Tamil Justice

ABC News – People smuggling task force shares rare insight

By Indonesia correspondent Matt Brown

Since September last year, the Indonesian government has been running a task force against people smuggling.

The force is aided by millions of dollars in Australian training and funding, but little is known about its work.

Now, the ABC has gained rare access to the task force and those it has detained in Kupang, West Timor.

On the seas between Australia and Indonesia’s West Timor the net is tightening. Australian and Indonesian navies have been training and increasingly carrying out combined patrols to secure the border. Each side is keen to impress the other with a show of resolve. More

ABC - Offshore detention faces High Court challenge

By Jeff Waters

The so-called Pacific Solution was employed to stop asylum seekers “clogging up” Australian courts. (Australian Customs and Border Protection Service)

It’s a nightmare scenario for a government trying to justify its stance on offshore detention in an election year.

Four new cases, involving at least 13 Afghani and Sri Lankan asylum seekers classified as “offshore” arrivals, have been filed in the High Court, and if any of them are successful, the Christmas Island detention centre could become obsolete. More

Lawyers Weekly – Melbourne Law School head resigns to pursue refugee issues

The Dean of Melbourne Law School, Professor James Hathaway, has announced his resignation in order to return to full-time academia and focus on his work as leading global expert on international refugee law.

“Refugee law is the single most effective international rights system in the world today; I feel a deep ethical responsibility to do what I can to avoid its collapse,” Hathaway said in a statement announcing his departure.

Hathaway’s resignation, effective from February 1, 2010, comes less than halfway through his current five-year term as Dean, following his appointment in early 2008. It also comes after his vocal criticism of the Rudd Government in recent weeks following its attempts to place a boatload of Sri Lankan asylum seekers in Indonesia, claiming the actions were similar to the Howard government’s ‘Pacific Solution’. More

Rally to welcome refugees
Say no to Rudd’s Indonesian Solution!
Let them land, let them stay!

12.30pm Monday 2 November. Immigration Department, Lee St (Railway Square end of Central Tunnel), City. 
Speakers include: Sylvia Hale (NSW Greens MP), Tamil Association, Ian Rintoul (Refugee Action Coalition). The bipartisan demonisation of asylum seekers has provoked feelings of deja vu among many people who thought we’d never again see Tampa-style dramas on the high seas. But as each day passes, it is becoming clear that Kevin Rudd’s ‘Indonesia Solution’ is every bit as inhumane (and expensive) as John Howard’s ‘Pacific Solution’. Despite the refugee rights movement winning victories such as children out of detention and the end of Temporary Protection Visas, it’s clear that we have a long way to go before Australia can claim it has humanitarian immigration and refugee policies.

Called by Refugee Action Coalition. Contact Ian on 0417 275 713