]

Accept Nauru Detainees As Migrants: UN

The Federal Government will be asked this week to find a humanitarian solution for 54 asylum seekers who are still in offshore detention on Nauru.

The request will come from Neill Wright, the regional representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, who visited the island last week and found the detainees to be in a desperate state.

"They are isolated. They are very desperate. They don't know what will happen in their future and it is probably the uncertainty, more than anything else, that is damaging for their mental health," Mr Wright said.

Five Afghan children and two Iraqi women were of particular concern to him.

"This is not a place to bring up your children and it is no a place where you can plan for any future."

He suggested the asylum seekers, whose claims for refugee status have been rejected, be accepted as migrants by Australia or other countries, with the numbers having no impact on refugee quotas.

The 54 are the last of more than 1200 asylum seekers who have been through Nauru since 2001, with more than 700 being resettled and more than 470 voluntarily returned to their country of origin.

Mr Wright said the 54 who were left were "between a rock and a hard place".

Source
===============================================================

RELATED STORY
Nobel Laureate Calls For Charity

[Mowlana Vector]

I Don’t know Why U Think That Is Funny: Vanstone



... Alvarez to Australia: 'To err is human'

Our Cruelty to Detainees Must Stop

Scared of Deportation? Tatts Are Just the Ticket

[Mowlana Vector]

Department's Culture of Fear



Something is very wrong inside the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs.

Doctors, lawyers and social workers have been saying it for years, with the occasional Coalition backbencher agreeing, and in parliament this week, Immigration Minister Senator Amanda Vanstone at last said it too.

In the wake of two scandals involving the mistreatment of a pair of Australian women at the hands of DIMIA, Vanstone admitted to a culture of defensiveness in her department.

The problem, essentially a refusal to admit when it is wrong, was manifest in those sections that dealt with mandatory detention, and needed to be fixed, Vanstone said.

"It is quite clear that that culture - generically, talking about those particular divisions that deal with [mandatory detention] - needs attention," Vanstone said in answer to a Senate question from Labor's Robert Ray.

A closed-door investigation under way by former Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Palmer is looking into the apparent mistakes by the department in the cases of Cornelia Rau and Vivian Young.

John Howard has said it appeared Young was treated "unfairly".

Most glaringly, Young's wrongful deportation to the Philippines in 2001 was realised by a department officer in 2003 but nothing was done to find her. The Palmer inquiry's job is to decide how and why this could happen, Howard and Vanstone said.

Inquirer has spoken to a former senior immigration officer whose experiences at the department offer a few clues. The former officer in the onshore protection group resigned in mid-2001 - about the time Young was deported. "There was a culture of fear there," says former officer, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"[Senior management] said things like, 'There will be no mistakes ... if you or your staff make a mistake, I'll come down very heavily on you, and if not me, then someone up the chain in Canberra,"' the former officer says. "And I had considered there to be political interference [to speed] the protection visa process, from Canberra and from the minister's office."

The minister in 2001 was Philip Ruddock, but the departmental heads remained in place during the transition to Vanstone in 2003.

When Rau was wrongfully detained last year, the systems were practically unchanged.

In the Rau and Young cases, immigration officers failed to discover the identity of both women, with the result that two Australians were imprisoned as illegal immigrants.

Advocacy group A Just Australia points out that questions of identity are at the heart of the department's role in determining if asylum-seekers are entitled to protection.

"If Immigration could not tell that these women were Australian, how can they tell if someone is a Pakistani or an Afghan?" asks the group's Kate Gauthier.

The Palmer inquiry is also probing the failure of immigration authorities to detect mental illness in Rau, who has been interned at a South Australian psychiatric institution since her release from Baxter. Young, too, has a record of mental illness. The plight of the two women indicates severe deficiencies in the department's overall attitude to mental health issues, a panel of some of the nation's leading mental health experts said this week.

"It is unlikely that mental health carers and clinicians could find a more difficult environment in which to work than a DIMIA detention centre," they said.

Source
====================================

[Mowlana Vector]

Overseas-Born Australians Urged to Carry Citizenship Proof


(courtesy of Ron Tandberg, The AGE, 18 May 2005)

The lawyer for a Chinese-born Australian man held at Sydney's Villawood detention centre for three days in 2002 has warned overseas-born Australians to carry proof of citizenship at all times.

A man identified only as 'Howard' was detained with his three-year-old Australian-born son despite telling immigration officials he had an Australian passport.

Howard's lawyer, Nick McNally, says his client showed officials his Medicare card, driver's licence and employment papers, and told them he had an Australian passport.

He says the case makes an alarming point.

"If you're not obviously not someone from overseas you need to carry conclusive proof of your citizenship status at all times," he said.

The Immigration Department says it is unable to comment because the case is before the New South Wales Supreme Court.

Mr McNally says the officials did not check Howard's history and only released him after lawyers took his passport to the Immigration Department.

"Prior to our lawyer travelling out there, we had faxed certified copies of those documents and that still wasn't enough," he said.

He is now suing the Federal Government for unlawful detention.

Howard was a student in Australia in 1989 at the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

He became an Australian citizen in 1997.

Five years after Howard became an Australian citizen, he was detained along with his girlfriend and their son.

His girlfriend had overstayed her visa.

Source
=====================

[Mowlana Vector]

Alvarez Case Raises Dark Questions

Foreign-looking Australian citizens have good reason to be concerned, writes Indira Naidoo*.

There's been a chill in the air lately - and it's not been caused by the delayed arrival of Sydney's winter. The unfolding Vivian Alvarez case has left many immigrants, like me, feeling decidedly unsettled about the country we've called home for most of our lives.

The scandal of Alvarez's illegal deportation to the Philippines four years ago raises the unpleasant Orwellian question: "Are some Australians more equal than others?"

While the facts of this appalling human rights violation are still to be fully investigated, what are the thousands of Australians like me to think, who walk around everyday with a genetically enhanced Bondi tan?

What would happen to me, for instance, if I was involved in an accident and became disoriented? Until the Alvarez case I naively assumed that I would be taken to hospital and my family contacted immediately.

Now there are other ominous possibilities to consider. I may wake up in a mental institution, a detention centre or, as Alvarez found herself, in another country.

The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, says what happened to Alvarez was purely "a mistake". Perhaps. But it's a "mistake" I could easily have been the victim of given the right set of racial assumptions, incompetencies and bureaucratic bungling.

Should "foreign-looking" Australians, as some multicultural support groups are recommending, now carry our passports with us just in case our citizenry is called into question and we end up deported to an alien country?

Is our passport going to become a sort of "pass card" that allows us passage to shop, to go to work and to school without fear of imprisonment or deportation? A similar system existed in apartheid South Africa for generations. Every citizen carried a pass card with them at all times. It controlled all their activities based solely on their race.

If you were of African or Indian heritage there were suburbs you could not live in, schools you could not go to, beaches you could not swim in, park benches you could not sit on, people from other races you could not marry. Your race determined your every thought - your every action.

It was one of the many racist policies that forced my parents to eventually flee their home in South Africa in the late 1960s and build a new future for our family in Australia.

Our Prime Minister, John Howard, vehemently denies the Alvarez incident has any racist overtones. His denial is reassuring. But given that an inquiry is yet to expose the motives behind Alvarez's deportation, it is a denial Howard cannot yet make convincingly.

Coupled with the racist climate that forged Australia's modern immigration system in the 1940s and '50s, and the continual international denouncements of Australia's treatment of asylum seekers in recent times, it isn't unreasonable to wonder whether what happened in the Alvarez case was much more than a "mistake".

There is a deep irony to Alvarez's harrowing tale of trauma, cruelty and betrayal.

At the moment her ordeal is the centre of a media and political storm.

But as the story of her real-life eviction from Australia is eventually consigned to the inside pages, our collective attention will no doubt turn to the evictions that really matter - the ones on Channel 10's Big Brother.

*Indira Naidoo is a television broadcaster.

