REFUGEE ACTION COMMITTEE
Canberra, Australia

TEMPORARY VISAS — NO PROTECTION
Forum
7.30pm Tuesday Nov 29
Manning Clark Theatre 6, ANU

Continued action needed on refugees beyond razorwire!
No refuge in temporary visas!
Panel & discussion

• Pamela Curr refugee advocate
• Marion Le refugee advocate
• refugee TPV holder tbc
• Jane Keogh Refugee Action Committee
• Senator Andrew Bartlett
• Bruce Baird MP Supporter of Petro Georgiou's changes to government refugee policy tbc

Download a petition to waive the three year temporary protection for long term detainees now on TPV's and allow applications for permanent protection to be processed immediately.

Download A5 leaflets to print. (110Kbs)
or download the A4 Poster. (257Kbs)

The Howard government has made a number of 'reforms' to refugee policy in recent times. However, families remain in 'community detention', thousands more find themselves in a new type of hell, living on bridging visa E's (a type of Temporary Protection Visa), while mandatory detention policies remain entrenched. Our movement has succeeded in winning a number of refugee rights reforms and turning around public opinion. But how do we keep up the momentum and achieve more fundamental policy change?


Fires in Baxter (November 2005) were lit by criminals awaiting deportation. No asylum seeker was involved in lighting the fires, but many lost valuable personal possessions. Photos of family, art works nearly ready for an exhibition in Adelaide… Deportees from prisons are mixed with people who have fled violence in their own countries.

Urgent Appeal to Save Tang Xianhui from deportation to certain detention and torture in China.

In newsletterNov.htm a newsletter for November 1st.
Earlier news is in the June newsletter.
and more information on this page about Falun Gong and China's treatment of practitioners.

A new version from Jane Keogh of the Australian National Anthem.

Jack Smit from Project Safecom has sent a newsletter urging response to the The Anti-terrorism Bill 2005. Read it at http://www.safecom.org.au/newsletter112005.htm
and more at http://www.safecom.org.au/terrorlaws-crossthefloor.htm

RAC October 2005 Newsletter

The newsletter is now available on line http://www.refugeeaction.org/rac/newsletter.htm

From the Age Friday 14th October. Detainees to cast off from Nauru
Good news! Michael Gordon writes: "FOUR years in offshore detention is about to end for almost all the remaining asylum seekers on Nauru after Amanda Vanstone decided yesterday to bring them to Australia." The 25 men released will arrive on 1st November. Thirteen have gained refugee status. Two men will remain on Nauru.

Italian Film Festival "Once you're born you can no longer hide" get an Italian perspective when the film festival comes to you! (Canberra Nov 24-30)

SIEV X NATIONAL MEMORIAL

More details here. with links and student art work.
Canberra Times report of Canberra Memorial event.
Project Safecom's report (22nd October)

The Migration Litigation Reform Bill 2005 that was to be tabled in Parliament on Tuesday 11th October has been postponed. More information at http://www.safecom.org.au/litigation-bill2005.htm and Margo Kingston's web diary.


The Australian Democrats have called for an independent investigation into all the details surrounding the Australian Governments imprisonment, persecution and deportation of the Bakhtiari family, following the publication of comprehensive new evidence showing the family are Afghanis as they always claimed.
http://www.democrats.org.au/news/index.htm?press_id=4820&display=1

Read Marion Le's 7th October 2005 evidence before the Senate Inquiry into the Migration Act available as a pdf document at http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/commttee/S8748.pdf (546Kbs)

Margo Kingston's new Web Diary!

Asylum Seekers have been traumatized by their treatment in detention centres. The trauma continues after release. A new page on mental health issues gathering items on this issue.

New Link:
An international site collecting lots of information on immigration:
http://www.imigration-4u.com
Canberra RAC is linked on
http://www.imigration-4u.com/immigrationdetention

Archives of Jack Smit's Project Safecom News and Updates are at http://lists.topica.com/lists/safecom/read If you don't already get these emails, have a look!

latest newsletter (18th October 2005)


a tract on "the defence of the rule of law" by Ian Blade:
"Julian Burnside QC has accused the Prime Minister of Australia Mr. John Howard, the Attorney-General Mr. Phillip Ruddock and the Immigration Minister Ms. Amanda Vanstone of a Crime Against Humanity in relation to Australia's practice of mandatory, indefinite detention. His compelling legal argument is based on Australian law and has been reproduced with permission." (16 Feb 2004)

This defence of the rule of law is available as a pdf document (846Kbs) and can be downloaded and saved onto your computer by right clicking the link then selecting 'Save Target as': http://www.blade.id.au/Law/A_defence_of_the_rule_of_law.pdf


http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=170 "Immigration detention - reading the tea leaves" Online Opinion By Howard Glenn
Monday, 5 September 2005
interesting comment on where we have come from and where we should be going to in refugee advocacy.

