Keywords: Jesuit Refugee Service
There are more than 200 results, only the first 200 are displayed here.
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AUSTRALIA
- Kerry Murphy
- 08 November 2011
17 Comments
Last week there were three significant events affecting refugees including, tragically, more deaths. The use of language in the debate about asylum seekers is always striking, and has evolved and adapted over the years. It does not always reflect reality.
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 13 September 2011
5 Comments
The Church of the 21st century should be the exemplar of due process, natural justice and transparency. While there can be little useful critique of the final decision of Pope Benedict to force the early retirement of Bishop Bill Morris, there is plenty of scope to review the processes leading up to it.
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AUSTRALIA
- Kerry Murphy
- 13 September 2011
19 Comments
Yesterday the Government announced it will change the Migration Act to enable the Malaysia solution to go ahead. This latest action reinforces rhetoric about queues and people smugglers that obscures the real effects and motivations of current asylum seeker policy.
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AUSTRALIA
- Michael Mullins
- 05 September 2011
8 Comments
Before Tampa, refugees were regarded as a positive for Australia's economy and lifestyle. After Tampa they were a threat to our sovereignty that was somehow grafted on to the sense of public malaise prompted by the 9/11 attacks on the sovereignty of the United States.
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AUSTRALIA
- Kerry Murphy
- 24 August 2011
4 Comments
This week as we mark the 10th anniversary of Tampa, the High Court is hearing a legal challenge to the Malaysian solution and an inquiry into suicide and self-harm in detention is underway. Meanwhile a new report hopes to change the direction of the debate on refugees.
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 24 August 2011
1 Comment
'We need to break down the silo mentality between health, welfare and education. This exists in church agencies as much as elsewhere in society. We must be committed to providing first rate health care to our patients, but also to creating a more equal society.' Text from Frank Brennan's MercyCare Oration.
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INTERNATIONAL
- David Holdcroft
- 18 August 2011
6 Comments
Walking home from work in the early evening, 29-year-old Godfrey Sibanda was set upon by a mob, who beat and killed him. Like Australia, South Africa is concerned that it has become the nation of choice for forced migrants. This has caused both social and political unease.
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AUSTRALIA
- Andrew Hamilton
- 17 August 2011
29 Comments
Suppose that in France under Hitler's occupation, a bloodied man arrived at our doorstep asking for shelter from a Nazi mob. The claim made by the presence of the endangered and injured man would precede questions of fairness and relative need.
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AUSTRALIA
- Kerry Murphy
- 27 July 2011
3 Comments
An old legal maxim is 'hard cases make bad law'. Maybe complex cases compromise policy. Refugee law and policy is complex and the Malaysian agreement signed this week is another example of a compromise on human rights principles for political expedience.
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 18 July 2011
5 Comments
When I appeared on Q&A with Christopher Hitchens, a young man asked whether we can 'ever hope to live in a truly secular society' while the religious continue to 'affect political discourse and decision making' on euthanasia, same-sex unions and abortion. Hitchens was simpaticao. I was dumbstruck.
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AUSTRALIA
- Kerry Murphy
- 23 June 2011
2 Comments
The Rudd Government promised positive reforms after a decade of 'boat people'-bashing from the previous government. Three years later, we are back where we were. To understand how this happened it is helpful to overview the changes under Labor and the gradual decline in 'key immigration values'.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Kerry Murphy
- 23 June 2011
13 Comments
The participants on SBS's Go Back Where You Came From seem like rejects from a bad reality TV show and are stereotypical in their views. Some reflect on the difference between 'good' and 'bad' refugees: this false dichotomy is a sticking point for many refugee advocates too.
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