Source
===========================

RELATED READING


Quote

Arresting Job Opportunity in Captive Market

Looking for a new career working with people? Try Villawood or Baxter. If you want a salary of more than $100,000 and a company car, there's not much time left to submit an application. Today is the deadline for three jobs advertised by GSL, the company contracted by the Federal Government to run Australia's immigration detention centres. More ...

[Mowlana Vector]

Town Unites to Save Its Model Immigrants



When the Bruderhofs first came to Inverell the reception was mixed: the prospect of new people and new money impressed the town's hard heads but stoked dark mutterings of a strange religious sect.

Five years later, Inverell has galvanised behind this American Christian group's attempt to beat immigration restrictions that have strangled its expansion and will force 10 of its members out of the country by October.

Local federal and state MPs have stood in their respective parliaments to give them glowing character references. The local mayor has graced their table and calls them friends.

Even Inverell's Catholic parish priest is praying that Department of Immigration bureaucrats are "healed of their blindness".

The turnaround is as much a story about the fightback of inland NSW as one in which the Bruderhofs have overcome prejudices to forge a sense of place in the Australian bush. And it has raised questions about a one-size-fits-all immigration policy.

"There is still a problem in the minds of the bureaucrats that you can't open the floodgates," says the independent federal MP Tony Windsor. "Where there is proof there is a good community such as the Bruderhofs, I say why not cut a hole in the fence once in a while."

In the McLean Memorial Retirement Village, Norma Cameron-James clasps tightly the hand of a Bruderhofs nurse, Christina O'Connell, and declares: "You know, I think you will be all right. I'm praying for you."

Norma is a Seventh Day Adventist and her husband, George James, is Catholic, but as beneficiaries of the Bruderhofs' nursing home visits neither will brook a bad word against them. "It stinks," says George. "We'll hide you under the bed," Norma chimes in, her fierce loyalty underlined by the nursing home's chief, Paul Cook, who wonders what his elderly residents would do without the Bruderhofs' weekly visits, concerts and carol singing. Three of the home's regular visitors have already returned to the United States and Gottlieb and Celia Fischli's time is fast running out.

"In a country area like ours, many of the elderly folk's relatives have gone away for work and the Bruderhofs fill a huge gap," says Mr Cook. "It's fear that we could lose their very valuable contribution … we would miss them like you wouldn't believe."

Eirene Rhodes, a Bruderhofs home school teacher, says she is constantly stopped in the street. "It's as if our struggles with immigration have been a rally card. In the States this wouldn't happen at all."

Of Protestant origins, the Bruderhofs' communal way of living and working, traditional gender roles and peasant dress invite comparison with religious groups like the Amish and Mennonites.

Slowly the Bruderhofs have worked their way into the soul of Inverell. They are involved with the local church choirs and agricultural society. Their signs welcome visitors to Inverell, Tingha, Tenterfield, Bingara, Maitland and Glenn Innes.

Angus Witherby, a private planning consultant, chaired an inquiry in 2001 into the land rezoning application allowing the 400-strong group to set up on the town's outskirts. It provoked 360 public submissions and oral testimonials lasting 60 days.

He has watched from afar as the Bruderhofs have converted even their most outspoken critics.

"Without the Bruderhofs' kids the two high schools would have amalgamated. The level of service provision in country towns is so delicately balanced if you lose population you lose services," Mr Witherby said. "These are gut survival issues for a town like Inverell. To have a community of 400 people come with industry and enterprise is what every country town longs for."

Harry Fay, whose grandfather founded Inverell's landmark mixed business, has fired off letters supporting their visa applications. "You can't rent or buy a house in Inverell, the local abattoir can't get enough people to work there and you can't get a builder for two years."

But it's not all rural pragmatism. The Bruderhofs' children set up a fruit and vegetable stall after the Boxing Day tsunami. They busked and baked biscuits and headlined the town hall benefit concert.

"The community really embraced them … we raised $30,000 which was an incredible amount for a town with a population of 10,000," says Liz Tickner, editor of The Inverell Times. "If there was a bit of nervousness when they arrived … they realise now they are not some mad religious sect, they are law-abiding religious people and a major part of the community."

Established in Germany in the 1930s, the Bruderhofs trace their Protestant origins to the Anabaptists of the 1500s who believed only adults who had confessed their faith should be baptised.

But Mr Witherby does not find their religious brand incompatible with bush Christianity. "[It's] very straight up and down, no flies on it, the fit is good because they don't proselytise."

And that, says Inverell's mayor, Barry Johnston, has been the secret of their integration. "People out here are relatively cautious about new people … they will stand back and have a look and see for themselves."

For the Bruderhofs the visa difficulties have proved an icebreaker. Brother Randy Gauger says it was as if Inverell - suffering drought and the challenges of population decline - could relate to their hardships.

There have been unsolicited emails and letters of support, including one from the Premier, Bob Carr. An early Australian Bruderhofs pioneer, Mark O'Connell, who has just received permanent residency, talks of a sense of belonging he felt at the funeral of an Inverell identity. "It wasn't what was said, it was what was felt," he said.

The Federal Government has not bent to calls for a relaxation of visa rules, but senior bureaucrats have guided the Bruderhofs through the maze of regulations.

Source
=====================================

[idriys]

I cannot but help wonder at this mish-mash of reaction to reality: if persons act in a manner which is detrimental to their well-being, why should we feel pity for them? True, the German woman & the Filipina were, both, mentally disturbed, and actively masqueraded as being other than Australian Citizens, so what is the big deal that they were treated for what they were trying to pass themselves off as. As for the other lot, they had ran out of visa, and were on the way out: except that an exception was asked for. looked into, and acted upon. Considering the large number of people driving cars and ignoring things like road rule 170, which truly is something to be worried about, I cannot, for the life of me, agree with all of this misdirected sympathy for people who need help, but not the kind that seems to be on offer. Yes, Virginia, there really are no refugees in Australian Detention Centres, and try not to confuse chalk with cheese, or you may try to use one for the other, with unfortunate results.

[Mowlana Vector]

Here we go again

Idriys, care for some (Howardite family-values) reading ... ===========================================

Children on Nauru Held Since 2001



A baby boy born in a Perth hospital on Monday takes the number of children in immigration detention to 68, a human rights groups said today.

Michael Andrew Tran was born after his parents, both Vietnamese asylum seekers, were transferred under guard from the Christmas Island detention centre for the event.

His father Minh Dat and mother Hoai Thu have been in detention on remote Christmas Island since July 2003.

Coordinator of the group Chilout: Children out of Detention, Alannah Sherry, said there are 62 children in mainland Australia centres and six on the Pacific island of Nauru.

"The longest children (have been) in detention are those six in Nauru who are Pacific Solution victims,'' she told ABC radio.

"They've been in for well over three and a half years now.

"Most of them are children of overstayers, that is, they have been picked up in the community and then been detained.''

Michael Tran was born the same day as three-year-old Naomi Long was released with her mother from Sydney's Villawood detention centre, where the child had spent her entire life.

Ms Sherry said most of the children had not been in detention for longer than a year but there were some, like Naomi Leong, who had been in detention since birth.

"On Nauru, there is a two-year-old there who's been there his whole life,'' she said.

"At the Port Augusta residential housing project, which is the detention centre for women and children - their husbands and dads are at Baxter - there is a three-year-old Chinese girl, baby Bonnie, who was in detention at Villawood with her mum (who's) been in detention her whole life.

"She turned three just last month.''

Former Australian Democrats leader Andrew Bartlett has just returned from the immigration detention centre on Nauru, where he said he spoke to all detainees individually and as a group.

Senator Bartlett told ABC Radio there were six children aged two to 15 from two Afghani families in detention on Nauru.

"There's a seven (year-old girl) and an eight-year-old girl, an eight-year-old boy, a two-year-old boy that was born in detention there, and a 14-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy," he said.

"(They are) all very isolated, just two young seven and eight-year-old girls with each other for company who have been in that environment for over three years.

"That's longer than even the young girl who's just been released from Villawood has experienced in detention."

Senator Bartlett said he was struck by the psychological trauma many of the people were experiencing, but particularly the terrible situation the children were in.

He urged the federal government not to make the same mistake as it had with Naomi Leong.