Sign the online petition. http://petitions.nationalforum.com.au/petitions.asp?id=2
Thousands of community-based asylum seekers in Australia are denied income support, work rights and Medicare access as a result of the Government's unfair and inflexible immigration policy, making survival nearly impossible without the assistance of various church and charity groups.

The Canberra Times had a front page article on changes in the Department of Immigration on 29th August. DIMIA is "reviewing the cases of about 600 detainees in detention centres with the aim of releasing more into the community." A DIMIA fact sheet was quoted that had the August 17 total of people in detention as 670. (the webmaster can't find the fact sheet on line!)
However, the recent case of the death of Mrs Agha has shown the nature of the bureacracy which has to be changed. The story was detailed in PM on ABC.

4TH ANNIVERSARY OF TAMPA DAY
August 26 marks the 4th anniversary of the controversy surrounding the Tampa affair, when the MV Tampa rescued 433 asylum seekers from their sinking vessel near Christmas Island and our government refused to allow them to seek asylum on our shores.
Tampa marked the start of the Pacific Solution — there are still 32 people stuck on Nauru, dumped there almost 4 years ago under the "Pacific Solution".
Still outstanding — an estimated 900 people on Bridging Visas, some of whom have been in immigration limbo for years. Thousands on Temporary Protection Visas, still unable to reunite with their families overseas, face an uncertain future. The sinking of SIEV X and deaths of 353 asylum seekers remains shrouded in mystery. Meanwhile thousands of innocent people locked up for years struggle to rebuild their lives. And the legislation that allowed it to happen remains.

Support the move for a Royal Commission. Things must change. (REAL CHANGE, not cosmetics!) http://www.safecom.org.au/royal-commission.htm

The government is facing a compensation bill. So far $920,000 has been paid to eleven people wrongfully detained since 1993. Six other people are seeking compensation. 201 cases have been referred to the ombudsman of people who were legally in Australia but detained. 56 were detained for more than three weeks. This does not include Christine Rau or Vivian Alvarez Solon.
When will there be compensation for asylum seekers detained beyond the time needed for health and security checks? Or for those kept in detention while the minister was appealing their successful refugee assessments? See "appeals" page. And the connection between Temporary Protection Visas and the tragedy of SievX. from the office of Senator Lyn Allison. 16 June 2005
And now Shayan Badraie who was so traumatised by his time in detention centres is making legal history. See story in The Age 23 August 2005.
More news http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/court-hears-of-detention-boys-nightmares/2005/09/05/1125772465133.html 5th September 2005

Statistics on Long Term Detainees 12 August 2005. Compiled by Jane Keogh with an update from the October 2005 newsletter.


http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3708 On line opinion from Anna Burke about Bridging Visa category E. What is it like to live in a strange community with no support at all? No work, no Medicare …
The bridging visa E category (BVE) allows asylum seekers to reside lawfully in the community while they await the final outcome of their applications for protection visas and appeals procedures."

Download the Palmer report at http://www.minister.immi.gov.au/media_releases/media05/palmer-report.pdf (1195Kbs)

David Marr in The Sydney Morning Herald has a summary of the Palmer report.


Christine Rau writes on the Palmer inquiry in Sydney Morning Herald 15 July 2005:
"I would hope that emotion does not preclude logic. After nearly half a year of investigating Cornelia's case with the University of Newcastle Legal Centre for our submission to the Palmer inquiry, several points seem clear, and some of these overlap with the inquiry's findings:

• No system that is allowed to treat one group of people in society with inferior rights and hidden from view can avoid demeaning us all.
• The authority to jail others must be accompanied by independent external review and scrutiny.
• Farming the jailers' function out to private corporations like Global Solutions Limited - which then further subcontract parts of their duty of care out to others - adds only extra layers of secrecy, and the potential for abuse, to an already unaccountable system.
• Medical staff working in detention systems should not be employed by the departments or contractors administering those systems because this creates conflicts of interest.
• Indefinite detention leads to psychiatric illnesses among long-term detainees and aggravates psychiatric conditions among those with existing conditions."

