Pamela Curr writes:
THE LATEST IN DETENTION CELLS FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS
There are fifty of these being built in white one and two compounds on Christmas Island.
They are for those detainees whom the Minister decides need "behaviour modification".
Don't be shocked - this is Australia. No police investigation, no Judge or Jury, no court required.
Summary extrajudicial punishment in our Administrative detention only camps.
23 hours in a cell and then you can be let out into the fresh air cage at the back of your cell if you are lucky and well behaved,
for an hour per day. This complies with requirements.
Pamela Curr Campaign Coordinator Asylum Seeker Resource Centre 12 Batman st West Melbourne 3003 ph 03 9326 6066
The ACT RAC submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee's inquiry into Australia's Agreement with Malaysia in relation to Asylum Seekers, Submission No. 5, is at:
http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/legcon_ctte/malaysia_agreement/submissions.htm
Readers might also wish to read the report, which makes a number of references to our submission,
though doesn't directly quote it.
The report recommends against the implementation of the agreement,
as was expected when the Greens and Coalition combined.
The report is at:
http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/legcon_ctte/malaysia_agreement/report/index.htm
The ACT RAC submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Migration on Australia's Detention Network,
Submission No. 13, is at:
http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/immigration_detention_ctte/immigration_detention/submissions.htm
There are other excellent submissions from various organisations and individuals, including a brilliant 3-pager from the writer Linda Jaivin, and ANU student William Mudford.
The Committee says it has received over 3,500 submissions (!), and is expected to report in March 2012.
NEXT MEETING:
Tuesday 13th March 2012 6pm: at Tossolini's Civic (on London Circuit)
Contact: Peter 0401 960467
Nurse breaks silence on life inside detention system:
http://tinyurl.com/7gjyd5j
"Being locked in a prison with not knowing how you are going to get out or when you are going to get out or why you are even there, and not getting any answers as to how they can get out is driving people mad…"
Editorial from The Age (1st December 2011); "Doing the right thing can end boats hysteria." http://tinyurl.com/cshmqgn
"…The "flood" of 13,000 or so boat arrivals in a decade is really a trickle next to the three to four times as many asylum seekers who fly in - 9000 are currently in the community on bridging visas - and the many more illegal immigrants, two-thirds of whom have lived among us two years or more. The point is not that they present any great border security threat. Instead, their largely unremarked presence shows how little impact the release of boat arrivals will have."
http://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/statistics/
Pamela Curr writes: This is where you can answer all those questions which arise about refugees and asylum seekers numbers, decisions etc.
One inescapable fact stands out:
Only 38% of Afghan asylum Seekers are accepted at PRIMARY LEVEL - this decision is made by a DIAC officer.
Of the 62% who are refused, 78.7% of these are then found to be refugees by the IMR decision makers.
The effect of this is that people spend up to 2 years in detention grinding through a flawed process.
These figures are repeated through other groups.
Australia's Human Rights Commissioner has condemned the Curtin detention centre in Western Australia, saying many of the asylum seekers there are "dying from the inside out" in poor conditions.
http://tinyurl.com/3qzomzo
Listen to Parliament and weep…
Listen to Encounter http://www.abc.net.au/rn/encounter/ and learn.
or read the transcript.
Dilemma Without Borders: Refugees and September 11
Mary Crock and Kate Gauthier.
Read Chilout's latest news: http://content.enewslettersonline.com/21240/53048.html
Submissions to the Joint Select Committee on Australia's Immigration Detention Network are available on line at:
http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/immigration_detention_ctte/immigration_detention/submissions.htm
The submission from the ACT Refugee Action Committee is number 13.
The discussion following the High Court ruling on "The Malaysian Deal":
http://tinyurl.com/442p268
Anthony Burke in The Drum "A fantasy debate, disdainful of basic facts"
http://tinyurl.com/3m3jlon
Julian Burnside in The drum "Malaysian solution: always a bad idea"
Frank Brennan in Eureka Street: http://tinyurl.com/3semcnd
and Justin Glyn: http://tinyurl.com/3gydhp8
Index page cleaned up in August 2011 with news and events from earlier in the year.
(see earlier home pages in the archive.)