"Sort out the cases with these children and their families but let them free while you're doing so," he said.

"To just keep locking them up is ridiculous."

- AAP (Weblink)

RELATED: Libs Defy PM Over Detainees

Howard Explodes at MPs' Revolt
==============================================

Wrongful Detention: 200 Cases Go to Inquiry



Senator Vanstone's admission follows weeks of pressure over the wrongful detention of Ms Rau and the deportation to the Philippines of Australian citizen Vivian Alvarez Solon.

Several Liberal backbenchers have mounted a rebellion against the Government's mandatory immigration detention policies, planning to introduce their own legislation to water down the laws.

But Senator Vanstone defended her department, saying it was often difficult to correctly identify someone suspected of having a mental illness.

She said she had made several changes in light of the cases and was considering bringing in experts to fix problems.

"I recognise that it may be appropriate to involve external expertise," she told a Senate estimates hearing.

Senator Vanstone said that, while 201 cases marked "released not unlawful", had been referred to former Australian Federal Police chief Mick Palmer for investigation, not every one would turn out to be a case of wrongful detention.

"Every single case will be looked at separately, every one of them, because the department is determined to recognise what problems it may have and to change," she said.

"And I am not going to ... engage in that work and then have further problems arise later. It must start with a clean slate.

"But even more importantly than that, if there are any cases in that number that have a problem, then [they] have to be dealt with as a right for the person involved.

"We've done the search, we've gone back as far as these records are held and we're referring just over 200 cases."

Senator Vanstone said she had asked her department to look at using biometrics to identify people, and had set up a special national identification unit in the Canberra head office to ensure complex cases were dealt with quickly and consistently.

The unit will help state and territory case officers check identities, while immigration detention review managers will be in place by the end of May in each state and territory where people are detained.

From May 28, a psychiatrist will visit Baxter detention centre every fortnight and, from next week, psychiatric nurses will be on call 24 hours a day.

The changes are not enough to placate moderate Liberal backbenchers, who want children and their parents released from immigration detention immediately, and all detainees released after a year.

Victorian MP Petro Georgiou has drawn up his own legislation. Up to four Government MPs are believed to support his move.

Prime Minister John Howard has ruled out a conscience vote on the issue, angering former Liberal candidate and human rights advocate Greg Barns, who was disendorsed for publicly opposing the Government's treatment of asylum seekers.

"Mr Howard allowed a conscience vote on right-to-die legislation, IVF and abortion - there is no difference between those matters of conscience and the rights of human beings in detention when they have committed no crime," Mr Barns said.

AAP (Weblink)

RELATED: Howard Stands By Vanstone, Detention Policy

Insane Not to Allow Baby Photo: Vanstone

Minister Vanstone Was Ranked the Least Trustworthy
===================================

Psychiatrist Fears For Detained Three-Year-Old



The pair had their first night of freedom after they were given a bridging visa and released from Villawood detention centre.

Ms Leong has been locked in immigration detention since 2001 when she was caught with an allegedly false passport when she was two months pregnant.

The Leongs' plight became public when psychiatrist Dr Michael Dudley revealed her three-year-old daughter Naomi - who has spent her entire life in detention - had been banging her head against a wall and was often mute and unresponsive.

The Malaysian high commission last week offered Ms Leong and her daughter citizenship, but Ms Leong rejected the offer, because being deported to Malaysia would mean she could never see her son Griffin, a child from an earlier marriage.

She has not seen the boy since her detention.

So desperate

Ms Leong, 31, became confused yesterday afternoon when presented with paperwork by officials at Villawood. She called her solicitor, who arrived about 4.30pm to discover that the forms allowed mother and child to leave detention for the first time since October 2001.

"The moment they told me I could go out today, I couldn't believe it," Ms Leong said last night.

"Naomi doesn't understand what is happening but I have just told her we are going to see a friend and she is excited. I cannot believe I can see my son very soon."

"I'm not sure. I'm not quite sure (what I'll do),'' Ms Leong told ABC radio.
"I don't know. Have a good sleep and then hopefully I can see my son very, very soon. . .

"I'm so desperate, so desperate. Almost four-and-a-half years I didn't see him now.

"I don't know how he looks like. I don't know how tall he is. I don't know absolutely nothing.

"I'm so happy now, so happy. I can't believe it. I'm out here (outside) detention. I'm outside.''

Mental deterioration

Dr Dudley, a senior lecturer in psychiatry at the University of NSW and a psychiatrist at the Sydney Children's Hospital, has campaigned for Naomi to grow and develop in a healthy environment.

He wrote to the immigration department in March urging it to allow Naomi time out of Villawood to interact with other children her own age.

He said when he first met Naomi she was a warm girl who was happy to play with her mother but her mental state had deteriorated dramatically.

Of the 62 children in detention in Australia, none have been held as long as Naomi.

Dr Dudley said Ms Leong was separated from her daughter for more than a week last year when she was sedated and sent to a psychiatric facility after taking part in a protest at Villawood.

Dr Dudley said the Department of Community Services took the baby and returned her a week later, grubby, bruised and highly distressed.

Live in fear

He said despite their release, the pair would continue to live in fear and insecurity.

"Both of them have been mentally unwell, and I think this (their release)will assist enormously, but they are going to need some really good follow-up,'' he told ABC radio today.

"They're still non citizens, so they can't get on with their lives and that is a major problem. . . so they continue to have high levels of insecurity and fear.''

It is believed the local Malaysian community is helping Ms Leong and her daughter with accommodation.

- with AAP (Weblink)

RELATED:
Leong Could Face Detention Again

Freedom Frightens Little Naomi
====================================

Detainees' Isolation Too Long: Rights Body



The Commonwealth breached an international covenant on human rights when it kept 26 Iranians and Iraqis in isolation at the Curtin detention centre, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission found yesterday.

The detainees were kept in separate detention for up to eight months in 2000-01, well beyond the three to four weeks the commission found reasonable to process new arrivals at the centre and long enough to breach their right to human dignity.

It also found the detainees were effectively unable to communicate with their family and friends while in isolation.

The Department of Immigration's only means of communication for the detainees to let their families know they were alive was a standard form fax sent on their behalf.

The letter, translated into the detainee's native tongue, read: "This is to let you know that [I] have arrived safely in Australia and am being detained in Immigration Detention.

"I am currently unable to telephone or write a letter to you but as soon as I can I will be in touch. I am in good health and being looked after.

"Return faxes will not be accepted."

The commission noted many of the families of the detainees in Iran or Iraq would not have fax machines or fax numbers.

RELATED: High Cost of Detention Hits Home
=========================

FURTHER READING



Children In Australian Detention Centres

New Arrival Makes it 68 Children in Detention

Australia's Immigration Detention Camps Under Fire

A Last Resort?: The National Inquiry Into Children in Immigration Detention

Extension of the Palmer Inquiry

Government Found Guilty of Neglect at Baxter

We Treat Some Killers Better Than Asylum Seekers

'This Is Not Detention, This Is Hell'



Freed From a Life in Detention

Rau Seeks Compensation, But Detention Still A Mystery

When Immigration Gets It Really, Really Wrong

I Was Never Mentally Ill, Says Rau

Councillors Emerge From Baxter Dazed, Inspired

Academics Take on Immigration Detention Investigation

Woomera Detention Centre Doctor Speaks Out

Australia's Detention Camps

Refugee Australia National Directory: Australian Refugee Lobby, Support and Action Groups

[sodapop]

[Mowlana Vector]

... thanks God for the people of conscience and voices of dissent
=======================================

Detention Policy Fails the Test of Humanity
By: Judi Moylan*

Two women - Cornelia Rau and Vivian Alvarez - have finally convinced a bitterly divided Australia that reform of the mandatory detention system is needed.

But can MPs elected by the Australian people to represent them help Australians reach consensus on the way forward? I believe we can. After years working within the Liberal Party for reform with minimal success, it's time to debate the issue.

The action plan presented to the Liberal Party by Petro Georgiou, member for Kooyong, is designed to do just that. It involves two bills.

