Politics drives policy, and not the other way around. If we ever needed a sober reminder of this democratic truism, we got it in the political responses to the expert panel’s report on asylum seeker policy…
Rohingya asylum seekers from Myanmar rest at a temporary shelter in the port of Krueng Raya, Aceh, Indonesia.
EPA/Hotli Simanjuntak
As we waited for the release of the Houston panel’s report on asylum seekers yesterday, I saw a mixture of high hopes and low expectations from those in attendance at the Parliament House briefing room…
The Houston panel - Paris Aristotle, Angus Houston and Michael L'Estrange - briefed the media on their findings yesterday afternoon.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The Report of the Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers contains some threads of a genuine shift from the prevailing framework towards a more regulatory model for responding to asylum seekers. The panel has abandoned…
The Houston panel, including, from left, National Security College Director Michael L'Estrange, former defence force chief Angus Houston & refugee advocate Paris Aristotle.
AAP
The expert panel on asylum seekers has made 22 recommendations, including the establishment of a capacity for processing asylum seekers in both Nauru and Papua New Guinea, in a report expected to define…
Seven Cameroonians disappeared this week … but why?
EPA/Dennis M. Sabangan
Every four years, the Olympics brings us plenty of drama on and off the sports field. This year has been no different with seven athletes from Cameroon absconding from the Olympic village and more anticipated…
There is a fairer and more humane way of dealing with asylum seekers.
AAP/Department of Defence
After two weeks of assessing the evidence, discussing policy and reporting on fieldwork, The Conversation’s asylum seeker expert panel has made its findings. Using information from our research repository…
35 years of refugee journeys, charted on an interactive map.
35 years of refugee crises, charted on an interactive map. Click this image to launch. Welcome to our new infographic, displaying global populations of refugees from 1975-2010, as part of The Conversation’s…
Our panel will consider options to prevent deaths at sea.
AAP/Basarnas
The Conversation has brought together a team of six academic experts to tackle one of the thorniest issues in Australian politics - asylum seeker deaths at sea. Over the next few weeks, they’ll be examining…
Detention on Nauru is not the answer – and neither is the Malaysian solution.
AAP/Rural Australians for Refugees
Recent debates on asylum seeker problems have revolved around two approaches that are not going to work. The opposition’s Nauru solution is not going to get people off boats. It is part of the process…
Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre.
DIAC
Welcome to The Conversation’s research repository on asylum seeker issues. When public debate has ground to a halt over something as serious as lives lost at sea, it’s time to look to what the evidence…
Rohingya asylum seekers from Burma in a temporary shelter at Aceh, Indonesia.
EPA/Hotli Simanjuntak
Last week Australia’s politicians determined to “do something” to stop people risking their lives at sea on asylum boats headed for Australia. The government wanted a bill from independent MP Rob Oakeshott…
Refugees on boats en route to Australia are seen by many Indonesians as our problem, not theirs.
AAP/Karlis Salna
If the lead stories in the digital and print media are anything to go by, Indonesians have little interest in the recent asylum seeker boat sinkings and the accompanying loss of life. Over the past couple…
Refugees stuck in Malaysia are not a means to an end - their rights as individuals are inviolable.
AAP/Karlis Salna
There’s a knock on the door. It’s late, and it has been a wild and stormy night. You wonder who could possibly be outside in this weather. Opening the door you find a young man collapsed on your doorstep…
A boat carrying asylum seekers arrives at Christmas Island today.
AAP/Rossbach/Krepp
As I write this, mainstream political parties are locked in a futile battle to determine whose deterrence-based policy will prevail. Debates like the one we saw yesterday in the House of Representatives…
While politicians debated a bill in Canberra, 150 asylum seekers’ lives were at risk.
AAP/Australian Maritime Safety Authority
When asylum seekers die at sea there are too many things we don’t want to talk about. Following the news of another asylum boat capsizing yesterday, at 2pm the federal Parliament began with a sombre and…
Refugees are created by wars and persecution. People flee their homes because their governments will not, or cannot, protect them from harm and allow them to live in peace. Under international law, as…
Some Australian refugees develop “protracted asylum seeker syndrome”.
Alex E. Proimos
There’s a common misconception within the Australian community that asylum seekers arrive by boat. In fact, most asylum seekers arrive here by aeroplane with valid travel documents and reside in the community…
Refugees can be detained indefinitely if they do not pass security clearance.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Last night, Lateline reported on a five-year-old refugee who faced the prospect of being separated from his father forever. His father had failed an ASIO security assessment, which under current policies…
Falun Gong protestors outside the Chinese consulate in Sydney in 2008.
AAP/Dean Lewins
UPDATE: The Chinese nationals have now elected to stay in Australia, where they will seek asylum. A group of ten Chinese people fleeing persecution in their home country has presented Australian authorities…
The government’s obligations to immigration detainees are very similar to those of prisoners.
AAP/Dean Lewins
A training manual instructing immigration detention centre guards to use force to incapacitate detainees was leaked this week. It included techniques to kick, punch and target pressure points on detainees…