Read the Amnesty International report on Australia's mandatory detention regime: "Australia: The impact of indefinite detention -- the case to change Australia's mandatory detention regime"
It is available as a 250Kb html document; OR download the 718Kb pdf document.

from the Parliamentary Library: (5July 2005) The detention and removal of asylum seekers: E-Brief "summarises recent developments and key issues in the debate about mandatory detention in Australia. It provides links to web sites and material covering detention policy and practice in Australia, and detention and removal policies and practices in the UK and other comparable countries." See also Refugees and asylum seekers: written in August 2004. Both useful for the resources gathered.



Download a summary of UN Reports of Persecution of Falun Gong in China. Jane has compiled this document (174Kbs) of the United Nations' reports into this persecution. Warning: The reports contain graphics and torture descriptions that might be disturbing.
A second file of stories from the UN Reports:
Falun Gong and Torture in China.doc (71Kbs) (17.06.05)

UK perspective:
Deportation threatened of Falun Gong practitioner in UK. http://english.epochtimes.com/news/5-8-21/31452.html 21 August 2005

See Jane's letter about mass deportation to China.
Support a Falun Gong practitioner about to be deported to China.
More information in the June 2005 newsletter.

Hear Rachel Kohn interviewing a Falun Gong practitioner and the re education they received in China on ABC Radio National's "Spirit of Things."
And further information from that programme.

Media Release about China deportations from Refugee Action Committee, June 6th 2005.

Overseas students are also subject to mandatory detention. Article from the South Asia Times. deportation/Indian.htm

Call for a Moratorium on Deportation

Marion Le calls for a moratorium on deportation. (ABC News, 2nd June 2005)
An independent assessment of each case is needed.
The Refugee Action Committee, with over 2000 members in Canberra and surrounds, calls for a moratorium on deportation without fair and independent hearing of evidence.

RAC also calls on all members of parliament to consider the issue of deportation and to call in parliament for the precautionary principle to be observed until the culture and mistakes of the department of immigration are identified and addressed.

ABC ONLINE NEWS Thursday, July 28, 2005. 12:55pm (AEST)
The Federal Court has ruled that the Australian Government cannot deport people who are applying for renewal of their temporary protection visas (TPV) unless it can be proved the country of origin is safe.

from Australian Policy on line
"In 1989 the Commonwealth Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Migration Regulation reported that the compliance functions of the Department of Immigration had been 'of limited effectiveness'. Since then the system has gone to the other extreme. Annual targets have been set for the detection and removal of unlawful non-citizens in Australia by immigration officials. The number of people deported from Australia annually has risen steadily.

With legislative changes, numbers are not strictly comparable from year to year, but what the statistics unquestionably show is increasingly organised detection, detention and removal action by the Department of Immigration. There were approximately 1000 deportations a year through most of the 1980s, rising to more than 2,000 a year in 1989 and 1990. Between, 1999 and 2003 the average yearly number of removals was more than 10,000."
More information on deportations is available from the Edmund Rice Centre, especially the report "Deported to Danger." More on the RAC web site.


Download and print (and fill up) the petition for a Royal Commission into the treatment of asylum seekers, refugees and immigration detainees. From Project SafeCom.
http://www.safecom.org.au/royal-commission.htm or simply download http://www.safecom.org.au/Royal-Commission-petition.pdf the 16Kb file.


New, full details of phones, faxes and adresses
for Senator Vanstone and the Prime Minister.

Email members of the House of Representatives. http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/Email.asp then phone fax or write to them:
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/mi-elctr.asp

An archive of old versions of this index page is now available.

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The Refugee Action Committee is a network of concerned citizens around Australia seeking the fair and humane treatment of refugees in Australia. We are working to raise public awareness of the inhumane treatment of asylum seekers by the Australian government and to mobilise public protest. The Refugee Action Committee is composed of individuals from a broad range of backgrounds and is not associated with any political party.

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Refugee Action Committee ~ LPO Box 8287, ANU, Canberra ACT, 0200 ~ Tel 02 6249 8613
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Page modified 20th November 2005