The first is to ensure that children and their families are released while their applications are considered. Pending and unsuccessful asylum-seekers in detention for more than a year would be released until their status was determined by a judicial assessor. Refugees on temporary protection visas would get permanent residency, as would asylum-seekers who cannot be removed from Australia three years after the final determination of their applications for protection.

The second bill would reform the mandatory detention system to ensure that asylum-seekers are not kept in detention for more than 90 days without good cause. All cases would be assessed by a judge on an application by the Department of Immigration, which would have to prove that release would result in a threat to public safety or that the asylum-seeker was likely to abscond. This would ensure that the administration of the law was transparent, accountable and fair.

For the majority of Australians who support some form of mandatory detention as part of strong border control, reform of that system is imperative to prevent its destruction.

The founding father of the Liberal Party, Robert Menzies, led opposition to Labor's wartime refugee removal bill. In February 1949 he warned that refugee policy "must be applied by a sensible administration, neither rigid nor peremptory but wise, exercising judgment on individual cases, always remembering the basic principle but always understanding that harsh administration never yet improved any law but only impaired it, and that notoriously harsh administration raises up to any law hostilities that may some day destroy it".

Those of us who believe reform is necessary are not radicals. I think it is fair to say that we are Liberals in the Menzian tradition. Menzies displayed compassion and for the most part a strong desire to ensure that policy united rather than divided the Australian people: "As a party and as a country we have fought hard to preserve human life and human dignity, fighting two major wars to uphold these principles."

The Liberal Party has a strong commitment to allowing members to vote according to their conscience. Respect for the dictates of the Liberal politician's conscience is one of the great differences between Labor and Liberal parties. Protection of citizens' rights against abuse of state power and the use of political power to promote equality of opportunity for all are fundamental to liberalism.

Today we preside over a policy and an administration that has seen an incapacitated citizen deported, a mentally ill Australian incarcerated as an illegal for nearly a year, and the indefinite detention of men, women and children without any charges being laid against them.

Self-harm, suicide and mental health problems are well documented. The reports have highlighted the harm done to children. This is why what may once have been a policy debate now has an ethical dimension that should see the policy openly debated in the House of Representatives, with each MP voting on our plan or an amended version according to their consciences.

I have been proud to participate in parliamentary debates on matters that go to the heart of preserving human life and dignity. These debates were conducted in a mature manner with the parties allowing a conscience vote.

Responding to a recent proposal to bring on a private member's bill on abortion for debate, the Prime Minister said he would allow a debate in the people's house: "This is Australia. It's a democracy. And people can raise anything they like."

To me it seems no less important, for reasons of conscience, to engage in a debate on asylum-seeker policy, a policy that fails the foundation test of upholding human life and human dignity.

It is for this reason that we need to openly debate this issue within the party, the parliament and the community. There is a way forward that can maintain the integrity of the border protection policy, ensure a humane policy and bridge the divide this issue has created within our communities.

*Judi Moylan is the Liberal member for Pearce.

Source
=================================

Why We Need a New Policy on Refugees

It's time for compassion and accountability in handling asylum seekers, writes Petro Georgiou*.

For many years I have been concerned about difficulties experienced by some refugees and asylum seekers, which result from policies implemented at a time of widespread anxiety that we might be engulfed by a flood of bogus asylum seekers. That fear has not been realised. It's time to review the policy framework established under different circumstances and adopt a more compassionate, transparent and accountable approach while maintaining the integrity of our immigration and refugee system.

Unauthorised boat arrivals have all but ceased and the great majority of asylum seekers who came by boat were found to be genuine refugees. Regime change in Afghanistan and Iraq has seen the halt of major flows of people from two main source countries of unauthorised arrivals to Australia.

Within the region,the activities of people smugglers have been curtailed.

In recent years, the Government has acknowledged the need for flexibility in asylum and refugee policies. Nonetheless, while the perceived crisis has long since passed, asylum seekers continue to be detained for lengthy and even indefinite periods. They include women and children.

Asylum seekers continue to be detained for periods longer than prison sentences imposed on violent criminals, and may be detained indefinitely. More than 300 people have been in immigration detention for more than a year, and about 80 of them have been held for more than four years. Many of those who have been detained for such long periods have subsequently been found to be bona fide refugees.

There is no independent scrutiny of whether it is necessary to keep people detained for lengthy or indefinite periods to protect the community or to prevent them absconding.

The harmful effects of long-term detention on detainees' mental and physical health have been documented by health experts, and the Federal Court recently found that the Government failed in its duty of care to provide adequate services to psychiatrically ill long-term detainees at the Baxter detention centre.

People on temporary protection visas have been welcomed and integrated by Australian communities, and are making significant contributions. Many holders of temporary protection visas continue to live in anxiety and fear of being returned to places of great insecurity.

It is clear that additional measures are necessary to ensure that the system is compassionate, fair, accountable and subject to independent scrutiny. I am proposing two private member's bills to achieve these aims, while maintaining the integrity of Australia's immigration and refugee system.

The first bill contains compassionate measures to alleviate the plight of individuals who are suffering under the current system. The main elements are:

· Asylum seekers who have been detained for more than a year will be released until their status is resolved, unless a judge who has examined their case decides that they should continue to be detained because they are dangerous or are likely to abscond.

· Children under 18 and their immediate families will be released from detention immediately pending determination of their applications unless a judicial officer finds that they pose a danger to the public or are likely to abscond.

· People who have been found to be bona fide refugees but have been granted only temporary protection visas will be permitted to remain in Australia permanently.

The second bill proposes a model of reform so that the problems that have arisen under the current system do not recur. Its features include:

· Asylum seekers who don't have a visa will be able to be detained only if it is necessary to detain them on specified grounds, for example, to verify identity and to protect public safety. Detention decisions will be subject to Federal Court judicial scrutiny. Departmental officers will be able to detain people initially for up to 90 days and then must show cause to the Federal Court as to why further detention is required. The Federal Court may order continued detention for recurring periods of 90 days.

· Everyone who is found to be a refugee will be granted permanent residency.

In recent months, many Australians have told me that they supported the framework of stringent measures in the context in which they were introduced. But they now believe that reform is necessary and can be achieved without compromising the security of our borders and our community. I agree.

They are disturbed that children, women and men are imprisoned for lengthy periods simply because they came without prior authority, without any independent assessment of whether they pose a risk to our community. They believe that fundamental Australian values of fairness and decency demand a new approach. I share those feelings.

The measures I am proposing constitute a carefully designed package and in no way undermine our capacity to protect our borders and prevent abuse. One of the enduring strengths of this nation is our commitment to justice, tolerance and compassion for others. Our treatment of refugees and asylum seekers who have arrived uninvited must surely reflect those deeply held values.

*Petro Georgiou is the federal Liberal MP for Kooyong.

Source
=============================================

Labor Missing In Action
By: Mike Steketee

What does it tell us when it takes Liberal backbencher Petro Georgiou and a few colleagues to defy the Prime Minister and make the running on relaxing the Government's brutal policy of mandatory detention?

That once again, the Labor Party is out of touch and has been left behind. The Opposition could have taken the opportunity offered by the divisions in Government ranks that have been evident for many months. It could have taken the initiative on an issue in which humanity has long demanded a different approach and on which, in any case, community opinion has swung away from a lock-'em-up-and-throw-away-the-key approach.

But then Labor would not have had its heart in it, not judging by the attitude of its spokesman on immigration, Laurie Ferguson. When it comes to refugees and mandatory detention, Ferguson is a hardliner, whose real views are closer to former immigration minister Philip Ruddock than to many people in the ALP -- certainly those on the Left of the party to which he nominally belongs.

That may not always be clear from his public comments. But it is from his private correspondence. A Sydney refugee activist, Stephen Langford, recently wrote to Ferguson arguing for Labor to show some leadership in this area and asking him to take up the case of an Iranian who has been in Villawood detention centre in Sydney for almost three years.

In his reply, Ferguson launched into a tirade. "I am afraid to reveal a major secret -- the self-styled refugee advocates do not have a monopoly on morality and automatically following their prescriptions is not necessarily the only 'leadership' position," he wrote.

Ferguson went on to complain about his "thankless" decision to agree to look at individual cases and then concluded by sharing a few more of his true thoughts. "Finally, as for moral righteousness, I would raise that the pass rate on TPVs [temporary protection visas which grant refugee status but only for two years] is over 90 per cent. This is absolutely incredibly at variance with the UNHCR [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees], European and North American processing and Australia's offshore outcomes. Think about this and tell me the people in the camps and slums of Peshawar, Nairobi, Ankara etc are getting a good deal, as opposed to the people smugglers and their clients."

Oppositions usually try to work with interest groups that agitate against Government policy. Ferguson has succeeded in getting them offside.

Nor was he backing off yesterday. Langford, he said, was "a well-meaning guy" who had sent him "a very pompous, self-important, self-righteous letter. I get a bit sick of these people lecturing me."

Ferguson's letter makes it clear that he thinks that many of the asylum-seekers we have let in are not really refugees and, presumably, should be shipped back to Iraq and Afghanistan. He would not quite admit that yesterday but he came close.

He said he believed the high rate of approvals had been influenced by Government thinking that US firepower would quickly restore peace to Afghanistan and Iraq, meaning that refugees on TPVs could be returned. "I don't know why it should be higher onshore in Australia than where people are in camps for a decade or two, and I would like someone to objectively tell me."

Ferguson has a point about refugees in camps, as did Ruddock, who also argued they should be given priority. Let's expand our refugee program to take more of them, by all means. But that does not make people who flee by boat in fear of their life unworthy. That is like saying that we should not pick up someone we find in the gutter because people may be even worse off overseas.

Whatever happens in next week's debate in the Government partyroom, Georgiou's supporters say he is intent on exercising his right as an MP to move two private members bills in parliament to change the policy.

So will Labor support the bills? If it does and the Government allows the debate to proceed, the legislation could become law if 12 other MPs supported Georgiou. So far, three Liberal MPs have backed him -- Judi Moylan, Bruce Baird and Russell Broadbent. Independent Peter Andren said yesterday he fully agreed with the legislation. Other Liberals feel strongly on the issue but whether they are prepared to stand up and be counted remains to be seen.

Many of Georgiou's proposals, such as time limits on detention, the release of children and their parents and allowing TPV holders to stay permanently are identical or close to Labor policy. "We would be reasonably happy with a lot of it," says Ferguson.

"We have to move towards a position where more people are released while cases are pending." But he immediately qualified this by saying that Labor would have to be satisfied that those let out into the community were not likely to abscond. "Overseas experience is not encouraging: if you let everyone with a claim out, they will not co-operate with the system."

Refugee groups deny that, based on overseas experience, the danger of people absconding is serious. In any case, Georgiou's legislation aims at screening out such people so that they are not released.

Ferguson is Labor's worst enemy when it comes to projecting a more humane policy on detention. He was appointed to the job by Mark Latham, a fellow hardliner on refugee policy. Latham has moved on and so should Ferguson. Kim Beazley would do the refugee cause a favour by shifting him to an area where he does less damage, or even better, cleaning out his frontbench with a spill of positions.
Source
==========================

ALSO SEE



Immigration Dept Knew of Solon in 2003, Inquiry Told, Interview with Amanda Vanstone

Libs Block Immigration Blunder Debate

Immigration Dept Apologises For Bungles

Palmer Inquiry Cost Nears Half-Million

Dennis Shanahan: Pressure on For a Change to the Menu

Palmer to Resign After Rau Report: Judical Inquiry Needed Into DIMIA Scandals

LATELINE Exclusive: Palmer to Step Down From Immigration Probe

AUST Greens: DIMIA Answers Beggar Belief: Continued Inaction on HREOC Report

Aust Democrats: PM's Conscience Vote Ban Unconscionable

Beazley Rules Out Conscience Vote on Detention Bill

Vanstone Defends Detention of kids

[Mowlana Vector]

When Getting Punished Means Getting A Promotion

More than two years ago, in the wake of the "children overboard" deception, the then Public Service commissioner, Andrew Podger, took politicised bureaucrats politely to task over the issue.

In his annual state-of-the-service report, he suggested the affair provided a "timely reminder of the relevance of the APS [Australian Public Service] values" such as being apolitical, impartial, accountable and devoted to promotion on merit.

The Herald later asked Podger to elaborate on his criticisms, in the light of revelations that the Government's people smuggling taskforce, which co-ordinated the whole charade, had kept few records, had taken instruction directly from ministerial staffers and had given flawed but politically advantageous advice to the Government.

"I think," Podger said, "some of the key players before subsequent parliamentary committees have said there are some lessons to be taken from the exercise. Jane Halton [the head of the taskforce] herself said one of them was about record-keeping. She accepts it was not as good as it should have been."

But Halton, we pointed out, like almost everyone else bureaucratically associated with the affair, was immediately promoted, in her case to become secretary of the Health Department. What signal did that send to the rest of the bureaucracy?

Podger declined to answer.

Which brings us to Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone and her response to the revelation that officers of her department had known in August 2003 that an Australian citizen, Vivian Alvarez Solon, had been improperly deported to the Philippines.

Amazingly, departmental officers had not only been aware of this but had written about it to the Queensland police and to a TV missing persons program. But they had not, apparently, made any effort to rectify it or passed the information up the departmental chain.

Vanstone, on the ABC's Lateline

on Wednesday night, was asked how this could have happened.

She began her answer by saying: "With respect, I'm not seeking to apportion any blame".

She went on to identify the ranks of those who knew as "APS, I think, 5 or 6 level and one might have been at an APS 6 or EL 1 at the time - at the time."

To translate: they were mid-ranking bureaucrats, although her use of "at the time" suggests the possibility of subsequent promotion.

Host Tony Jones asked: "Were any supervisors in that department or in that section made aware of what had happened?"

Vanstone: "We've accessed the paper records, and the paper records do not indicate that anything was passed up …"

Why are we not surprised?

Source

RELATED: The Skull Beneath DIMIA's Skin



===========================

ALSO SEE
PM Won't Step Up Detainee Inquiry

Australia Below-par On Human Rights

[Mowlana Vector]

Asylum Seeker Drinks Bleach



THE longest-serving detainee at Villawood Detention Centre has attempted suicide by drinking a bottle of bleach.

Palestinian asylum seeker Mohammed Mahmoud was rushed to Liverpool Hospital on Wednesday night after trying to kill himself.

Friends said the 35-year-old had been "severely depressed" about his chances of being released.

To date he has served almost five years in detention in NSW and WA.

Mr Mahmoud reportedly fled his native Syria in 2000 after suffering political persecution.

After arriving in Australia from Indonesia, he spent a year in detention in Port Hedland before being moved to Villawood in 2001.

Friend Jamal Daoud said the long wait for a resolution to his case had taken its toll on Mr Mahmoud, who was last night recovering in hospital.

"He's not asking for much, but he needs some relief. He has to be freed," Mr Daoud said. "He needs to get out of detention while his application for a visa is determined."

Prime Minister John Howard was again forced to stand by Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone yesterday, refusing the Labor Party's calls to sack her.

Opposition Leader Kim Beazley tried to censure Mr Howard in Parliament for "failing to sack" Senator Vanstone after she referred 201 cases of possible wrongful detention to the Department of Immigration.

Mr Beazley also called for a royal commission into the Howard Government's "scandalous mismanagement" of the immigration system.

"It is the Prime Minister who should have [Senator Vanstone's] head on his table, that is what should have happened," he said.

Mr Howard resisted, saying: "I do not intend to relieve Senator Vanstone of her responsibilities."

Former Australian Federal Police chief Mick Palmer, who is heading the closed-door inquiry into the wrongful detention of Australian woman Cornelia Rau and the wrongful deportation of Australian citizen Vivian Alvarez, will now look at the additional 200 cases.

Mr Howard said he would consider taking further action, such as setting up a judicial inquiry, but only after Mr Palmer had submitted his recommendations.

He also defended the immigration department, saying "nothing critical" could be said of the way the department was doing its job.

The 201 cases of possible wrongful detention accounted for just 0.2 per cent of the 88,000 suspected illegal immigrants detained in Australia between July 2000 and April 2005, he said.

"What [Senator Vanstone] did was to instruct the department to go back over the available records, to find the 201 cases where people have been released and, in order to find out whether that 201 included any Rau or Alvarez-type cases, refer all of them to the Palmer Inquiry.

"That is not the behaviour of a minister who is trying to cover something up," Mr Howard said.

Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs Peter McGauran said a royal commission into the immigration department would "take years" and cost up to $50 million of taxpayers money.

Source

[Sam]

Subhanallah ... how heartless is this government.

[Mowlana Vector]

... and unashamedly hypocrite!!!
=================================
Vanstone Sorry For Corby Distress

Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone says she feels sorry for Schapelle Corby and her family after the Australian's conviction on drug smuggling charges in Indonesia.

Senator Vanstone would not comment on Corby's 20-year sentence handed down by a Bali court. But she said it was a distressing time.

"It's obviously a very distressing matter for her and her family but it's not something I'd choose to comment on," Senator Vanstone told a press conference on indigenous affairs in Canberra.

"I'm very sorry about what's happened but that's for other people to comment on."

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said Foreign Minister Alexander Downer would be giving the Government's response.

"I've got no comment to make at this stage," he said at the same press conference.
===========================================

[Mowlana Vector]

Don't Let Facts Get in the Way

[idriys]

ok, I give up: so, just keep worrying about how the mouse suffers in the trap, without asking, what was the mouse's intention, when it went into the place marked: beware of traps! Mean while, back in reality, most Australians feel pretty well put off by anybody who gatecrashes a party, or who tries to get into a show, without a ticket, or who think themselves far too worthy to wait their proper turn; especially when others have been waiting long before they arrived on the scene. Australia was not their first port of call, and they were not exactly being persecuted, or the like, in Indonesia; so. let them enjoy what they have earned. I simply have no sympathy for self-inlicted injuries, nor for those who do seem to condone it. Like it or lump it, that is the truth, and no amount of Sophistry can escape it. Please, try to think as Moslems: not as dumb yuppies! A<udhu bilLahi min ash-shaytani n-nirajim.

This post has been edited by idriys: 28 May 2005 - 08:21 PM

[Mowlana Vector]

Quote

Please, try to think as Moslems: not as dumb yuppies!



With Moslem sympathiser(s) like that, who really needs zealous intellectual Hansonites?!
===============================

Religious Leaders Unite In Support of Bill

In a rare expression of political unity, religious leaders have thrown their weight behind the private member's bills aimed at releasing children and their families from detention.

The influential Sydney Anglican diocese was the latest to condemn immigration detention as flawed. The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, and his bishops have called for more compassionate measures as well as greater transparency and accountability and an independent review process outside the department.

The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils said the immigration system portrayed Australia as an uncaring society.

The private member's bill would not diminish the Government's ability to select who entered Australia but would protect the Government from allegations of abuse and satisfy most of the concerns of national and international human rights monitors, its president, Dr Ameer Ali, said.

The Uniting Church's president, Reverend Dr Dean Drayton, is leading a letter-writing campaign to lobby Coalition MPs for a "magnanimous gesture to people whose lives have been devastated by situations we are fortunate enough to barely comprehend".

"It is our firm conviction that the Government policies of temporary protection and indefinite and unreviewable mandatory detention are harmful to people's well-being, unnecessarily punitive and a breach of our international human rights obligations," Dr Drayton wrote.

A separate letter has gone to Labor MPs.

The Sisters of St Joseph, one of the largest congregations of Catholic sisters, issued a rare statement yesterday, saying many Australians were unwilling to "pay for 'the integrity of our borders' by inflicting suffering on children, the mentally ill and those who have a legal right as refugees to seek asylum".

Sister Joan Healy of the Congregational Leadership Team said policies that denied "human dignity" had consequences not only for the individuals concerned but for policy administrators and Australia as a whole.

Source
===========================

SEE ALSO
Call For Hard Heads, Soft Heart

Gutless Labor Runs Dead On Georgiou Bills

Tim Costello :Politicians Must Unite to End Child Detention

Inside the Coalition's Fractured Conscience

Liberals of Conscience, An Endangered Species

The Meaning of Liberalism: Judi Moylan Speech to the Liberal Party Room

Heretics Rattle the High Priests of Howard's Broad Church

[Mowlana Vector]

Detainees Languish In Prisons

HUNDREDS of immigration detainees have been held without trial in the nation's toughest prisons to live alongside hardened criminals, some for years at a time.

The Immigration Department was unable to provide an estimate yesterday of how many cases have passed through the nation's maximum security prisons, but confirmed there were 14 detainees in state-run jails.

The Australian understands the practice has been routine for at least five years. The revelations come as John Howard agreed to consider plans raised by rebel backbenchers to deliver the "speedier" release of long-term detainees and children in Australia's immigration detention centres.

Despite ruling out an end to mandatory detention, the Prime Minister is considering the release of all women and children while freeing long-term detainees after one year.

But as the political spotlight focuses on those detainees, others have been left languishing in jails. Three detainees are now in prison in Queensland -- the same state in which it was revealed Cornelia Rau spent three months in the Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre. Two are in Brisbane, and one is in a north Queensland jail.

Queensland has no detention centre. However, the little-known practice of sending detainees straight to jail has occurred at Sydney's Silverwater and Long Bay jails, Perth's Roeburn prison, Broome Regional Prison, as well as an Adelaide prison.

State prisons hold detainees on behalf of the commonwealth through memoranda of understanding, based on the Migration Act, which overrides state law.

Last year, Victorian barrister Julian Burnside QC challenged the legality of the practice of holding detainees in prisons on constitutional grounds, but lost the case. Mr Burnside slammed the practice yesterday.

"To be held for months as Cornelia Rau was is outrageous," Mr Burnside said.

"This really amounts to throwing people into the rubbish bin."

Detainees were taken to prison by immigration officials, based on evidence gathered within detention centres, and transferred without legal argument to the prison system. Some were on remand for months facing charges such as assault and rioting, with the charges eventually dismissed by courts.

One detainee, West Papuan asylum-seeker George Dimara, told The Australian it was not uncommon for the Brisbane jail in which he was held to contain 30 immigration cases at one time.

Mr Dimara was released from Arthur Gorrie prison in February this year. Speaking from Port Hedland centre, Mr Dimara said some fellow Arthur Gorrie detainees had been held there for more than two years.

"Sometimes we were locked up in our cell for three days inside the jail," Mr Dimara said.

"It happened about two times or three times a month. When we got out from the room, sometimes I was sick and coughing."

Premier Peter Beattie has refused a request from bureaucrat Mick Palmer to provide evidence to the federal government inquiry into Rau's detention. Mr Beattie argued evidence should only be provided to an inquiry with judicial powers.

Cornelia Rau's sister, Christine, said detainees in jail would be at serious risk of harm from other prisoners.

"The thing that struck me was how alien an environment it would have been for her and how vulnerable Cornelia was," Christine Rau said.

"A lot of the other women in there didn't like her at all and were angry with her sometimes, so during her time in Queensland she was probably at greater risk from her fellow inmates than she was during her time at Baxter."

That fear was resoundingly proven by evidence from detainees.

Five years ago, the Commonwealth Ombudsman investigated the housing of detainees in state prisons.

A 2001 report recommended the practice be abolished -- but it was not until the Cornelia Rau affair erupted that Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone responded.

In February, Senator Vanstone imposed a 28-day limit -- in all but exceptional circumstances -- on the time people could be held in prison, a watch-house or similar state corrections facility.

But the department will still allow detainees to stay in prison if "exceptional circumstances" exist.
==============

ALSO SEE
Group of 15 Found to Be Refugees

Anger @ Vanstone 'Rdeness'

[Mowlana Vector]

TV Watch:
HOT DOCS - FOREIGNERS OUT!

" In Austria's general election in the year 2000, Jörg Haider's extreme right Freedom Party (FPÖ) had met with widespread approval. And for the first time since World War II, a party of the extreme right joined the government. Never slow to react, infamous German director and performance artist Christoph Schlingensief soon retaliated with an extraordinary form of protest. As a tangible satire on xenophobia, Big Brother madness and new nationalism, Schlingensief decided to stage an interactive concentration camp, right at the heart of Vienna's picturesque tourist centre, in front of the Viennese Opera House. Schlingensief interned twelve actual refugee applicants in a large shipping container and streamed their life over the web for a week. As in any ‘reality TV' show like Big Brother, the audience was allowed to vote their least favourite player out of the compound and, in this case, out of the country! Crowned with a banner proclaiming the phrase ‘Ausländer Raus!' (‘Foreigners Out!'), the container became a national flashpoint. Austrians converged on the square and others logged on to the website to cast their ballots. As people of every stripe shed their demure exteriors and let fly their inner prejudices, it soon became the most contentious place in Austria, with knife attacks, punch-ups and riots all taking place before a world-wide audience over the web. This documentary follows this extraordinary sequence of events. (From Germany, in Germany, English subtitles) "


==> Tuesday 14 June, 2005 SBS TV 10:00pm (AEST)
==============================================

SEE ALSO
“FOREIGNERS OUT”: The Rise of Extreme Right Party Support in Europe

SMH Review: Foreigners Out!

[idriys]

[quote name='Mowlana Vector' date='Jun 1 2005, 09:23 PM']
[list]


With Moslem sympathiser(s) like that, who really needs zealous intellectual Hansonites?!
===============================
[quote]
Well, if you want to get all embroiled in Australian POLITICS, why not find another site? I, personally, would rather be one of what the New Age Fascists refer derogatorily as a "Hansonite", than as a repeat-after-me-or-I-will-kill-you-because my-opinion-is the-only-right-one neofascist braindead yuppie, all too ready to follow in the footsteps of both, Stalin & Goebbels! PS I have asked for a fatwa on this topic, should a reply be forthcoming, I would post it here< In sha'allah. pps Go, project refugee assist!

This post has been edited by idriys: 23 June 2005 - 02:53 PM

[Mowlana Vector]

AA
I thought, we're supposed to think as Moslems not as dumb yuppies and STOP fanaticising about some final solution

Idriys, what all due respect; Do u honestly realise, how your misinformed, panic-ridden, pontificating replies and (insulting) posts are becoming painfully ironic, antagonistic and funny ...



idriys, on Jun 23 2005, 02:38 PM, said:

PS I have asked for a fatwa on this topic, should a reply be forthcoming, I would post it here ...



I wonder, what is in store this time?

Oh well ... to your utter disgust, sorry, here is a newsflash for U: it looks like that the Australian Parliament's "New Age Fascists" were right and winning

May Allah(swt) grant us the wisdom to indiscriminately open our minds and hearts

W'salaam
===========================================

Last Family on Nauru Granted Humanitarian Visas

The last family detained on Nauru have finally won their freedom, with the Department of Immigration granting them visas on humanitarian grounds - 3½ years after they sought entry to Australia as refugees.

The Rehmati family - Mohammed Ali Rehmati, 39, his wife Alieya, 34, their daughters Ilham, 14, and Zahra, 7, and sons Mohammed Basit, 15, and Abbas, 9, were yesterday told they could leave the island tomorrow.

Members of their extended family who have been freed include Mr Rehmati's youngest brother, Abbas Ali, 21, as well as two other nephews Hussain Ali, 19, and Hassain Ali, 21.

Throughout their detention, the family, who are expected to arrive in Australia on Saturday, insisted they were genuine refugees from Afghanistan but for years their claims were rejected.

Last month nine other Afghanis were granted humanitarian visas, leaving the Rehmatis as the last family on the tiny island. Shortly after 2pm yesterday, the family were given forms and asked to sign them.

Unsure of what to do, they contacted Marion Le, their migration agent. "The 21-year-old called me, and he was in a state of disbelief, I think, and said, 'Do we sign this or not?' and I said, 'Sign it. Sign it'," Mrs Le told The Herald.

The Immigration Department confirmed yesterday the family had been granted three-year temporary protection visas.

The Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, exercised her discretion to grant the visas, but said the decision did not have implications for the 38 remaining detainees on Nauru.

The visas give the family access to all services and Medicare, and means they can work and study. Near the expiry of the three-year visas, they will be able to apply for further protection.

Mrs Le, who is the only legal representative who has been allowed on Nauru, has repeatedly appealed to the Immigration Minister to allow those accepted as refugees to be given permanent protection.

"With information I was able to put to the department after my visit in January, along with the visit last week from the Afghan embassy and Afghan officials, it seems the concerns by the department as to the country of nationality seem to be resolved at the moment," she said. "It would be very, very difficult for a family like this to go back to so much lawlessness in the provinces. Things are not right in Afghanistan yet - there's the will, but really not the practical effect on the ground yet."

Fourteen-year-old Ilham Rehmati was the only teenage girl held in the centre. In her letters to a friend in Australia, obtained by The Herald, Ilham revealed how traumatic her time in isolation had been.

"In Nauru it is very bad. I always sit in my room," she wrote. "I can't walk. I can't run. Can't play. Can't talk loudly and can't sit anywhere."

Source
===================================

ALSO SEE



More Asylum Seekers to Be Freed

A Symbol of How the Politics Have Changed

Detention Retreat the First Step

Behind the PM's Petro Concessions?

Why We Need a New Policy on Refugees

Dissent Flares Over Detention Policy

Not Just "a few" But 33 Unlawfully Detained, Senate Records Show

Bordering on the Fake: Australia's Treatment of Asylum Seekers

Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commision's Reports: Asylum Seekers

Debunking the Myths about Asylum Seekers

Nauru Wire: Latest News

News Archive: Australian Immigration Detention

[Mowlana Vector]

[Mowlana Vector]

The Royal Commission Call Into the Treatment of Asylum Seekers, Refugees and Immigration Detainees

[Mowlana Vector]

(Cartoon courtesy GLW June 2005)

[Mowlana Vector]

... and who said that "there are no refugees in Australian detention centres ..."?
=======================================

Free to Live As a Family
By: Sharon Mathieson
The Daily Telegraph ( 30 June 2005)


Together again . . . best friends Fahima Baqir
, 12, and Ilham Rahmati, 14, are reunited at
Canberra airport yesterday

Their first taste of freedom in nearly four years was almost too much for the Rahmatis yesterday.

The raw emotion, relief and joy at finally being free to live in Australia after being locked in immigration detention on the Pacific island of Nauru since December 2001, overwhelmed the family at Canberra airport.

The tears flowed and the relief proved too much for the head of the extended family, Mohammed Ali Rahmati, 39, who broke down in the arms of a friend waiting to welcome them to Australia.

The nine members of the family, from Afghanistan, were the last family detained on Nauru under the Federal Government's Pacific solution of processing asylum seekers offshore.

They were met by a large group of friends, mostly former asylum seekers also held on Nauru, as well as refugee advocates, when they arrived to begin their new life.

"Freedom, at last. I've got my freedom," said 14-year-old Ilham.

She had been the last single female Muslim detained on Nauru, where she struggled to cope in an isolated environment in which men drank every night.

"It was so hard, my only freedom was in the room," she said through tears, as the painful memories returned.

However, it was mostly tears of joy for Ilham, who was reunited with her best friend Fahima Baqir, 12, whose family was released almost a year ago.

Their joy at their reunion shone through the media scrum.

"I missed you so much," Ilham told her friend.

To reporters she said: "You cannot imagine how much I miss her, she's my best friend.

"I just saw my friend through the cameras and I just hugged her."

Ilham's sister, 7-year-old Zahra, was also reunited with her best friend Zahra Hussaini, who was released three weeks ago.

The two Zahras were inseparable on Nauru and will now start school together in Canberra.

Mohammed Ali Rahmati, his wife Alieya, 34, their daughters Ilham and Zahra and sons Mohammad Basit, 15, and Abbas, 9, as well as Mr Rahmati's brother Abbas Ali, 21, and nephews Hussain Ali, 19, and Hassain Ali, 22, were granted temporary humanitarian visas last week when Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone intervened in their cases.

"Many times we gave up hope," Hassain Ali said of his time on Nauru.

"It was not good. We just suffered and suffered."

Mrs Rahmati summed up her emotion with the words: "I feel human again. I'm just so happy to have a normal life, a simple, normal life."

Mr Rahmati spoke of his joy at the fact that his children could now live a good life and urged the Government to release the remaining 34 detainees on Nauru.
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Refugee Family Free @ Last


The Rahmati family arriving at Canberra Airport. (Photo: Penny Bradfield)

Mohammed Ali Rahmati, his wife Alieya, 34, their daughters Ilham and Zahra and sons Mohammad Basit, 15, and Abbas, 9, as well as Mr Rahmati's brother Abbas Ali, 21, and nephews Hussain Ali, 19, and Hassain Ali, 22, were granted temporary humanitarian visas last week when Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone intervened in their cases.

"Many times we gave up hope," Hassain Ali said of his time on Nauru.

"It was not good. We just suffered and suffered.

"But because of our friends and our supporters and (Australian Democrats) Senator Andrew Bartlett, they kept giving us hope."

Mrs Rahmati summed her emotion with the words: "I feel human again."

"I'm just so happy to have a normal life, a simple, normal life," she said.

A grateful Mr Rahmati spoke of his joy at the fact his children could now live a good life.

But he urged the government to release the remaining 34 detainees on Nauru.

More ...

[Mowlana Vector]

Govt 'Embarrassed' By Immigration Dept

Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott says the inquiry into the wrongful detention of Australian resident Cornelia Rau has "embarrassed" the Government.

The sister of Ms Rau says a draft Palmer Inquiry report shows the Immigration Department needs major reforms.

Draft excerpts of former federal police commissioner Mick Palmer's report were tabled on Tuesday in the Queensland Parliament by Premier Peter Beattie.

The draft says the department breached its own guidelines in the treatment of Ms Rau, and had the mentally ill woman received proper care during her 10 months in detention, she would have been admitted to hospital.

Instead Ms Rau, an Australian resident, was kept at South Australia's Baxter detention centre where Mr Palmer says the standard of mental health care was inadequate by any standard.

Mr Abbott says the Government will look closely at the report when it is released and take appropriate action.

"This has been a very unhappy episode from start to almost finish. I don't think any government or any institution can be anything other than embarrassed about what's happened to this poor woman," he said.

"As far as the Federal Government is concerned, we will carefully study the report, we will learn the right lessons and we will act upon them.

Labor's immigration spokesman Tony Burke says it adds to the case for a royal commission.

"[The] Palmer Inquiry has been given minimal powers and yet scratching the surface is enough to find the department is an absolute shambles, in a mess," he said.

A spokesman for the Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone says she will not comment on the issue until she has the final report.

The final report is expected to be handed to Ms Vanstone next week.
Rau reaction

Ms Rau's sister, Chris Rau, says she is very happy with the strength of the findings contained in the draft report.

She says Mr Palmer sums up the problems in a nutshell when he says that Government policy must be carefully managed to make sure non-citizens are not non-persons.

She says it confirms her opinion that the Immigration Department is not doing its job.

"It shows a department that's lazy, it's fixated in its thinking and it's incompetent, and what comes out of it is a culture of basic disregard for people's rights or feelings," she said.

Chris Rau says her family is not looking for a particular person to blame or for someone to say sorry.

"We've always said that we never were looking for individual scapegoats and we were never looking for peripheral outcomes like a simple apology," she said.

"I think cases like this, and also cases like Vivian Solon's, show that we need fundamental reform, that just minor cosmetic changes aren't sufficient, that we need fundamental cultural reform but also legislative reform."

The release of the official Palmer inquiry report is at least a week away but leaks of the draft could be seen as lessening its' impact.

Contacted by The World Today, both the South Australian and New South Wales governments said they had no plans to follow Peter Beattie actions and table sections of the report relating to their jurisdiction.

Source
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SEE ALSO
Immigration Dept Has 'Cowboy Culture'

Palmer Draft Report Details Immigration Failures

[Mowlana Vector]

The Abuse of One Exposes What We're Doing to Them

The Palmer report's findings are no surprise to refugee advocates, writes Julian Burnside*

The Palmer report on the case of Cornelia Rau gives an unsettling insight into the Immigration Department. Although we have yet to see the full report, it is clear that the case is not an isolated instance of errors that might occur in any large bureaucracy: it is symptomatic of a department that is terminally dysfunctional.

The department often deals with people who are vulnerable or traumatised, people who need special protection; people who need ready access to medical and legal help to ensure that their health and their rights are not ignored or overlooked. The Palmer report shows that concern is not abstract or theoretical: it is all too real.

While she was held illegally by the Immigration Department, Cornelia Rau was in solitary confinement for months. Solitary confinement is the harshest punishment legally permitted in Australia. Although asylum seekers have committed no offence, they are regularly subjected to periods of solitary confinement for weeks or months at a time. Rau's experience was not much different from that of other people in immigration detention.

Part of the problem is that the use of solitary confinement as a management technique is wholly within the discretion of the department and its private contractor GSL.

Despite the obvious suffering and harm that prolonged solitary confinement causes, the department insists that detention - including solitary confinement - is administrative, not punitive. Ask Cornelia Rau.

The department exercises awesome power. It can detain people indefinitely without the intervention of a court. It can effectively isolate detainees from proper medical or legal help. It can deport people from Australia without judicial supervision. Its exercise of these powers is often misguided, wilful or capricious.

Part of the scandal of the Cornelia Rau affair is that refugee advocates drew the department's attention to her case months before she was released. Starting late in 2004, Pamela Curr of the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre contacted the department regularly over seven weeks, telling it of "Anna" who was being held in Baxter. She told them that Anna was not a German citizen, and should not be in immigration detention. This was ignored. She told the department that Anna clearly needed psychiatric care. This was ignored. She asked for Anna to be given psychiatric and medical help. This was refused.

As the blundering of the department continues to be revealed, Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone says that relentless criticism from refugee advocates and journalists had produced a defensive mind-set in the department. That candid observation reveals something of deep concern. It suggests that, when criticised, members of the department either ignore the criticism or react against it.

Those who deal regularly with refugee cases recognise the widespread belief that, if an individual case gets publicity, the department will single out that case for adverse treatment. If there is any substance to that belief - and it is certainly consistent with Vanstone's comments - then we have the unhappy spectacle of a department with vast powers that is behaving like a petulant teenager given to making terrible mistakes, unwilling to admit error and unable to learn from its mistakes.

A department with such great powers, a department that daily makes life and death decisions, should be dedicated to error-free performance; it should have a culture that is responsive to the human reality of its functions. It is time for an open, public inquiry into the department before it inflicts more harm.

There is one important question that the Palmer report could not tackle: Why did it take Cornelia Rau's case to provoke widespread public concern about immigration detention?

The treatment received by Rau is commonplace in Australia's detention centres. The only novel feature of the Rau case is that she is uncomfortably like us. She looks like a typical Aussie girl. We are shocked at her treatment, but she received the same careless, cruel indifference that most asylum seekers receive. Why is it acceptable to treat asylum seekers this way, but shocking when it is done to one of us?

The answer to that question lies at the heart of the moral problems surrounding Australia's treatment of asylum seekers. It is an alarming possibility that the careless indifference of the department is simply a reflection of a society that is also indifferent to the fate of those who are not like us.

*Julian Burnside, QC, is a Melbourne barrister.

Source
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FURTHER READING

Cornelia Rau to Seek Compensation

No Excuses to Delay Rau Apology: Labor

Policy of `Shoot First' on Migration

Two Psychiatric Nurses Appointed at Baxter

Ombudsman Office Shows Howard's "Soft Detention Adjustments" Cannot Be Trusted

DIMA Debacles

[Mowlana Vector]

"Baxter's Dirty Dozen" Remain Forgotten, Miss Out on Vanstone's Visa Lottery Draw